December 4-10, 2003

music

Captain 'Hook

MISSIONARY POSITION: "We are disciples," says Jones. "We make music and travel the world to teach people about dance music that can be subtle yet strong as steel."

Getting the spin from Tigerhook's Randall Jones.

by Sean O'Neal

Four-to-the-floor dance music has come a long way, from Skinny Puppy to Frankie Knuckles to Sasha, from industrial to soulful house to trance. Each stage of evolution seems to coincide with new fusions of sounds. For Randall Jones and his Tigerhook DJ crew, the next level might just be a fusion of everything that came before: ultra-deep floor-pumpers driven by powerful, ass-shaking basslines that gently rip through beautiful synths, alluring vocals and crunching drums that dig deep into your subconscious.

"I want my audience to have a good time and get caught up in the grooves," says Jones, "but also walk away feeling like they learned something about house music."

Jones, 30, moved from his hometown of Houston, Texas, in '92 to study at Penn. He spent four years DJ'ing regularly in New York clubs like The Palladium, The Tunnel and Twilo. He eventually earned a biweekly residency at Vinyl, the same club where you'd find Danny Tenaglia and the Body & Soul parties.

Around 1997, Jones was disenchanted with the cheesy turn dance music was taking. It was his time to make tracks. Through Josh Wink and King Britt, he met legendary producer John Wicks and quickly became his intern.

"John Wicks is the sensei. He taught me how to make records," says Jones. "He's 50 years old and has a beautiful child, but still chills, makes records and owns a business. I hope to achieve the lifestyle that he has some day."

Around this same time, Jones and Hito (another a Philly transplant from Houston) decided to put together a crew of DJs and producers dedicated to this deeper house fusion. Hito suggested the name "Tigerhook," after an ancient kung fu weapon that was sharp on all sides. They recruited Deep C and Chris Udoh, and later added Phillip Charles, Hollis P. Monroe, Mark Pappas, Rodrigo Ramirez and Pat Parker to the mix.

"The goal behind Tigerhook is simple," asserts Jones. "We are disciples, and we make music and travel the world to teach people about dance music that can be subtle yet strong as steel."

Since they started, Jones and company have gained recognition for their music production. After doing a remix for Mark Bell's Shaboom label and a debut EP on Mr. C's End Recordings, their persuasively heady house tunes attracted the attention of other labels like Polyester, Low Pressings, Satoshi Tomiie's Saw Recordings and two of the biggest progressive house labels of all time: Hooj Choons and John Digweed's Bedrock.

"When Hooj came calling, that was when we were like, "OK, people are beginning to understand.'"

But all this hype and global notoriety pigeonholed Tigerhook's sound into the progressive house category.

"Because we recorded for Hooj and because of my relationship with Digweed, we've been thrown into that category. But the funny thing is that if you listen to, say, our Hooj record [The West Philly EP], it's straight-up deep house. We wanted to sign to these "progressive' labels so we could change the lay of the land and also because they have a lot of money to offer. Before we put out records on Hooj and Bedrock, the music on those labels was much more trancey. Since our records, their progressive sound has gone "deep.' Maybe this is a coincidence."

Randall Jones' Patchwork EP -- a double vinyl set on the Bedrock label that came out Dec. 1 -- features sweet and twisted lyrics by Philly's Ursula Rucker and Miss Phoenixx, plus co-production by Ramirez and Charles.

To celebrate the release, Jones organized a handful of Tigerhook members to perform live. While he works the grooves and samples, Charles plucks the bass, Pappas rocks the guitar and percussionists beat the drums.

"It's [not] a few dudes behind boxes or a DJ and computer. This is the real deal," asserts Jones. "The show is going to be off the hook."

Tigerhook performs Sat., Dec. 6, 10 p.m.-3:30 a.m., $10, with Chris Fortier and more, Transit, Sixth and Spring Garden sts., 215-925-8878.