UNVRS Ibiza
Carl Cox returns to 3-deck vinyl mixing on UK tour with The Prodigy
Carl Cox has broken down the thinking behind his three-deck vinyl approach on his current UK tour with The Prodigy, in a new behind-the-scenes clip. Notably, the techno legend frames the format as a return to method after 25 years away from it. He uses the tour to walk audiences back through the history of rave culture.
“Playing vinyl was always synonymous with how I DJ,” Cox said. “I have an idea of what I’m gonna play and how I’m gonna play them.” Meanwhile, he positioned the Prodigy run as a guided history lesson. “It’s basically going back and telling people how the history of raving and the DJs that played this music came about.”
Crucially, the curation is heavily filtered. “In a two-hour set, I would probably go through 24 to maybe 30 tracks maximum,” Cox said. “So I would have to shortlist at least 60 tracks.” He listened to every option in his Melbourne studio before locking the set. In turn, only the very best made it onto the tour.
The mechanics are harder than they used to be. “Getting back to playing turntables is very difficult because when you’ve been playing digitally for so long, you know how easy that is to do,” Cox explained. “But when you’re playing turntables you need skills. You need to know where your breaks are, you need to know when you can mix the records. You need to know where the end of the thing is.”
Equally, the three-deck format raises the difficulty. “I’ve always kind of gone the long way around in the sense of playing on three turntables and not two,” he said. “It’s really difficult to play three because you need to make sure you’ve got two turntables or two tracks in the mix. Then when you introduce the third turntable, you don’t want it to sound like a clatter.”
Indeed, timing is everything. Furthermore, Cox stressed that the third track has to land precisely. “It needs to fall in at the right place at the right time, and it’s a very difficult thing to do.”
Still, he is loving the return. “To be able to do that again after 25 years of not doing it, it’s quite a hard thing to do. I’ve been really enjoying playing vinyl again, putting the needle on the record.”
Finally, Cox added that the audience response has matched the effort. “Everyone is seriously excited to see me playing vinyl after all these years.” The Carl Cox and Prodigy UK and Ireland arena run continues across the spring.
