Music child
In 1970, this music child was born in the city of Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam in South America. At the age of two, his parents moved to settle Schalkwijk, a suburb of Haarlem, in the Netherlands. Schalkwijk is the home of many talented artists, musicians, DJs, and producers who have achieved greatness in the world of music. Carlito grew up with people like Kid Crash, Rockattack Ten, Shy Rock aka Rollarocka, DJ/Producer Martijn ten Velden, calling themselves Homeboys from da Block, which later partly formed the P-Funk group called GOTCHA. Also, people like DJ Zki aka The Goodman, Jay KR aka Jerome, his brother Ro aka Robedope Ro, DJ Georgio, DJ Marnix, DJ Alexander Koning, DJ Marcello, and DJ Olaf Basovski, until the new generation of people like Pete Philly, Relax, Winna de Poeet, Mikula, Gregor Salto, and the list goes on and on. “At the age of 12,” says DJ Carlito, “I knew what I wanted to become: a DJ / remixer / producer.”
“For more than 25 years I have stayed underground, touching the musical surface from time to time,” says Carlito. “It started with hip hop, and by the time I got to hip house and acid house, the house virus had infected me. Early on, I was inspired by the few good DJs who really knew what was going on, peeps like DJ KC The Funkaholic, DJ Cassie 6, and DJ Dr Tjong.”
A true player with an allround vision, Carlito moved to Amsterdam where those DJs became his colleagues in a club called Club Havana. At 17, Carlito (then DJ Carlos) was the youngest DJ ever to infiltrate the Amsterdam club scene.
As a dj
During the 1990’s Carlos had residencies or played in the most famous clubs in Amsterdam: Club Havana, Richter, RoXY, It, Paradiso, Sinners in Heaven, Melkweg, and The Escape.
He played with dj’s like like Armand van Helden, Derek Carter, Ricky Montenari, Alton Miller, Mustapha, and a lot of national heroes like Graham B, Johnson, Frankie D, Brian S, Chaos and L-Dopa, Roog and Erik E, Don Diablo, Joost van Bellen, Ronny Hammond, Ritzy Lee, Urvinson, Marcello, Dimitri, Benny Rodrigues, Alan Luna and Ron van Zelst.
In 2000, Carlito got busy with a new sound called UK Garage, which later became 2 Step. Carlito became one of the key players of this sound, organized party’s and playing alongside people like Afrika Bambaataa, MJ Cole, Zed Bias, Artful Dodger, Craig David, Stanton Warriors, The Streets, Dee Kline and Femme Fatale just to name a few. “My UK sound from that time mixes UK Garage / 2 Step with old school up-tempo hip hop and old school English break beat to spice it up a bit,” says Carlito. “With all the sounds I mix, I refuse to narrow my vision. I combine old and new styles of music and play music that I feel and believe in and what moves me.”
Recently dj Carlito is a resident of Supperclub, 5&33 and Hotel “W”, all located in Amsterdam city Centre.
As a music Producer/Remixer
Releases As a producer / remixer, Carlito’s first 12-inch record was a remix on the Ron van Zelst track, Whatever, released on Dazzle Records (1996). After a long break, he came into contact with DJ Whale from Norway, who was visiting Amsterdam. After corresponding for a while, DJ Whale moved to Amsterdam to check out the scene and to start a label called Mid-Nite Sessions. “The track that I made with DJ Whale, Whale Carlito, (2003) was about to be released when the label moved back to Norway,” says Carlito. “They had had five successful releases. Our deep house track is still not released or signed.”
Carlito’s latest unsigned releases, Epsilon Theta and Divine Previews, are two E.P. projects with a total of four tracks on each E.P., created under his pseudonym, Logan MacRide, in co-operation with Greek producer Alex Roudos. One of the tracks, Liquid X-Pectations, was signed and released on 1 June 2006 on the 12-inch vinyl, Guitartronics (Blue Dove Records). Guitartronics received rave reviews from Frisky Radio / Interference Productions, Bedrock Breaks, Tigerhook / Bedrock / Renaissance, and others. Later in 2006, Liquid X-Pectations was released on the double compilation, Eclectic Dance (PlusRec Records, the official dance sub-label of Universal Greece).
