Five on Friday with Gez Dewar aka Random House Project

There are producers who make records, and then there are producers who quietly shape the furniture of an era without most people realising it. Gez Dewar — better known these days as Random House Project — belongs firmly in the second category, and that’s precisely what makes him such a compelling subject for this series.

Gez’s story starts in 1990, when Brain Club founder Sean McCluskey picked up on some early tapes and signed the project — then operating as Doi-Oing — to his Brainiak label. The records that followed, including the club staples “Good Feeling” and the Sasha-supported progressive anthem “Bosh”, weren’t just well-received, they were genuinely formative moments in the British house scene. From there, Doi-Oing became the first act signed to Ministry of Sound’s fledgling Open label, releasing a run of EPs across two years that cemented the project’s reputation as something worth paying attention to.

What followed was a career arc that most producers would quietly retire on. Collaborations came thick and fast — Robert Owens for Darren Emerson’s Underwater label, Danny Rampling for Positiva, the MYNC Project for Yoshitoshi, releases across Xtravaganza, Multiply and Skyway. With Charlie and Duncan from Spooky he formed The Oval Five, a project whose records with Natacha Atlas — “Gandharva” and “Vertigo” — became landmarks of the progressive house movement. With Nick Hale he became The Experiment, signed to Hydrogen Dukebox, releasing the critically-acclaimed album “What Goes Up” in 1999, cuts from which have since surfaced across CSI Miami, La Femme Nikita and Without a Trace. That same year, the Heliotropic project delivered “Alive”, a UK Top 40 hit that has enjoyed a second life appearing on Darude’s 2023 album “Together”. He also briefly formed Thee Earls alongside DJ and producer Justin Robertson, which tells you something about the circles Gez has always moved in.

Alongside all of this, Gez built a parallel career as a music and MTV producer, running Revolution Music and delivering award-winning compositions for Guinness, Bacardi Breezer, BBC1, Sky TV, Sky Arts and the European Commission, among others. He also created The Megamix shows for MTV Dance, which means his fingerprints are on a substantial portion of the cultural wallpaper of the late nineties and early two-thousands.

The Random House Project alias, which has been his primary vehicle for the past several years, is where things get particularly interesting right now. His Dark Disco Remix of Crooked Man’s “Maladjustment to Love” for Vicious Charm is exactly what it promises — taut, shadowy and completely on its own terms. The Re-Eko of Ambala’s “Eko Maina” for Music for Dreams stretches things out beautifully, and his rework of Lalomie Washburn’s “Try My Love” for Acts of Sedition arrived as a vinyl-only release, which tells you everything you need to know about where his head is at.

Perhaps most striking of all is his recent brush with Art of Noise, who reached out after discovering his edit of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” blended with their own “Moments in Love”. That track has since been incorporated into their live shows — an endorsement that’s hard to top, and one that speaks to the quality of instinct Gez brings to this work.

He also hosts the Welcome to the Monkeyhouse show on Totally Wired Radio, broadcasting bi-monthly on Tuesdays at 10pm GMT, with full archives available on Mixcloud. Well worth your time.

Five on Friday List : (music that shaped his sound)

23 Skidoo “Fuck You GI” 

We were at Art College at the time we first heard 23 Skidoo and the sampling and tape looping thing was becoming more widely used in dance music. I loved the use of film dialogue and documentary samples in music and this record had that infectious groove and loose structural arrangements that was so appealing. We used to go to squat parties in south London in the late 80’s where this kind of music could be heard alongside funk and hip hop and electro.

Man Parrish “Hip Hop Be Bop Don’t Stop”

We were still clubbing in Birmingham at the time this came out. I remember hearing this for the first time and it sounded like it had been made by Aliens, the dog barking samples and stutter claps and infectious electro rhythm fused with these crazy riffs and spacey noises. It really shaped my musical palette and I still draw on these techniques today in my productions, truly light years ahead of its time. 

Yello “Pinball Cha Cha”  

One of the most influential groups for me over the years, a huge fan. I once met Dieter Meier outside the Wag Club in Soho back in the 90’s and he gave us some merch. Their combination of quirky synth pop and Boris Blank’s genius production made for an exotic and compelling cocktail. Their influences were wide ranging and hard to tie down, but they fused it all beautifully with Dieter’s bizarre narratives and stories. I first heard this track played on John Peel’s radio show and immediately wanted to know more. Embraced by Dj pioneers like Alfredo, Weatherall and Ashley Beedle they became a firm favourite in the early Balearic clubs.

Art of Noise “Beatbox”

Another hugely influential record for me from the stable of Trevor Horn’s ZTT label this record blended many musical styles from early Hip Hop and Electro, Classical and Rock It broke so many rules of what a record could be ; Taking in Hip Hop’s Cut & Paste, Musique Concrete, Da Da and Surrealist techniques, it tore up the rulebook. We all learnt so much from these records, what a trip to finally end up collaborating with them last year.

Brian Eno & David Byrne “The Jezebel Spirit”

Both artists were hugely influential for me both together and independently, they explored without constraint all forms of music and blended it into their distinctive styles. Both early advocates of sampling techniques “Bush of Ghosts” was a landmark album for me; African, Arabic & Indian influences, funk and proto Disco, soundscapes and weirdness all blended together beautifully. Jezebel Spirit was a big dancefloor record for me which I’ve since reworked many times. Its use of an actual recorded exorcism is not something you’d expect to be hearing on the Dancefloor!

by Damo Red Telephone

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