Dave Tarrida

Along with fellow Scottish producers Tobias Schmidt and Neil Landstrumm, Dave Tarrida has played an important role in establishing Edinburgh as a breeding ground for dark, quirky experimental techno with a dancefloor orientation. But years before Tarrida began producing his own tracks, he focused primarily on fostering Edinburgh's scene and helping Schmidt, Landstrumm, and others launch their careers as producers. Tarrida's prominent role in the techno community began in 1991 when he began hosting a club night called Sativa. Running until 1996, Sativa functioned as the premier night for techno in Edinburgh, with local talents such as Schmidt and Landstrumm performing live and international DJs such as Claude Young and DJ Hell gracing the decks; furthermore, Tarrida served as a DJ as well as the brains behind the legendary club. In addition, Tarrida launched the record label Sativae with Steve Glencross in 1993 after beginning to realize the success of the club night; the two eventually launched two sublabels, Drought and Penalty, and released early recordings by Schmidt, Landstrumm, and Christian Vogel, among others. By 1996, though, Sativa had grown too large, and Tarrida was ready to develop his career as not only a DJ -- devoting more time to high-profile gigs across the European continent and eventually America -- but also as a producer, making his debut as Pujol (the Chupacabre EP on the Scandinavia label). In 1998 he saw his first release on the globally recognized Tresor label (the Test EP with Tobias Schmidt), and other EPs followed for Tresor and other labels. When Tarrida moved from Edinburgh for the Mediterranean locale of Barcelona in 1999, it signaled the next step in his career -- he began work on what would be his first full-length album, Paranoid. Tresor released the album in 2001, and it found Tarrida moving further forward as a producer, positioned alongside fellow experimental techno peers such as Landstrumm and Schmidt, whose careers he helped launch years earlier.