Don Rimini  

Looking back, one could be amused by the fact that Xavier Gasseman, best known as Don Rimini, first burst onto the scene with a track titled Let Me Back Up – rather ironic coming from a guy who hasn’t lifted his finger off the fast-forward button since 2007. Four EPs, innumerable gigs, and within the last year only, 120 DJ sets spanning over 5 continents, leaving Australia, America, Japan and Europe with their head spinning and not as little as a rose on their pillow. Sets that are intense, hysterical, frantic even; truly an experience. Don Rimini is never predictable (his vigorous take on Young MC’s Bust A Move for the legendary Delicious Vinyl imprint, for one) yet inevitably all over every spot you’d wish to see him at (breaking legs on the dancefloors of Barcelona’s Sonar, I Love Techno in Gent, or Hard Fest in Los Angeles). He has accumulated remixes like as many more-than-legitimate kids (Sinden & Rye Rye, Designer Drugs, Steel Lord…), and dropped his own hymns for people to feast on in clubs worldwide (2 Many DJs, ATrack and Diplo can be counted amongst the craving predators).



You’ve got to give it to the Don, the title for his fourth EP (Nlarge Your Parties) does set the tone uncompromisingly: even though he’s already destroyed dancefloors worldwide, the man has decided to see bigger, enlarge the party until the string breaks and leaves a nice big red mark on the turntables.



XXL-sized sound (All About), X-rated broadcasts (G.O.O.D.), mutant beats for X-Men (Riminology), eXtreme musical cascades (Whatever).. Efficiency found a new partner in musicality, and the result is definitely increased sexiness and fun. “Recently, a friend told me that if all the Fidget House guys had played that card instead of pushing the buttons to the limit, we’d have been having a far better time lately, and who knows, perhaps also seen more girls smile. I was truly touched”, Rimini confesses. He had sketched the ideas for the new tracks’ lyrics before he had even produced any, and recorded all the vocals in advance with Silver Jonz. “Silver is a genius capable of shaping any and all voice one could possibly imagine, that to perfection”.



Nlarge Your Parties, it’s not a hollow promise, it’s a record that will rock your disco balls and make you dance without looking back until the night is done. No wonder, Don Rimini has always kept a welladvised eye on the rear view mirror, throwing deferential glances at the Chicago school – DJ Rush, DJ Sneak, Paul Johnson – and the pantheon of house music - Armand Van Helden, Underground Resistance, Basement Jaxx, and all those who drove right over dance music’s conventions in a hummer.



The Don has disposed of the turbine and started a first-name basis relation with ghetto house to create bold tracks that grab you by the belt in order to best shake your brains up (such as Riminology and its homage to the mythical drummer Bernard Purdie). The kind of smacking that makes you want to say thanks and turn the other bum cheek.