Cape Town, South Africa — since 1995
JDL
QUAKE
"Who needs words when you have feelings."
Chapter 01 — The Origin
CUTTING WAX SINCE '95.
Juan Coleman — known to the floor as JDL Quake — has been behind the decks since 1995. Hip-hop, drum & bass, breakbeat, funk, dubstep: whatever the night calls for. Home base is a studio in Woodstock, Cape Town, on South Africa's west coast.
Along the way he's shared stages and decks with Scratch (The Roots), Luke Vibert, Cut La Roc, General Midi, Krafty Kuts and Cypress Hill — and spent years coordinating the DMC DJ Championships in South Africa alongside Tony Prince of DMC International, before handing the reins to the African Hip Hop Indaba in 2011.
Chapter 02 — XXXL Bass
MUSIC WITH BIG BASSLINES.
Since 2010, JDL Quake and DJ Microstripe have run the XXXL Bass Show — halftime, leftfield bass, jungle and vinyl-only sets built for speakers that can take the weight. What started as a radio show became a mixtape series, and the tapes keep coming.
- 01 Dubzy
- 02 Stockholm Zero Fifteen (Halftime & Leftfield Bass Mix)
- 03 Jungle Memories Mix
- 04 Deep Dark Africa (Vinyl Mix)
- 05 Microstripe & JDL Quake Live @ Cold Turkey (2010)
Chapter 03 — Sound Squad
CAPE TOWN'S OUTDOOR SCENE, BUILT FROM SCRATCH.
Before it was the norm, Juan was co-running Sound Squad — early multi-genre outdoor electronic parties in Cape Town, including the Sound Squad Revolutions New Year's festival.
That same DIY energy carried straight into Cold Turkey, the city's long-running bass night, where JDL Quake and Microstripe have thrown down together since it started in 2010.
Chapter 04 — The Vinyl
5,000+ RECORDS. STILL VINYL FIRST.
Turntables over software, always. Five thousand-plus records deep, with technique pulled from the greats — DJ Kentaro's Tiger Paw scratch, Q-Bert's cuts.
Juan ran a Cape Town record shop and the pro-audio outfit 24audio before the industry went digital, and never stopped digging.
The Archive
ON THE RECORD.
Listen