While some artists may shy away from being labelled ‘progressive’ these days, Dean Millson is certainly not one of them. From the moment as a ten year old in 1986, when a pre-teenage interest in music (not unlike like most boys) was transformed into a lifetime passion upon accidentally tuning in a hip-hop show on Melbourne’s 3PBS, his appetite and appreciation for forward-thinking sounds has never really wavered.
Many years later, it was an encounter with the sounds of Laurent Garnier at Shed 14 in Melbourne’s revered docklands one morning late in 2000, where an interest in electronic music nurtured throughout the mid-nineties by the likes of Underworld, Depeche Mode, Cold Cut and Autechre, grew into a passion for sharing his love of music with others.
Rather than Techno however, it was the deep progressive house of John Digweed that quickly provided the inspiration for the musical direction that Dean would choose to explore first as a DJ. At a time when Melbourne’s progressive music scene was dominated almost exclusively by the likes of icons such as Sean Quinn, Kasey Taylor, Mark James & Chris Meehan, Dean decided to create a vehicle to give opportunities to a new wave of Melbourne’s up and coming DJ talent. On a very rainy Thursday between Christmas and New Year in 2001 in the side-room of Melbourne’s now infamous Salt Nightclub, Private Function was born. From those small beginnings, PF–as it affectionately became known–grew into a Melbourne institution, supporting Australia’s world-class talent such as Phil K, Luke Chable, Ivan Gough, Vance Musgrove, Rollin Connection (Darius Bassiray & Daniel Banko) and Steve May. Over the next five years, Private Function was also responsible for introducing Melbourne dancefloors to the sounds and talents of a number of international artists–hosting the inaugural Australian tours for the likes of Americans Steve Porter, Habersham along with Dutch ‘trouser’ Matthey Dekay.
As PF’s cemented itself as an integral part of Melbourne’s dance music community, so to did Dean. Following warm-up duties for the likes of Anthony Pappa and Chris Fortier he began to capture a dedicated following, playing a mixture of forward thinking progressive-house and breaks, eventually becoming a welcome addition to most of Melbourne’s bigger festivals and parties–supporting the likes of Sasha, John Digweed, Lee Burridge, Luke Fair, Dave Seaman and Paul Van Dyk–including opening the Global Underground room at the last ever Two Tribes electronic music festival in 2006.
It wasn’t only Melbourne that was warming to Dean’s sound however. A mini tour of New Zealand in 2004 saw him DJ alongside other Melbourne DJ’s such as Sean Quinn and Sam Fraser in both Wellington and Christchurch, and the following year he was invited to play during the 2005 Miami Winter Music conference, where he represented the Melbourne massive at a party hosted by UK label Heavy Rotation.
Come 2007 it could be said that things have come full circle for Dean. With his passion turning towards techno again, he was invited to support Laurent Garnier (in his first Australian tour since that seminal night at the docks almost seven years earlier) and a reinvented Robert Babicz (aka Rob Acid). The beginning of 2007 also saw the birth of a new concept from Dean–Pretty Simple–a new techno-focussed brand, developed in collaboration with inner city Melbourne club Ffour. Since launching with what was, at the time, arguably one of the strongest local lineups seen in Melbourne for many years, Pretty Simple quickly became Melbourne’s premier weekly purveyor of deep techy beats–hosting guests along the way so far such as Pig & Dan (SPN), Habersham (USA), A Guy Called Gerald (UK), Jona (GER), Konrad Black (CAN), 2000 & One (NDL) and Gaiser (CAN). It’s at Pretty Simple where you will generally find Dean holding court each Saturday night with the ever challenging closing set, digging deep and pushing his sound forward into the early hours of the
morning–progressive in the real sense of the word.
(read less)While some artists may shy away from being labelled ‘progressive’ these days, Dean Millson is certainly not one of them. From the moment as a ten year old in 1986, when a pre-teenage interest in music (not unlike like most boys) was transformed into a lifetime passion upon accidentally tuning in a hip-hop show on Melbourne’s 3PBS, his appetite and appreciation for forward-thinking sounds has never really wavered.
Many years later, it was an encounter with the sounds of Laurent Garnier at Shed...
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