Full Crate and FS Green
Mixing Monthly

Making a mixtape is a hard business. It takes me about a week to come up with just the tracks to go there, and as for mixing it, I've been fucked since we lost the cassette decks and the chance to smudge with the pause button. So when you find a mixtape that really works, like Full Crate and FS Green's Mixing February tape, you really appreciate it. It's a great blend of jazzy, soulful hip-hop that encompasses Carlos Nino's sumptuous orchestral tribute to Dilla, Find A Way, Floetry, MF Doom and Georgia Anne Mulder. It's a genuine pleasure to listen, as Full Crate and FS Green kick back through some old classics and some of the hottest new tracks around. But what's really special about it is that these two crazy cats are repeating this feat every month this year (and hopefully for a lot longer).

They've just dropped the Mixing March tape, and it's every bit as good as its two illustrious predecessors. It might not be 100% Dutch, but when you've got two people spinning music this good it's just as deserving of attention as anything else on this site. You can download all 3 tapes at www.nalden.net/mixingmonthly before reading more below about the two freshest DJs in town below.

If you want to catch Full Crate and FS Green play you're fortunate enough to have a variety of options - they spin every month at Once Again at The Duivel, Amsterdam (next editions April 18th and May 16th), plus they'll be at the 08 Bar on the first monday of the month at the Duivel for a night where any beatmaker can bring their beats on a CD to be played out loud. And FS Green will be playing at the Bitterzoet on April 25th, without Full Crate, but with Melodee from La Melodia. Now that's got to be good...

Q & A

Answers by Full Crate

Answers by FS Green

How did you hook up?

I already knew who Full Crate was for a couple of years. The first time we actually talked was about a year ago at 08Bar. That’s a party every month where producers can bring their own beats on CD, the DJ will play them, and take the CD home. After a couple of months they make an album with those beats - 08Bar volume 1 is out already.

I’d seen FS chilling at some party’s I played at. He was always the dude with the dope fro hanging on the side and I guess it was 08bar where we first connected. Started talking about beats and all, the rest is history.

What else do you do as Full Crate and FS Green outside your DJing and these tapes?

I produce beats, did that before I got into DJing and I’m looking for a job, haha.

Just like him, I’m a DJ first producer second. Besides that I study sound engineering at the Amsterdam Film Academy. Since the hookup with Franklin I've started taking the whole beat making thing seriously.

Do the tapes have a theme related to the month (like February beginning with Hey Gorgeous) or is it just what you’re into at that time?

We do try to put tracks in the mix from albums that dropped that month. Or just new singles that leaked on the Internet. Deluge and Brian – who do the artwork – make the cover relate to the month. January looks icy cause that’s a cold month. In February you see a heart because that’s the love month.

The “Hey Gorgeous” track was something we put in there for all the pretty ladies with curly hair that check the mixes every month.

How do you actually make the mixes? Do you do it together in an all hands on decks style, or do you take it turns?

Full Crate usually does the most blends in the tape. But I’m always on the opposite side of the deck, cause if we stand next to each other we’ll both be eating elbows. I’ll be tweaking buttons and messing with the effects, something he can’t do on his own. I think in each mix Full Crate does about 60% of the transitions and me 40%. Whenever he goes to the loo or something I’ll just sneakily mix about 4 tracks in it without discussing it first.

Yeah he always does that: P. Ha! To me it’s a 50/50 job. We do it as a team, one month it’s him the next me. It’s different every time. The same goes for the songs we bring. Sometimes I got more and sometimes he does. But we try not to worry about who is doing what and just focus on the mix itself.

None of us don’t own any CD decks by the way, so Dimmy (Shaft) with his Protools and the decks in the KS1 store are a big help for the mixes.

I haven’t heard anyone else play your jazzy, soulful hip-hop vibe in Holland before. Is that just because I’ve been going to the wrong places, or are you part of (or instigators of) a wider national scene?

We don’t know why that is, we just spin whatever we listen to at home, whether it's a Myspace artist no one knows yet or a dope mainstream track. What we put in the mixes is similar to what we play live. More and more people are giving us props now for playing that jazzy, soulful stuff live, so that’s cool.

Who are your influences?

Probably like everybody else, there’s too many to name. But I guess all the jazz artist and from Pete Rock to Hi-Tek, jumping to Primo with a little Slum V all over it. And oh yeah most important everybody who makes SOUL music!!!

So many, from Madlib to Koop, to Hudson Mohawke and everything in between, back to Full Crate, Hayzee and SirOJ who are homeys of mine. So whoever is making music I like.. kind of cliché haha.

What sort of reaction do you want people to have to your music?

“I haven’t heard anyone else play your jazzy, soulful hip-hop vibe in Holland before.” That one!

Haha, yeah that’s a nice one. I had people thanking me for the mix, saying that that’s just exactly what they wanted to hear. So I guess that kind of reaction.

Where do you go digging for music?

I search online a lot. Mostly its people sending me songs or giving names of nice artists. Sometimes we just rip tracks from Myspace and put it on the tape. So basically the music comes from everywhere.

Mostly online. I check out Nalden.net and The Moovmnt almost every day. Sometimes I find a track a couple of minutes before I leave the house to do the mix and just quickly burn it then. That’s what happened with the Plantlife track by the way, ha.

Finally, can you tell us what to look out for on the Mixing March tape?

I’m really feeling the Finale and Spier1200 track. Finale is an MC from Detroit and Spier a producer from Japan. They made an album together called “Develop” which dropped December last year. Dwele’s “I’m Cheating” is also dope. I don’t know if it’s from his new album, but he did perform it last week at his show here in Amsterdam. I'd say my favorite track is the Liquid Spirits track where Phonté is providing the vocals.

I have to go with Mr. My-Letters-Are-Green on this one. Liquid Spirits with Phonte kill it for me!!!!! But on the other side, Glenn Lewis has been a favourite of mine for a long time. And people forget how dope Amel Larrieux is. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention ‘Who The F*ck Is Nick’. Be on the lookout for that dude, that’s all I got to say!

You can find Full Crate and FS Green on myspace.

Props to Tim 'Klips' Pen for the photo.