Dave Angel, born David Angelico Nicholas Gooden in Chelsea on 13 May 1966, made his name with a home-built 1989 remix of Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams, set up Rotation Records in 1993 and mixed three CDs for Trust the DJ between 2001 and 2003. He is the elder brother of the rapper Monie Love.
A borrowed keyboard, two tape decks and the Nightmare Mix
Angel’s first record was a remix nobody had asked for. Per Wikipedia, he borrowed a keyboard from a friend, built a bassline and drum track on a double tape deck, laid Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) over it and pressed 500 copies with borrowed money. He called it the Nightmare Mix. When BMG heard it, Annie Lennox wanted it stopped as an unlicensed version; Dave Stewart liked it and talked her round. His Resident Advisor biography dates the first attempts to 1989.
RCA pressed the Nightmare Mix as a promo 12-inch in 1990, and it appeared on the 1991 reissue Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) ’91, released to promote Eurythmics’ Greatest Hits. That reissue peaked at number 48, according to a Eurythmics chart archive. Wikipedia’s figure of number 23 for Angel’s mix has no citation and matches no Official Charts entry that was found, so this page does not use it.
He started as a funk DJ. In his Resident Advisor biography he says the Roland TB-303 changed that: techno and acid were ‘the new sound’, and he expected it to become ‘the rock of the sixties’ within twenty years. The son of a London jazz musician, he was on Phaze One, the London pirate station, during the 1988 acid house boom, alongside Fabio and Grooverider.
Rotation Records, 1993, and who came through it
Rotation Records started in 1993 as an outlet for Angel’s own music and for newer producers. Wikipedia lists Paul Hazel, Cisco Ferreira, Vince Watson, Samuel L. Session and Steve Rachmad among those it helped. Beatport’s biography of Angel adds Adam Beyer, Christian Smith, Deetron, Laidback Luke, Jamie Anderson and Bryan Zentz, and Misstress Barbara, whose First Reality came out on Rotation in November 1999.
Before his own label he recorded for R&S in Belgium: 1st Voyage in 1991 and Stairway To Heaven in 1992. In a 2016 Data Transmission interview he credited R&S founders Renaat and Sabine with the help that led him to start Rotation, and named CJ Bolland, Joey Beltram and Juan Atkins among the artists he met through them. Rotation went quiet for a long spell; AllMusic calls 2018’s Belle Âme its first release in over a decade.
Three CDs for Trust the DJ
Angel mixed three volumes in the Trust the DJ series. DA01, catalogue number TTDJCS 004, is dated 29 October 2001 by AllMusic; MusicBrainz gives 29 October 2002, likely a later territory. A retail listing names tracks by Nick Holder, Sebastian Leger and Jamie Anderson with Bryan Zentz, two of them Rotation alumni.
DA02 took a different form: The Reworks Album, TTDJCS 031, a 2002 CD of reworked tracks running 1 hour 6 minutes, per MusicBrainz. DA03 followed in 2003 and, per AllMusic’s track listing, opens with Mark Broom and Ben Sims’ Wang and includes work by Oxia and The Hacker.
Island Records and after
His albums came out through Island: Tales of the Unexpected on the Blunted imprint in 1995 and Globetrotting on 4th & Broadway in 1997, with singles including Tokyo Stealth Fighter and This Is Disco. He also mixed X-Mix-4: Beyond The Heavens for Studio !K7 in 1995 and a Mixmag Live volume with Darren Emerson in 1996. AllMusic describes him as one of the first artists to take Detroit-style techno to a major label.
Later records came out on Bedrock, Crosstown Rebels and Halocyan. His Resident Advisor biography quotes Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1 in 2014 introducing the Bedrock release as ‘the return of Dave Angel’. In 2023 he released Glide on Radio Slave’s REKIDS label.
Discography
| Year | Release | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Sweet Dreams (Nightmare Mix) | RCA |
| 1995 | Tales of the Unexpected | Blunted / Island |
| 1995 | X-Mix-4: Beyond The Heavens | Studio !K7 |
| 1997 | Globetrotting | 4th & Broadway |
| 2001 | DA01 | Trust the DJ |
| 2002 | DA02: The Reworks Album | Trust the DJ |
| 2003 | DA03 | Trust the DJ |
| 2023 | Glide | REKIDS |
What the night is actually like
He has no dates in the 2026 Ibiza season, so his catalogue is the better way in: the three Trust the DJ CDs sit between the Island albums and the Bedrock and REKIDS records, and DA01 in particular reads as a Rotation family album, with former Rotation artists on the track list.