Hipcats – ATFC & David Penn
ATFC, aka Aydin the Funki Chile, is the moniker of Aydin Hasirci, one of England’s most popular house DJ/producers at the turn of the century. Hasirci began his DJ career as a teenager in London. During the mid-’90s he attended Bournemouth University in the south of England; while studying there he held a DJ residency at the Gardening Club. Upon his return to London in 1997, he worked at Uptown Records, one of England’s premier music stores, and began producing tracks for release on BBE. Hasirci’s breakthrough production was “In and Out of My Life,” credited to another moniker of his, OnePhatDeeva. Released by Defected in 1999 to great success — charting in England and licensed for international release and for dozens of mix albums — the production, essentially a mashup, is based upon a sample of “Right Here, Right Now” by Fatboy Slim and the vocals from “In and Out of My Life” by Adeva. Harsirci’s follow-up OnePhatDeeva release on Defected, “Bad Habit” (2000) was also met with great success, charting in England and licensed for international release and for dozens of mix albums. His next Defected release, “Sleep Talk” (2001), this one — and all others henceforth — credited to ATFC, also proved popular, if less so than its predecessors. At this point, Hasirci founded his own independent label, OnePhatDeeva, on which many of his subsequent productions were released, beginning with “Erotik” (2002). Without the promotional push of Defected, these independently released productions were less commercially successful, yet Hasirci’s reputation was so well established as a DJ by this point, billing himself as ATFC, his recordings often seemed secondary. One of his bigger years was 2008, when he made his production debut on leading U.K. house label Toolroom Records, Ya Killin Me, and mixed the album Defected in the House: Miami 08. ~ Jason Birchmeier