DJ ATA

Celltek · Post by **Celltek** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:18 pm

Atanasios Christos Macias

Ata is a DJ and founder of the labels Playhouse, Klang, Ongaku. He also runs the 250-capacity Robert Johnson club in Offenbach, Frankfurt-Am-Main.

Ata started DJing in the late eighties. In 1992 he founded the record shop Delirium with Heiko Schäfer, aka Heiko M/S/O, where he established the labels Ongaku Musik, Klang Elektronik and Playhouse in 1993. Together with Heiko Schäfer and Jörg Henze, he DJed variously as Delirium Posse, Heiko & Ata, Ata & Jörg and Heiko & Jörg.

Beside DJing, Ata founded the first 'real' clubnight in Frankfurt for modern house and deep house, the Wild Pitch Club at the Nachtleben-Club. After years of parties he closed the concept and opened the Robert-Johnson 1999. Through the DJ he has booked, his own DJ sets and the club itself, he made the Robert-Johnson to one of the most important clubs worldwide for electronic music.

Celltek · Post by **Celltek** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:21 pm

He's in amsterdam this weekend.. Any experiences with this guy?

prenzlauer · Post by **prenzlauer** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 6:26 pm

I've heard some good sets with him from the past, but the only two times I've seen him myself (both recently) it was quite horrible. Too electro-housey for me.

Celltek · Post by **Celltek** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:14 am

Seriously, electro house from the playhouse label boss??

prenzlauer · Post by **prenzlauer** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:53 am

Yeah well - some good stuff as well. But in my opinion, the playhouse releases have radically changed over the last few years as well. It was one of my favourite labels a couple of years ago, but I can't say I like a lot of what get's put out nowadays

Celltek · Post by **Celltek** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:39 am

Well I went to see him and glad I did! He played a very long set @ the Flexbar in Amsterdam for a half filled room of enthusiasts. It was half filled because that evening we had experienced some storms.

I didnt know what to expect but there he was, about 1.60m high, greek looking, half balding man. His first hour consisted of high quality cuts that fall into the minimal/electro/progressive genre. Each track was long and awesome. Tip: Be on the lookout for for these two absolute dancefloor killers tracks:
Phonique - Bang (Dessons ltd)
Simon Baker - Plastik / Jitters (Playhouse 137)

The second hour consisted of DJ ATA going back into time to start playing some classic tunes. By classic I dont mean classic house/tech but DISCO classic. He mainly stuck to instumental versions of well known 80s hits. I didnt like this but there were plenty of people that enjoyed that.

In his third hour Ata combined some peak time minimal tracks with classic tracks which was okay i suppose, not really my thing! But the crowd loved it.

When he finished the performance the room gave Ata a warmhearted applause which was amazing and he stuck around to talk to people and this is when I had appraoched him to get the ID's mentioned above. He was kind enough to let me go through his case and we had a beer while talking about music..

So all in all id say Ata is a really good guy! A loving character with an interesting playlist and a must see!