DJ Harvey

DJ Harvey is a DJ and producer from London, United Kingdom, whose real name is Harvey Bassett. He is associated with disco, balearic, space disco, disco edits and electronic music, and is known for moving between disco, garage, house, hip hop, electro and rock records in his sets.

Early career

He begins performing in Cambridge as a teenager, when he is enlisted as a drummer in the punk band Ersatz. The band forms the independent label Leisure Sounds and releases the single Smile in Shadow, which is played on John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show. A later trip to New York introduces him to the emerging hip-hop scene, and he starts DJing after seeing breakbeat cutting as an extension of drumming.

DJ work and reputation

Harvey gains an early reputation with TONKA Hi Fi, a crew linked to the TDK collective, where he works as DJ and plays long, eclectic parties in Cambridge, Brighton, London and on the festival circuit. The Brighton parties run for five years, from 1988 to 1993, first at The Zap Club and then on the beach at Black Rock after the venue closes. He also plays alongside visiting New York DJs including François Kevorkian, Kenny Carpenter and Larry Levan, helping to introduce US disco, garage and house sounds to UK club audiences.

Residencies and mixes

In 1991 he starts the club night Moist at the Gardening Club in London. After that ends, he plays at Ministry of Sound and later becomes resident there on Fridays and Saturdays. This period leads to the mix album Late Night Sessions, released in 1996.

Production, aliases and labels

Harvey releases music under a range of pseudonyms on labels including Mo’ Wax, Dorado, Ministry Of Sound, Skint and Junior Boys Own. He works on edits and productions through the Black Cock label, which he runs as part of a duo, reworking disco records associated with figures such as Larry Levan and Ron Hardy. He is also linked with the acts Persuasion, Black Cock, Locussolus and Free Range, and Black Cock Records is part of his recorded output.

Collaborations and remixes

He produces and remixes for Jamiroquai, Brand New Heavies, Ian Brown, Stereo MCs, Electronic, The Police and Cornershop. He also collaborates with Thomas Bullock of Rub’N’Tug and A.R.E. Weapons on the disco-rock project Map of Africa, which releases an LP on Whatever We Want Records in 2007.

Later work

Harvey moves to Los Angeles and continues to play long warehouse sets there, as well as DJ dates internationally. His career is defined by genre-crossing selections, extended sets and a strong connection to disco-derived club music.