Audio: Ninetoes delivers a sunny house mix

Özgür Yelmen had an unconventional entry into house music. For well over a decade his experience of DJing was through mixing heavy hip-hop beats as part of Stuttgart’s local scene, and any records he produced were made at no faster than 100BPM to fit neatly into his sets. In 2013 he famously changed his style for the Kling Klong release Finder under the alias Ninetoes, an easy-listening Latino house weapon that would become one of the year’s inescapable summer anthems. By now Yelmen’s made a name as a house artist in his own right, with a string of techy rollers signed to Matthias Tanzmann’s coveted Moon Harbour imprint. He joins Tanzmann at the label’s Farringdon takeover on 29th June, so he sent us a mix of sunny house grooves in advance of the date. Download: Ninetoes Forms Promo Mix Did you have a theme in mind for the mix? I just used my favourite tracks that I’m enjoying playing in my sets right now. Where did you source the records from? I am a digger. I spend a lot of time going to record stores or digging online, and receive a lot of demos and promos I get from friends and upcoming artists. You used to DJ hip-hop – did you have to relearn any techniques in making a transition to house and techno? No, not at all! When you come from hip-hop you learn to play any kind of music. Playing and mixing hip-hop is the Champions League of DJ skills. So it was basically nothing special to switch to house music. How did you end up signing with Moon Harbour? I already knew Matthias and the Moon Harbour crew and we became friends. So it was a natural process to start releasing some records on the label. What do you think has given the label such longevity over the years? Quality! Quality always wins. Finally what are you up to through the rest of the summer? I’m working on releasing my own label called ‘Head To Toe’ which will hopefully launch in September or October this year. Stay tuned…