The Night I Fell in Love With Dance Music: Jason Bentley

Jason Bentley has been described as a living, breathing Shazam app, and as the Music Director of L.A.’s influential public radio station KCRW, he flexes his encyclopedic knowledge as the host of the station’s flagship music program Morning Becomes Eclectic, as well as the national all-electronic program Metropolis.

Bentley, a longtime Insomniac collaborator and the host of the upcoming EDMbiz Conference & Expo, has long championed dance music, even helping the genre get acknowledgement by the Grammys.

Bentley first found the scene as a college student backpacking through Europe, where he discovered both the music and the underground culture in which it resided. He hasn’t looked back since. Here, he tells the story of falling in love with dance music.

What was your trek through Europe like?
It wasn’t glamorous. Hostels and a Eurail pass—which was your ticket to ride across Europe. I made my way through 16 countries in two months. This was the summer of 1988, which was widely considered the “summer of love” in the UK. The American house music movement was becoming trendy in the UK, and a lot of the popular records hitting the charts were from New York, Chicago and the American movement.

What did you make of the scene and the music?
It was so exotic and foreign to me; my curious mind was interested in subculture and interested in trying to decipher things. I wanted to know how fashion, graffiti, art and music all came together. This movement hit me as a secret world, an alternative world.

Did any music in particular stick out when you were traveling?
One of the records that caught my attention was one out of Manchester by A Guy Called Gerald, called “Voodoo Ray.” He had a decent career and put out a few albums. “Voodoo Ray” was just a 12-inch that had come out on Warlock Records in the States, which had a lot of cool dance records coming out of it… It was a female voice that was really haunting. I loved the otherworldly feeling of the music. I didn’t know if I’d be able to find it again after the trip, because I had no real access to dance music back at home. I’d also heard a hit single by D-Mob called “We Call It Acieeed,” and also, a gospel house record by Joe Smooth called “Promised Land.”

Where else did your travels take you?
A couple of days later, I made my way out to Greece and was on the island Mykonos, and there was a disco on the wharf. I saw this dude in a matching American flag half-shirt and hot pants, and he was dancing to “Promised Land.” I looked at him and I saw… freedom. He was so flamboyant, but he didn’t care.

What effect did that have on you?
I thought about how music like that offered people that opportunity for freedom, to be who you are. I looked at him, and I was like, “right on.” It kind of summed up a lot of impressions you get from this music and from traveling.

Were you going out to clubs as well?
I was kind of too young to get into clubs and to be taken seriously in any way, unfortunately. I think just traveling is what made the biggest impression on me. I have strong memories of being in the Camden markets in North London, and I remember seeing this guy with dreadlocks and a boombox, and he was playing Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life.” This became a worldwide smash hit, and I remember that moment so clearly—seeing that and thinking, “Wow, will I ever hear that again? Will I ever know what this is?”

How did the trip stay with you when you got back to the States?
When I went back to college, I found ways to access the music and found a local house music underground. I was at school in Amherst, Massachusetts—a pretty unlikely place for dance music—but I found a small collective of DJs from New York and Chicago that were importing records. I was able to follow them and discover more about the records, and how they were getting them. The important thing was being interested in all of these new genres, and excited about street culture and everything that was happening at that level.

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