Khalil is the Arabic word for Beloved, it can mean either a beloved friend or 'The Beloved' - This mix is a tribute to both.
To the friends I've loved and the place where we are always One ...
'Giles Thornton was murdered by bandits on the Kenyan coast while trying to defend a group of friends. We first properly connected at an event organized by Dave Stirling for Save the Rhino in Nairobi where I'd been asked to play some music. Move over Tigger - ricocheting round the dance floor he looked like a cross between a whirling dervish and a leopard on cat nip.
On my next trip out to Africa with Dave we ended up in Orange Free state at a counter-culture techno festival on a vast organic permaculture farm in a dramatic swathe of semi-desert surrounded by high, wind-hollowed rock faces. Giles and Emma made the journey to Rustlers Valley on a KTM dirt bike all the way from Kenya with some weird animal skull strapped to handle bars and arrived like refugee stars from a Mad Max movie, caked in dust and ostrich feathers.
After a solid 48 hours of hard, hilarious partying we were all exhausted and slumped in a golden dawn haze, drinking in the fresh morning air (sort of) at the SRI camp. One of the organizers lurched over to us saying that none of the other DJs were able to stand and could I please be persuaded to keep things going on the main stage with some kind of morning chill out set. They didn't have any cash left so negotiations centred on a couple of bottles of tequila and a mind scrambling list of invigorating medication.
Giles decided to join me on stage and over the next 6 hours we polished off the wages and laughed ourselves silly, whilst playing music of incandescent beauty to the ripening African day, through 100,000 watts of turbocharged sound system. When he finally made his elegant exit it was only to reappear half an hour later 2000 feet above our heads suspended from a paraglider, wowing the crowd with stomach churning aerobatics; having first scaled, then thrown himself off, the most dramatic of the fiendish local cliffs.
What a weekend.
Like too many brilliant people he went too early - you feel like you've got a lifetime of great encounters ahead of you and look forward to the unrolling of years with unhurried pleasure, then suddenly the potential of your relationship is thwarted before so many of the good times you were bound to have have been realized.'
True quality of life can be measured by the quality of our relationships
At the heart of the deep underground music scene from the wild raves of the 80s to Ibiza, Burning Man and beyond, Ben fell in love with dance music tripping the light fantastic at the Embassy Club in the 70s. Collected a vast roomful of dub disco and soul tunes that suddenly came into their own in the mid 80s when the first raves exploded into our consciousness. Luckily managed to score a great party flat in Ifield Rd Chelsea and occasionally had a few mates over for a dance (if you were there you know what I'm talking about). Realized in a rare moment of clarity that a larger venue might be needed. Started hosting GIVE! at The Fortress in Kings Cross and Woy-Oy on the MV Cam Leopard at Chelsea Bridge in the late 80s, Kimberley in the early 90s and House of Honey in the Naughties. HoH is the Mothership for Harvest @ Eridge park, GIVE! @ Stanford Hall and a veritable cornucopia of London Events & Party Nights.
He’s played at countless great festivals, clubs & parties all over the planet including: GIVE!, Kimberley, Secret Garden Party, Wilderness, Burning Man (USA), Glastonbury, Bestival, Woy-Oy, Harvest, Shindig, Thunderpussy, Golden Delicious, The Whitehouse, Ravenous, Paramount, Koshka, Fly, Aura (Ibiza), The Backyard (Thailand), Tender, Lotus, Cultural Virus, Megatripolis, Pendragon, Sunset Ashram (Ibiza), Seductive Alchemy, The ICA, Rustlers Valley (South Africa), Save the Rhino (Kenya), TIP (Goa), Rift Valley Festival (Kenya), Wajaya Beach (Sri Lanka) and Sunrise (UK)
Ben the BeeKhalil is the Arabic word for Beloved, it can mean either a beloved friend or 'The Beloved' - This mix is a tribute to both.
To the friends I've loved and the place where we are always One ...
'Giles Thornton was murdered by bandits on the Kenyan coast while trying to defend a group of friends. We first properly connected at an event organized by Dave Stirling for Save the Rhino in Nairobi where I'd been asked to play some music. Move over Tigger - ricocheting round the dance floor he looked like a cross between a whirling dervish and a leopard on cat nip.
On my next trip out to Africa with Dave we ended up in Orange Free state at a counter-culture techno festival on a vast organic permaculture farm in a dramatic swathe of semi-desert surrounded by high, wind-hollowed rock faces. Giles and Emma made the journey to Rustlers Valley on a KTM dirt bike all the way from Kenya with some weird animal skull strapped to handle bars and arrived like refugee stars from a Mad Max movie, caked in dust and ostrich feathers.
After a solid 48 hours of hard, hilarious partying we were all exhausted and slumped in a golden dawn haze, drinking in the fresh morning air (sort of) at the SRI camp. One of the organizers lurched over to us saying that none of the other DJs were able to stand and could I please be persuaded to keep things going on the main stage with some kind of morning chill out set. They didn't have any cash left so negotiations centred on a couple of bottles of tequila and a mind scrambling list of invigorating medication.
Giles decided to join me on stage and over the next 6 hours we polished off the wages and laughed ourselves silly, whilst playing music of incandescent beauty to the ripening African day, through 100,000 watts of turbocharged sound system. When he finally made his elegant exit it was only to reappear half an hour later 2000 feet above our heads suspended from a paraglider, wowing the crowd with stomach churning aerobatics; having first scaled, then thrown himself off, the most dramatic of the fiendish local cliffs.
What a weekend.
Like too many brilliant people he went too early - you feel like you've got a lifetime of great encounters ahead of you and look forward to the unrolling of years with unhurried pleasure, then suddenly the potential of your relationship is thwarted before so many of the good times you were bound to have have been realized.'
True quality of life can be measured by the quality of our relationships