DJ Peshay – “Protege EP”

 

True Story (sometime in early 1993):

DJ Peshay aka Paul Pesce an aspiring producer from Leytonstone had spent the last year in the studio with the likes of Bay B Kane and Bizzy B. Along came Gus from Reinforced who wanted to sign him up for a release that didn’t have one track which borrowed heavily from the Reinforced Mentasm Library or was a remake of Rufige Kru’s “Sinister” (surprising when it was Goldie who had introduced the two of them). Peshay duly obliged and with that “The Protégé” EP was born…

The EP kicks off with “Warning”. Like most of this record it’s pretty epic. Deep modulated voices combine other eerie sounds and some House Diva vocal (this was a trademark of his so I can justify the caps) before dropping in with some nicely eq’d amen’s. Even more monumental is the bloody long “Dreams” with some smooth melodies gliding along in the mix before dropping in true grandiose fashion.

Despite DJ Peshay being a man “On The Firm” this EP sits better with the likes of the darker Invisible Man and DJ Crystl rather than the slightly more minimal Enforcers sound in 1993. Like those mans and early Foul Play the tracks on offer change direction every minute building from one sick drop to another.

Speaking of drops the main track “Gangster” has it all. Further eerie vibes, a moody bassline and the first breakdown that is literally as dark as it gets. Like the rest of his stuff from this period Peshay was never one to recycle his breaks, every amen sounds programmed rather than sampled and stretched. The final track “On The Firm” is the closest thing to an Enforcers-esque track (It does have a Mr Kirk sample). It’s pretty manic, sounds similar to some the “Ghosts” era Rufige Kru. It does sound slightly out of place with the rest of the EP but the structure is vaguely similar to the rest ie: Twisted voice on the intro (“THE FUTURE WAS YET TO COME”?????????) and breaks that change pitch regularly as well as a miserable as hell breakdown.

As far as first posts go for a Jungle Tekno blog go this is pretty much as good a start as anything else that was floating about back then.

Fact: I’ve never heard the remix of “Gangster” that was on one of the later Enforcers – I think it was the same one that had that Kemi & Storm track as well as Nookie’s classy remix of Tek 9’s “You Got To Slow Down”…