The San Jose chapter of nation-wide weekly party Motown on Mondays announced its special guests for tonight’s edition of the event, and the names are two of the largest yet to rock the downtown staple—DJ Z-Trip and Skratch Bastid. In a performance that will feature two sets of turntables, the two performers will drop a surprise collaborative set inside the Continental.
Paolo Bello, founder of the MOM San Jose founder and better known as DJ Cutso, admits that the performance came together as “a total off-the-cuff, last minute thing” when reached by phone during soundcheck. He added that he’s excited about presenting the two distinguished names under the Motown on Mondays banner, which in just a year has risen to become one of downtown San Jose’s premiere dance parties.
“I can honestly say for a lot of us in the MOM SJ players, [Z-Trip] has been a huge influence,” Bello says..
Though he’s been active as a DJ since 1989, the Phoenix based Z-Trip (real name Zach Sciacca) rose to prominence in 2001 with the release of Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1, a collaborative album with DJ P that became a seminal work in the art of blending, likely better known as mash-ups. In addition to his own work, he’s currently the DJ for hip-hop legend LL Cool J.
“Zach represents a large part of what the real DJ movement is about right now,” notes Tommy Aguilar, a member of the MOM SJ Players who spins under the moniker Chatos1013. He adds that tonight’s set will largely be improvised and that both Z-Trip and Skratch Bastid match the “party rocking” style that’s a hallmark of the San Jose DJ scene.
Skratch Bastid (real name Paul Murphy) is a Canadian DJ and three-time winner of the Skribble Jam DJ competition (2003, 2004, 2007). In 2008, he was nominated for Producer of the Year at the Juno Awards, Canada’s equivalent of the Grammys, for his work on Canadian Rapper Buck 65’s album Situation. He was the first Canadian DJ ever nominated in the category.
Motown on Mondays kicks off tonight at 8 pm inside the Continental, located on First Street in downtown San Jose’s SoFA District.
