Author: Darren Ressler

The Los Angeles mansion of the late DJ/producer/Subliminal Records boss Erick Morillo has hit the market. The asking price for the four-bedroom, six-bathroom 4,543 sq. ft. abode in the Hollywood Hills is $7.999 million. (See the full listing here.)

The open-plan house at 7000 Macapa Dr. features a wealth of amenities, including a state-of-the-art recording studio, chef’s kitchen, infinity pool and view of the Hollywood sign.

Morillo, who died of acute ketamine toxicity in Miami on September 1, 2020, purchased the home designed by architect Harry Gesner in 2014 for $7.6 million.

The listing agent hired by Morillo’s family is Jason Oppenheim, of Oppenheim Group, who stars in Selling Sunset on Netflix

Before his death, Morillo was arrested and charged with sexual battery in August for an offense on a fellow DJ that allegedly took place at his home in Miami Beach in December 2019.

The female victim “reported waking up nude on the bed, with Mr. Morillo standing on the side of the bed also nude,” according to the arrest report.

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Italian DJ/producer Stefano Greppi has passed away, according to reports on social media. Greppi was 49. According to a report, he came down with a sudden illness.

A lifelong lover of vinyl and dance music, Greppi’s mixing career took root in the 1990s when he began spinning at clubs in Riccione. He went on to DJ at venues all over Europe.

Greppi produced and collaborated on releases for Schermate Recordings, Goldmin Music, Plastica and Alternative Route Recordings.

His tracks were licensed for top-selling DJ mix compilations by Sasha, John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia, Boy George, Raresh, Hernan Cattaneo, Anthony Pappa, Marcel Dettmann and Edit Select.

He also did a good amount of remixing, reimagining tracks by Angel Moraes, CeCe Rogers and Frank ‘O Moiraghi.

On his final two online DJ sets, Greppi paid tribute to the past with an excellent vinyl-only house set and a retro techno mix. Both are well worth your listen.

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Harold Budd, the pioneering musician whose minimal, classical and jazz-inspired avant-garde compositions spanned ambient to dream-pop, has died at the age of 84.

A post on Budd’s Facebook page attributed the cause of death to “complications of COVID-19.” Budd had also suffered a stroke in November.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in the Mojave Desert, Budd developed a signature stripped-down compositional style fueled by what he called a “soft pedal” technique for playing the piano.

In 1966, Budd earned a graduate degree from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Ingolf Dahl. In 1970, he released his debut release, The Oak of the Golden Dreams.

Budd went on to release 13 studio albums. He collaborated on recordings with a wealth of artists including Brian Eno, Cocteau Twins, Robin Gutherie, XTC’s Andy Partridge and Jah Wobble.

Budd and Guthrie composed the scores to two films by Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin (2005) and White Bird in a Blizzard (2014).

Before his death, he composed the music for I Know This Much Is True, a new HBO miniseries. This week, Another Flower, a collaboration with Guthrie, was released on Darla Records. The album was recorded at Gutherie’s home studio in France in 2013.

Harold Budd had a rare gift for creating elegant musical meditations capable of soothing the mind, body and soul. He proved that sometimes a whisper is more powerful than a scream. 

Update: Upon publication of this article a representative for Peggy Gou provided the following statement to Big Shot: “Daniel’s post includes numerous false and defamatory statements, and its intent is purely to shame and inflame hatred against Peggy based on a personal grievance.  The post has been reported to Facebook for harassment and hate speech.”

Berlin-based DJ/producer Daniel Wang has taken to Facebook to post a scathing diatribe of fellow artist Peggy Gou.

In Wang’s lengthy post, he recalls meeting Gou several years ago when they lived one floor apart in the same building. After various trials and tribulations, he says the two are no longer on speaking terms.

In the post, Wang wrote, “She and I stopped speaking about 2 years ago, right before her big record release which made her a star. And that’s when everyone started telling me their stories too.”

Gou, whose House In This Ho Edit of Cardi B’s “WAP” dropped today, has yet to issue a response.

Here’s Wang’s post in its unedited entirety: Continue Reading →