House and bass music collide.

Claude VonStroke has released tracks featuring monkeys, whistling and gurgling. Claude VonStroke has also retained credibility. These two things don’t exactly add up. But that should tell you something about the man in question. The San Francisco-based producer has been releasing bass-heavy house with a sense of fun since 2005. The ongoing twist, however, is that just when you think you have him figured out, he’ll go deep on a track like “Aundy” or remix a bass music anthem to devastating effect.

VonStroke’s Dirtybird label has been the vehicle for almost all of his original material but that’s not to say it’s been a one man show: a family of artists has formed around the imprint, with names like Justin and Christian Martin, Catz ‘n Dogz, J. Phlip and Julio Bashmore all achieving international recognition from the Dirtybird stable. Looking at RA.271′s tracklist you could be forgiven for thinking that this was mostly an “influences mix” but as is explained below, Claude VonStroke has recently taken to playing whatever the heck he feels like. And he has his grandma to thank for that.

What have you been up to recently?

I’m on my new remix album tour called “Makeovers.” Right now I’m doing the North American part of the tour. After this I’m going to my dad’s birthday in Detroit with our family for a week. Then finally I will get home to work on new tunes!

How and where was the mix recorded?

It was actually made at a cabin in Minnesota—no joke. I didn’t have any access to a DJ setup so it’s done in Ableton, but in the wilderness of Minnesota where my wife is from. Every year we go on a cabin trip to the middle of nowhere, like an hour past Brianerd if you know Minnesota. I had to wait until everyone was asleep to work on it in the middle of the night which might give you a sense of the vibe in the second half. When it was done I had to go into my brother-in-law’s car, turn it on and listen to it on his car stereo like a nut in the middle of the night.

Can you tell us about the idea behind the mix?

You can hear the beginning of the set is very bass-oriented, then going Dance Mania style, then deeper into house. The concept of my stuff is always the same: just choose all the tracks I love and try to put them together in a way that makes sense. I also wanted to throw in a couple surprises like the EPMD track because I’ve started to drop all kinds of music in my sets. I’m not really satisfied with just playing three hours of house. I’m doing tons of drum & bass, hip-hop and reggae edits—like Easter eggs for the crowd. No obvious radio tracks but cool stuff like Krust, EPMD, Ed Rush, Fela Kuti, Damien Marley, whatever.

You just had a show on Rinse and put out a remix of Girl Unit’s “Wut” through Night Slugs. What do you think is the common ground between yourself and the UK scene?

I really enjoyed meeting all the Night Slugs guys in London and to tell you the truth I asked them if I could do that remix for free. So part of it is me kind of putting myself in the position to be in alliance with the UK bass scene. It really harkens back to my original first love, drum & bass. I was an unsuccessful drum & bass DJ, I never got into the right clique or made the right tracks or got the right lucky break or whatever. I’m still overcompensating for that perhaps.

As far as house music, Dirtybird is one of the only American bassline labels. We always deliver on basslines. That is definitely not the focus at most labels. So it’s not really any accident that we have strong ties with towns like Bristol and Leeds—towns where people go ape-shit for basslines. We definitely give it a different flavour on the West Coast; not quite as dark or moody perhaps. But even as I say that I just signed another Bristol guy last week!

Are there any firm plans for a Claude VonStroke live show?

Nope. But maybe something else. I’m delving into some different ideas this year, no concrete plans but I am practicing live loop making on Maschine—that kind of thing. You can expect the unexpected I imagine. I’m getting a lot more comfortable with big risks and just going for it musically. As your grandma always says, you can’t please everyone all of the time, so you might as well go crazy.

What are you up to next?

I’m working with some other producers and exploring new ideas. I think there will be a new VonStroke album next year as well. Definitely some new singles soon. I can’t say much more until I actually do some tunes and see what happens.

Since then, VonStroke has gone on to champion the likes of Justin and Christian Martin, J Phlip, Worthy, Catz’n’Dogz, Tim Green, Style of Eye and Julio Bashmore. From soaring tech-house, to wobbly basslines always laced with a deep-rooted sense of fun, Dirtybird has become a revered name for dance music fans around the world and this mix delivered exactly the kind of sound you’d expect.

From bumping, jacking house, to ludicrous samples and from booty-shaking grooves to addictive basslines, the VonStroke imprint has never taken itself too seriously but has retained the autonomy and credibility usually reserved for older labels. The sound deployed in this mix is reflective of this mantra and contains a number of unreleased records.

Crack had the opportunity to chat to Claude in the wake of this mix. Read our interview with him here: http://www.youlovecrack.com/article/243/claude-vonstroke

New to San Francisco-based Dirtybird’s roster of house music luminaries is Birmingham producer Tom Flynn. Soon to be released, the Tom Flynn EP has already been getting spins from folks like Catz ‘n Dogz, Julio Bashmore, and Thomas Schumacher, solidifying the EP as yet another great 2010 release from the influential imprint. To celebrate the release, label head Claude VonStroke contributed an edit of Tom Flynn’s unreleased “Wig Wag” and has passed it along to us to offer free of charge. The track is in keeping with Dirtybird’s love of rhythmic complexity and soulful melody, and should offer a compelling argument to get familiar with this upstart.

VonStroke is the head of San Francisco’s foremost tech-funk label, Dirtybird, and the man behind some of house and techno’s biggest tunes of the past decade: ‘The Whistler’, ‘Deep Throat’ and ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit?’. His Dirtybird parties have built up a reputation as some of the West Coast’s wildest, and VonStroke also recently released his second album, Bird Brain.

Couple that with legions of fans and imitators in America and abroad, a Fabric CD, another successful label in Mothership and a serious eye for talent (VonStroke recently snapped up Bristol upstart Julio Bashmore for a Dirtybird EP), and you’re dealing with one of the best.

VonStroke’s FACT mix features Julio Bashmore, Mike Monday, Justin Martin and plenty of new Dirtybird material from the label’s new signings and the big man himself .

Hey Claude – how’s it going?

“It’s going great. I’m about to head off to Hawaii to celebrate the album release with my family!”

Tell us about the mix you’ve done for FACT…

“It’s a nice smattering of album tracks with other new label material and some stuff I’m digging at the moment.”

Is it a reflection of the stuff you’ve been playing out lately?

“Yes, for sure. Right now we are in a flurry of label signings and I am playing like 80% label material. It’s a renaissance!  Usually I’m scouring the universe for new hot shit but I have so much right at the front door right now I can play whole sets of new Dirtybird and Mothership tracks. It’s great.”

Tell us about your new album, Bird Brain. What can we expect from it?

“It is a slimy, booty, peaceful, jackin’, greasy & calming experience. All ten tracks are completely different from each other but they all have a common vibe to them. There is no tracky track filler bullshit. I thought about and worked on each track until I was happy with all of them.”

You’ve just signed Julio Bashmore, a UK producer we’re a big fan of. How did you come across his stuff?

“The guys at Fabric got him on a new compilation they were putting together of that new UK housey dubstep style sound. They told me about him and then the very next week I went to play in Bristol and the promoter brought him to the show! I got even more tracks from him in Bristol and we were able to snag a couple sweet tunes. In fact this mix opens with a chillin’ Julio Bashmore track called ‘World Peace’.”

Your labelmate Christian Martin recently played London rave Night Slugs with Cooly G, and dubstep’s Joker and UK house’s Crazy Cousinz have been playing ‘Who’s Afraid of Detroit’ in their sets. Are you into the London/UK house stuff that’s about?

“Yeah well I’m a fan of about 1% of it but that’s just like everything.  I’m a fan of 0.3% of all music I suppose. Christian is like our dubstep crossover guy. I think he would actually make a better dubstep/house guy than a straight Dirtybird guy.”

What else is happening in the world of Claude VonStroke?

“I am now preparing Dirtybird’s five year birthday project [for the start of 2010] and figuring out when to release all these cool records. I’m doing a Planet E remix and some other interesting music projects next year including my new alias, the Grizzl. At the end of this month I start the Bird Brain album world tour and visit all my favorite clubs. Thanks for letting me do a mix!”

Claude VonStroke is better known to locals, as Barclay Crenshaw, the owner of San Francisco’s quirky tech-funk label, dirtybird. The label consists of Crenshaw (VonStroke,) fellow producer Justin Martin, and a diverse assortment of top remixers from around the globe such as John Tejada, Audion, Diplo, 3 Channels, Dj Assault, and Kevin Saunderson.

The idea for dirtybird began in 2003 when Crenshaw was producing an intense 5 hour DVD about electronic music called Intellect. The project was a labor of love, taking almost 2 years to complete and starring over 35 top producers and legendary DJs such as Derrick May, Swayzak, Derrick Carter, Deep Dish, Paul Van Dyk, Theo Parish, and many more. The main goal of the Intellect project was to make an informative dvd that could help DJs advance their careers in electronic music. The result was Crenshaw himself starting dirtybird records and a production career under the alias, Claude VonStroke.

Since 2005, dirtybird has managed to solidify a reputation for releasing oddball classic techno and house tracks. The outdoor dirtybird parties in San Francisco’s scenic Golden Gate Park have also become a legendary summer destination point for both locals and international travelers.

In addition to production and label management, Claude VonStroke has an intense regimen for preparation and a great ear for song selection. His DJ sets are always inspiring and surprising. You will never hear a set of monotonous music because Claude always takes time to find the special cuts that make for a completely original experience that is not to be missed.

In 2007, Claude is hard at work on his second album. He also has plans to introduce a new deep techno sub-label this year called Mothership.

Hailing from Detroit, Barclay Crenshaw (the VonStroke moniker arose when he and some partied-up pals were making up fake European DJ names for a laugh) got to where he is by (unsuccessfully) asking Juan Atkins for a job, working as an assistant on some Hollywood uber-films, playing a load of warehouse parties (where he lost all of his music in an electrical outage), making an epic film on electronic music, and finally starting a record label, which – amongst other artists – has released two fine albums from VonStroke himself.

VonStroke’s exclusive Clash mix showcases the wide range of classy house styles for which he has become known, veering from progressive minimal beats to glitchy tech-house, all expertly weaved together. Artists on the mix include a range of talent from Vonstroke’s own dirtybird label (including Jacob Seville, Iz and Diz, and Sascha Braemer), other carefully selected acts, and – of course – some choice cuts from the man himself, which come from his hot-off-the-press second album ‘Bird Brain’ – a diverse, masterful and danceable record, released but a few days previous – October 19 – to the airing of his superb Clash mix.