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Denise Benson is a very well known DJ in Toronto.

She has won NOW weekly's annual reader's poll numerous times (best DJ), and plays numerous gigs weekly, across a spectrum of electro flavoured music nights. She throws down a weekly set at her long running night at the Gyspy Co-op. Glide is the place to be every Wednesday evening, when she regularly collaborates with amazing special guests and her co-host, Andrew Allsgood. She also has a radio show on CKLN 88.1 fm in Toronto from 11am - 2pm on Mondays. You can listen to archives of the show at beats.to
Denise shared her time with me in early September, 2001. What follows is a dialogue as informed, diverse, and rewarding as one of her DJ sets. Enjoy...

What's rockin' you right now?

I'm always being rocked by lots of different stuff at any given time. So, I can't even rattle off a pile of names…I mean, the Herbert album on K7 is one thing that's really, really stuck with me. The Micatone album also. There's a new release on Blood + Fire Records called Darker than Blue which is a beautiful collection of '70s reggae artists covering soul stuff; a ton of house singles. I go for stuff that's kind of jazzy or dubby, but always quirky. It could be house, it could be broken beat, it could be straight up jazz. There's always at least 5 things, you know?

I know you get lots of promos. Are you going through the back alleys trying to get the rare stuff or what?

I'm less about rare stuff right now. I've gone through my phases where I really look, particularly in the days when I was playing weird rock shit, and punk rock, I was definitely looking, yeah. That's my background, more on the punk tip. The Clash turned me onto dub, then I got into hip-hop, moved from there into early acid house, early techno, early house, acid jazz and all those things. Now, I'm collecting mostly new stuff. The older things I'm collecting aren't me hunting them down in record stores, it's old jazz CD's. I'm on a total Miles Davis kick right now, and to a lesser extent Thelonius Monk. I'm definitely in a jazz phase. I feel I know a lot about my dub history. And to me, the two things that influenced the music I listen to the most, are jazz and dub. I collect a lot of dub and roots reggae, singles, and now re-issues on CD. When I hear certain Miles Davis albums, especially 'Big Fun,' I listen to it and realize "Oh my god, this totally connects the dots between what I listen to now, and the 60's and 70's." Besides, buying new releases is expensive enough, like fifteen bucks a pop for a single. So I mean, hunting down rare records… there are no deal's anymore. Rare records are gonna run you anywhere from thirty to a hundred bucks or way more.

What's the underground electronica scene like in Toronto? Who are the up and comers we should watch for? I remember reading about Nick Holder in what must have been your column in Eye…

Well Nick has been around, doing his thing for at least 7 years, and put out about a 100 releases. To me he's kind of an example of somebody who's big internationally, where people locally are just finding out about him. He's been doing his thing for a long time, and slowly developing an international reputation, which is probably stronger than his local reputation. He knows it. We know it. It's a frustrating thing about living in Toronto. That said, Nick is always someone I'd point to, also the Gemma Records boys - Suges, Martino, Triplet and those guys. The Spot Records label is definitely one to watch out for with releases by Blissom and others. Always Public Transit Records, with Moonstar, LAL and everyone. I just got a demo from King Sunshine which is really nice. Directions has just put out a CD. Manitoba's CD on the UK's Leaf label was wicked, though he's just moved to London for a bit. There's a healthy dub scene in Toronto. There are healthy techno, house, and experimental electronic scenes. You name almosts any genre, hip-hop too, it's happening here.

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