From a young age when he would sit in front of the living room stereo during late nights after his family has gone to bed, Velanche has soaked up a multitude of soulful styles during his youth; be it funk, jazz fusion, or slow jams, music was an outlet of both escape and enjoyment.
Whatever kind of musical styles beckoned him—be it the fresh sounds of new wave, the atmospheric feel of new age, the fresh and exciting rhythms of UK techno, or falling down the rabbit’s hole with discoveries such as Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil and Kate Bush.
During the 1990’s, Velanche’s love for ambient and downtempo music took a leftfield turn when he stumbled upon the sounds of acid jazz and future jazz (better known as nujazz). Combining elements of soul, funk, jazz, and electronic dance sounds, his appetite for fresh music returned anew.
During September 1997, Velanche was among a small group of people chosen to train to become a radio DJ with KCPR, one of the country’s most respected college radio stations, located on the campus of California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
Fresh from about eight weeks’ worth of training, Velanche formed Urban Landscapes, the weekly broadcast showcasing jazzy and soulful club culture from around the world. The show dives into nu-jazz, broken beat, rare funk, soul, house, downtempo, and related variants thereof. Due in part to its online presence, the show has earned a respectable following, having aired via two online radio stations, as well as an on-air radio station, overseas
Around 2001-2002, Velanche found himself drawn into DJ culture, and purchased his first set of DJ decks, a cheap American DJ CD system, on eBay. Having quickly outgrown the gear, he sold the goods and ended up scoring a pair of second-hand Technics 1200 turntables, and hasn’t looked back.
It’s safe to say that he’s come a long ways, often doing mini-mixes on-the-fly during Urban Landscapes. He’s since done radio mixes for a handful of domestic and overseas radio shows, including Greece (on Rodon FM, thanks to DJ Nova), Croatia (on Eddy Ramich’s radio show), and stateside in Brooklyn (for DJ Offbeat’s Soul Funktion). He’s also performed some live DJ gigs private and otherwise, in the San Luis Obispo area, evening fronting DJ sets to open for Mayer Hawthorne and Breakestra. He has high aspirations to do more select gigs in the near future.
IVelanche has previously co-hosted Club 91, a weekly live dance mix show infusing a wide variety of four-the-the-floor styles and beats, that aired on KCPR.
Velanche has also done some freelance writing contributions, in the form of music reviews for XLR8R (2004-2008), and has also written music reviews for the Giant Step web site. He has also contributed a written interview of the trio Break Reform for the online zine Mundo Vibes.
Being a tastemaker, Velanche has access to receiving music from quality labels from around the globe before they’re available to the public, giving numerous feedback to the labels and music promotion companies that support his endeavors. His music charts are sent to labels, artists, promoters and other interested parties worldwide on a monthly basis.
The site you are seeing right now has been a long time coming, something he’s been working on from concept to launch for well over a year, collaborating with other creatives for ideas, and ultimately implementing much of them into the site you are viewing now. With access to numerous musical influentials, more will find its way onto the site.
And of Velanche’s DJ and musical endeavors? He’s just warming up…
Stay tuned!
