If you happened to check out the entire list of nominees for this year's Grammy Awards that were announced yesterday, you might have spotted a familiar name about halfway through -- especially if you're familiar with the old school DJ scene in the Valley.
House music turntablist Eddie Amador, a native of Phoenix who cut his DJ teeth at local parties and clubs in the early '90s, was nominated for his remix of the Five Knives electronica track "The Rising" in the category of "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical."
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As you can hear below, Amador's remix of "The Rising" -- Alternates between subdued bounce, a frenzy of four-on-the-floor beats, and repeated urgings to "be a bitch" - is quite excellent. But is it good enough to win him a Grammy? We'll find out on February 8 when he dukes it out with five other DJ/producers for the golden gramophone, including some rather big names.
Tiësto was nominated for his "Birthday" remix of John Legend's "All of Me," while Audien got the nod for his reworking of Bastille's reworking of "Pompeii," and Kaskade got the honor for sprucing up "Smile" by Galantis. New York City-based artist MING and German deep house DJ Robin Schulz were also nominated in the category.
The honor is the latest in a series of successes for Amador, who left Phoenix and headed for L.A. in 1996 after Chupa, the infamous underground dance party he organized with Pete "Supermix" Salaz, went kaput.
Former New Times writer David Holthouse recounted Chupa's end and Amador's departure in a 1997 music feature thusly.
Chupa lingered in its old location for a few months, then folded for good, and Amador split for L.A. to launch a career producing his own music. As of last month, he now has one club hit to his credit. After it broke in L.A., the track -- titled, literally enough, "House Music"-- was quickly picked up by the Washington, D.C., house collective Deep Dish, which will issue it next month on its record label Yoshitoshi. Two weeks ago, the track was also licensed for overseas distribution to Deconstruction label, another heavy hitter in the dance-music business.
We weren't able to reach Amador for his reaction, but spoke briefly with Salaz, who co-owns Monarch Theatre and Bar Smith. He was pretty stoked at the news.
"I wrote him and congratulated him in person when he recently showed up to Bar Smith," Salaz says. "Ed is a producing machine. Always has been. He works hard at it."
Naturally, he's rooting for his boy, telling us "I obviously hope he wins!"
No doubt.
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