We may not know his name in Australia yet, but in the US, DJ Ricardo! is in the upper echelons of the dance scene. Not only has he had DJing residencies at some of New York’s most famous clubs – including the Stonewall in Greenwich Village, no less – but he is also head of international sales at Ultra Records, an American equivalent to Ministry of Sound.
Having witnessed many a DJ mix and dance compilation come through his record company featuring skimpy she-things on the cover, the Puerto Rico born DJ/industry insider suggested to his team that they put a sexy guy on the cover for a change. “Why not?” he asks. “So much of the gay audience (in America) buys our CDs anyway – why don’t we do something that caters to them?”
Hence Out.Anthems was born a year ago and the second in the series came out just a few weeks ago both here and stateside, where its release has been scheduled to coincide with the first weekend of New York’s annual Pride celebrations.
As far as its packaging goes, the buffed Latin spunk on the CD cover could easily sell coal to Newcastle or ice to Greenland. But unfortunately, says Ricardo, he is just a hunky straight male model.
A look inside the cover shows that Ricardo is also a Latin spunk, although a little less chiseled and a few years older than the cover boy. But not everyone does their research, and Ricardo admits that he’s been booked on the expectation that he’s going to look like that and people have been disappointed when a porn star hasn’t walked in!
Still, there’s always the music to make them cream. Ricardo says that the second in the series of Out.Anthems is not as housey as the first, which featured last year’s hit How Would U Feel by David Morales. This year you’ll hear Princess Superstar rubbing up against David Guetta vs The Egg in a moment of electro/rap decadence, Alex Guadino feat. Crystal Waters in the 100% gay Destination Calabria, whilst towards the end he will remind you that he’s from New York with the tribal house of Victor Calderone’s Let Me Set You Free.
“Other compilations pigeon hole their tracklisting to one gay subculture: electro, rock, circuit, house or pop,” he says. “We wanted to reach a broader audience so we blend the best from all genres.”
It’s something that the Nu Yorican immigrant knows is necessary to keep up with the generational change affecting clubland. So while he admits that he is disappointed to field requests for Britney from young twinks at New York clubs, he admits that with the right remix he can still keep everyone happy.
Out.Anthems 2 is out on Ultra/Stomp. Click here for a sound snippet on Ricardo’s MySpace. Otherwise, click here to download additional mixes on
http://www.tiltedwig.com/ricardo/ricardonyc.mp3
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