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The wizard is Oz

DJ/remixer Highfish is busy inventing the future

by RAF KATIGBAK

Last week, Berlin's WMF Club celebrated 13 years as a bastion of forward-thinking dance music in a city chock-a-block with forward-thinking music lovers. The night was packed, sweaty and, like usual, a smashing success.

This thanks in no small part to the taste-making skills of resident DJ, programmer and remixer Marcin Oz, aka DJ Highfish, who for more than half of those 13 years has helped turn WMF into an internationally respected club and record label.

"The anniversary party was amazing," explained Oz via e-mail. "All the people who followed the club through the years met. You could see the different generations of party people, all different ages, but with the same aim and love for music."

Oz is no stranger to musical obsession. A self-professed music junkie, he cites WMF's musical passion as the reason why, while other European clubs have gone the way of the dodo, they've lived to dance another day. "The styles are changing, but the music at WMF stays good. That's what makes it a good club."

Following his critically acclaimed 2002 remix of Kotai's "Sucker DJ" track, Oz is committed to releasing more of his minimal, attitude-tinged electro-pop in the new year. Even though the WMF label he helped create, and his own offshoot label Nighteffect, are currently on hiatus (Nighteffect is now the name of his new WMF club night), Oz shows no sign of slowing down in the studio. This New Year's Eve, Montreal fans will get a sneak preview of what Oz has been cooking up as he kicks off 2005 with a live set at the Neon Loves Berlin party.

"Next year, I promise to stop smoking and release more of my own music. This year was a really good year for me musically," he admits. "I spent most of my time in the studio with my band." One look at the solid line-up of his electro-pop three-piece, dubbed the Whitest Boy Alive (rounded out by the frail croonings of Kings of Convenience singer Erlend Oye and co-production by remix partner Fritz Zander), and it wouldn't be a surprise if Oz were busier than ever in 2005.

But while some of us are content merely speculating on the future of music, Oz is more concerned with inventing it. "The best trend of 2004 was being minimal again, now I see the genres merging more and more. Very different DJs are playing very similar styles. Sometimes I hear the same tracks played by four different DJs on one night. That's where I see minimal and micro-house going."

Like everyone's year, Oz's has had its fair share of high points and low. Sure, he nods to albums like Sten's melancholic Leaving the Frantic and Snoop Dogg's latest as highlights in an overall great musical year, but not all of the last 12 months was shits 'n' giggles. "I think the most memorable and embarrassing moment of the year was the U.S. election," he confesses, then adds jokingly, "I'm afraid the next big thing in 2005 will be the War on Techno."

At the SAT's Neon Loves Berlin party, with Steve Bug, Jordan Dare and DJ Luv, Friday, Dec. 31, 9 p.m., $25–$35