Julius Papp
Last night a DJ saved my life
Originally posted Sept 2010
There's a crop of artists and labels that are the reason I got into house music or deep house more specifically; Kevin Yost, Toko, Miguel Migs, Pete Moss, Salt City Orchestra and Julius Papp amongst them. Back in the day their jazzy, soulful deeper underground sounds captured my 'indie-kid' mind, moving me away from the Stone Roses and Happy Monday's era and into a smooth, sexy chapter of my musical education.
Julius Papp has graced far too many quality labels to list, and I own an unhealthy amount of 12 inches with his name on them still. Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, he got tuned into dance music through the city’s flourishing club scene and diverse radio broadcasts that have inspired so many others since. He started collecting vinyl records in the late 70’s and took to the turntables in 1985, scoring his first major club gig two years later. The rest as they say is history.
It is the magic of the internet age, and the likes of Facebook and Soundcloud that names such as Papp endure globally and are discovered everyday by new keen audiences ready to do the ground work to find out what makes a name so important as Papp is.
As a veteran in the club scene, he has refined a style of dance music that has taken him beyond the boundaries of San Francisco to global praise and recognition. Being nominated as “Most Innovative Producer” at the 2004 House Music Awards is a perfect example of that. Putting him in the company of other nominated producers like, Joey Negro, Osunlade, DJ Gregory, DJ Spinna and Ben Watt was an absolute honour for him.
In 2003 Julius Papp ventured into the label arena with NeoDisco Music. Named after the sound that continues to inspire him - the label offers him an alternate outlet to release his own productions.
Back in July (2010) he released his most eclectic artist album to date, “Open Mind", on NeoDisco Music. The album showcases Papp's musical talents; blending disco, jazz, soul and latin elements with electronic & live instrumentation to create a modern take on his musical roots and influences. The result - a variety of offerings from down-tempo to funky house tracks that will appeal to all dance music enthusiasts.
From the soulful vocals of Lisa Shaw on “Way Back” to the funk-flavored “Diggin’ It”, Papp delivers a refreshing album conveying uplifting, positive messages and unifying fans on the dancefloor.
From a personal point on view Julius Papp is one of the reasons untitledmusic even exists, hearing those tunes back then made me want to DJ, made me want to tell people about this new sound any way I could. I'm delighted to have him as a 'friend' on Facebook, but haven't dared message him yet - maybe I will right now!?
Back in 2019… I never did message him, but maybe I should for the interview series? Since the original post he’s continued to be one of my favourite DJ’s - and his close ties with Miguel Migs’ Salted Music have brought plenty on new material on the label and Julius be represented by Salted in DJ terms.
NeoDisco Music releases have been few and far between but well worth checking out! His own website has no new biography content since 2015 - but I did love this extract, which sums up the reason he’s been so enduring…
“Hearing the non-stop flow of music and observing the booth where the DJ seamlessly blended each selection were early influences for Julius. Later influences included reading about DJ residencies that were piloted by talented club music programmers that even today, influence the youngest of aspiring DJ’s - legends like David Mancuso at The Loft & Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage in New York City to Frankie Knuckles at The Warehouse in Chicago and Tony Humphries’ weekly at Zanzibar in New Jersey. Always inspired by the music listed in those articles, Julius would shop for those titles that would later become classics, worshipped by their discerning audiences. To this day, his goal is to keep expanding his foundation in music by being open-minded and eclectic in absorbing the music that truly touches him.”
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