You may know Berlin’s Joe Davies by DJ Assam, the alias he’s using to play music and sign releases for labels like his own Lehult, KANN or Down By The Lake. You may know him better for his debut album on Smallville Records: Shields In Full Sunlight, released in 2023. After all, Joe’s dreamy deep house sound is a match made in heaven with Smallville and there’s a more recent proof for this with Pardon My Late Response EP, due to be released on September the 13th. Joe has Lost In Place, his own night at Golden Pudel in Hamburg, while traveling across Europe to play music, from London to Lisbon and back in Berlin.
Being a DJ and collector for over 15 years is what brought him into our attention, so we asked Joe Davies to contribute to our Vinyl Alter Ego series as an invitation to his personal musical universe!
A second hand dig I’m most proud of
The record I’d love to see it repressed
The entire Driftwood catalogue for one…
And this one would be nice, too!
The label I’d buy all their releases without even listening to them
DJ Popup is a great DJ and producer and runs a label called NES, which is buy on sight for me.
The record artwork that blows my mind every time I look at it
This artwork for Netto Houz’ album 7107 on Ladomat is one of my favourites of all time.
The record that triggers childhood memories
This album was my alarm clock for all of high school. 10/10 can highly recommend waking up to this.
The record shop I would spend my whole savings in
Carpet & Snares in Lisbon is run by some great people, every time I’m there I stay for hours and buy a lot of records. They have a great sense for what to recommend to you and run some great parties in the city aswell.
One record from my early DJ career that I still play today
Bit of a guilty pleasure but Martin Buttrich is just such a sick producer and I just love Tracey’s voice on anything.
The record that never leaves my DJ bag
This one really has never left my bag, I take it to every gig. Axel Boman gave it to me as a present (tak, Axel!). It’s a collection of locked grooves that he originally made for a university project I believe. They are super fun to play around with, very versatile. It’s a fun way to add some spontaneous randomness into your sets and can create some amazing moments.
Last record I checked its price on discogs
Beautiful record but 70€ currently…
One record that sounded way ahead of its time when it was released.
This Jeff Phelps album from 1985 still sounds fresh today!
Last record I bought for my home listening pleasure
I instantly preorded this as soon as it was announce – Nala’s previous album “Space 1.8” was my most played record of the last two years. Really excited for this new one and her show at the Barbican in October!
The record closest to my heart from my entire collection
That would have to be my debut album on Smallville from 2023 – it still feels surreal that I got to release this project on one of my favourite labels. When I first started getting into buying Vinyl, the Smallville record store in Hamburg is where I learned about music that shaped my sound until today.
