Razor & Guido: The New Wave of New York DJs

Since remixing Robert Miles and Biggie Smalls in 1997, Peter 'Razor' Osback and Guido Osorio have quietly established themselves as rising stars of New York's still largely underground local progressive house scene. Proteges of Junior Vasquez (they regularly fill in for him at Twilo) the duo are also signed to Strictly Rhythm offshoot Groovalicious and recently released their debut album "Dancefloor" on the label. Mezz caught up with the pair just before the holidays.


Mezz: Your debut album is called 'Dance Floor"; was the aim principally to make a club record-

Guido: "Originally we were trying to be more eclectic than the album we've actually done but we were principally trying to show our flexibility within different kinds of dance genres. We were originally going to include a jungle track, for example, but it wouldn't have been right for this project. So we decided to keep it within the 4/4 house vibe."


Mezz: Your biography describes you both as being 'progenitors of East Coast progressive house', is there a recognisable East Coast sound developing-

Guido: "I guess there is a certain East Coast style, we're trying to incorporate loads of different sounds though and we both have a much longer musical history than just what's happened in the last 2 years."


Mezz: What made the two of you decide to form a partnership-

Guido: "We didn't get along the first couple of times I saw him (Razor), until I got to know him. It's funny how people can judge a book by its cover, meanwhile, he's the nicest guy in the world. We didn't work with each other for many years after becoming friends, we were each doing our own thing previously."


Mezz: Where were you clubbing back then (1990-92)-

Guido: "The Sound Factory bar was a regular place for us, we'd see Lil' Louis. On Wednesday nights we'd go to Palladium and I remember Limelight was nice back then. I wasn't DJing at that time, though, I was already learning how to make music, doing all the production and engineering stuff."


Mezz: How did you hook up with Junior Vasquez initially-

Guido: "We initially connected up with him through the Palladium and the Robert Miles remix we did; Junior was the first one playing it, as he was when we did Biggie Smalls. After a while we were introduced to him and we started bringing him music directly. He started to think of us as guys who brought him records that worked."


Mezz: How was the experience of filling in for Vasquez at Twilo-

Guido: "Amazing; there's nowhere like Twilo, it's a world class club.. By the time we played there we already had a relationship with Junior, so it was normal for him to say, 'Hey I'm gonna' be away, can you guys play-'"


Mezz: More and more English DJs such as Sasha and Digweed are regularly playing in New York these days; have you connected with many of the British so-called progressive DJs-

Guido: "On one level Yes on another No. When we went to Japan alongside John Digweed it amazed me how close our sets were and how they could have merged into each other. I hadn't realised how much we're on the same vein but we are. He's got a more progressive, tribal sound, which is really cool, but it melted into our stuff really well. I was very impressed by him."


Mezz: How much do you cross paths with other New York DJs like David Morales and the Def Mix guys-

Guido: "We know him, though unfortunately we don't get much of a chance to see those guys. There really are two different camps, not because we want it but that's how it's turned out. David Morales and those guys are an older camp, we've only come up quite recently. New York isn't segregated, but it's split into different groups who came up in different times. It's not that these groups wouldn't chill out together but they hang out in different situations. I hate this thing. I feel we're more eclecti Tags

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