# What’s it all about, Harvey? **URL:** \ **Category:** Music\ **Created:** [October 22, 2026, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425 "2026-10-22T14:29:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MGG](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/mgg/32/155_2.png) [@MGG](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/MGG)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 2:29pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/1 "2026-10-22T14:29:14Z")
I want to start off by saying this is not meant to be a disparaging thread, at all! I have for the longest time been curious about why exactly is Harvey considered such a legend, and why he’s become basically the king of the underground DJs. I have never seen him play, but it’s always made me curious why for some reason he’s achieved this notoriety which never took him into the “mainstream” like other legends, but has also weirdly been in Mission Impossible and magazine covers and such. Again, I’m not really doubting he is worth all the hype, I just genuinely would love to understand why. Can anyone enlighten me? (Also feel free to make this a Harvey centric post, mixes, tracks etc) ---
**Author:** ![Hierbas](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/hierbas/32/18779_2.png) [@Hierbas](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Hierbas)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/2 "2026-10-22T15:05:58Z")
First became aware of him via the DJH forum a long time ago when he was this culty, talismanic figure for the obscure disco enthusiasts (older heads will also remember Tonka and MOS) and the hype was boosted by those years in ‘exile’, which only built the mystique further. At a time when 99% of DJ culture is unbelievably boring, the charisma comes through whenever he plays (esp in Ibiza). When I play his Sarcastic-era sets in car, I’m still knocked out by that range from house to filmscores, west coast rock, eurodisco and much else. I still play his San Diego h-track mix loads in car (esp part 2) https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=false&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F117288033&show_artwork=true That said, in recent years, I think there have been a few grumbles though, the odd cheesy/lazy selection + wholeheartedly embracing the corporate festie circuit. I get that you sometimes have to ‘play the game’ but with the fees at stake, you sometimes wonder if it is still done with a nod & wink.. ---
**Author:** ![grantham\_disco](https://forum.testpressing.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/e9bcb4/32.png) [@grantham\_disco](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/grantham_disco)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/3 "2026-10-22T19:15:54Z")
The H Track mixes are ‘interesting’ - Is it Supermax that keeps sticking Pre the DJ Nerd fanboy thread Tonka was v worshipped - My mate who had proper London Balaeric background came back raving & dug out the Can U Feel it accapella Moist had Levan play at the Gardening Club - not quite the Garage sounsystem Ministry he was resident on Fridays ( Techno) & Saturdays ( Garage) which is something! New Hard Left he did all night which was v unusual Black Cock disco edits were a game changer at the time as are some others he did ( Keep on Trying is amazing) Then moved to US so created a cult ( I don’t think intentional at the time) Sarcastic Disco mix was v unusual at the time Bit like Weatherall - Got cultish by not playing the game. It feels like an event when he plays UK I suspect outside of here no one cares as much disconerdzeitgeist ---
**Author:** ![deepconcentration](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/deepconcentration/32/140_2.png) [@deepconcentration](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/deepconcentration)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 9:00pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/4 "2026-10-22T21:00:24Z")
he’s a super-fun hang. i wish i had that kind of energy. i’m glad i’m not married to it, but it is fun for party purposes. plus, he’s put a spotlight on some great tunes over the years. ---
**Author:** ![Joe](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/joe/32/26080_2.png) [@Joe](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Joe)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/5 "2026-10-22T21:46:19Z")
We love to create totemic figures in this country. The messianic stuff is all a bit silly, he’s just a geezer that plays records and most of the time happens to do it pretty well. But sometimes, when all the right elements are in place too, it can be very very special ---
**Author:** ![TimIndulge](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/timindulge/32/24246_2.png) [@TimIndulge](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/TimIndulge)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 12:02am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/6 "2026-10-23T00:02:03Z")
He did play some Fridays at Ministry but really he was main resident at Rulin’ their Saturday, alternating weeks with CJ Mackintosh. I first heard him at one of the Brixton Tonka parties in I think '89, and then at their soundsystem in the travellers field at Glastonbury '90. I had no idea who he was, but came away from both knowing I’d heard something really special, totally different to anything else I was hearing at that time. Moist definitely had a dubby ‘garage’ feel to the music, but he was just as proficient banging out the US house to the fluffy bras at Ministry peaktime, or dropping leftfield bombs late into the morning. His fantastic Late Night Sessions mix CD from that era really is a great example of how those closing sets sounded, The first time we put him on he was the first person through the doors. In early to check the sound out. He introduced himself to me by (quite correctly) halving the volume I was ‘warming up’ the room at. Lesson learned 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Casual](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/casual/32/10865_2.png) [@Casual](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Casual)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 6:24am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/7 "2026-10-23T06:24:37Z")
First time I heard him was on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA and he was brilliant. Day time set and he played an incredible set. Next time I saw him was at Rhonda’s and he was flat, pretty awful in truth and then I saw him at a Sarcastic clothing thing in a warehouse in DTLA and he was brilliant again. It’s how it seems to go with him for me. But to be fair to him, he’s living his best life and always will. ---
**Author:** ![reubenturner](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/reubenturner/32/22676_2.png) [@reubenturner](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/reubenturner)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 9:48am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/8 "2026-10-23T09:48:18Z")
It’s the moustache, I think that’s it really. ---
**Author:** ![Hierbas](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/hierbas/32/18779_2.png) [@Hierbas](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Hierbas)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 10:05am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/9 "2026-10-23T10:05:28Z")
ha we spent a night on the Queen Mary three years back and the only music was a live trad jazz band straight out of the prohibition era! 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Joe](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/joe/32/26080_2.png) [@Joe](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Joe)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 10:44am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/10 "2026-10-23T10:44:48Z")
I’ve seen him play maybe 5 or 6 times in various situations and its always been great. I admire how how we can just adapt and flex to the occasion with such finesse The highlight was Croatia 2015 and it was just a sonic mind fuck, but he caught loads of flack that year for ending with Bee Gees. Sometimes I think he likes to take the piss. My favourite Harvey urban myth is that he deliberately turned in a shit RA mix to throw the tourists off the scent. I dont know if that’s true but I hope it is, I just love the attitude of that I know people who saw him during his pre sober days and they didnt have good things to say. After Andrew W he’s probably the last DJ I would go out of my way to go hear ---
**Author:** ![elzorro](https://forum.testpressing.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/ea666f/32.png) [@elzorro](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/elzorro)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 10:48am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/11 "2026-10-23T10:48:15Z")
It’s definitely one of those tales that’s hard to piece together objectively and is a combination of personality, great taste, stars aligning, mystique etc etc. Early 90s at Uni in Brighton he was Tonka - Harvey, Choci and Rev playing everything from student union to Zap to outdoor soundsystem. Friends of mine were close to him and we all knew Felix who had been at Uni with us so there were then a few parties on Kingsland Rd and under South London arches in very early 2000s where he was playing long percussive disco tracks that sounded to me like nothing else. And then… next thing it was the legend of Sarcastic Disco, hanging with Rub n Tug in what I always imagined was just a wild NYC scene. Map of Africa. Doing things differently. The whole “you can’t understand my music until you’ve had group sex on mdma” thing. I mean if Harvey was invented by an advertising guru you’d say they did a pretty good job. Ultimately I suppose he’s a cool guy with great taste who found himself in the right place at the right time and had a fucking laugh doing it. Isn’t that something everyone wants a bit of? ---
**Author:** ![Gavin](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/gavin/32/2532_2.png) [@Gavin](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Gavin)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 10:55am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/12 "2026-10-23T10:55:45Z")
Yes Tonka was great, there never seemed anything performative or insincere about the man, just a proper hedonist with great taste. Was always lovely when I talked to him in Quaff. Surrounds himself with great like minded folk too, Heidi is also exceptionally nice. Not seen him this century though 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hierbas](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/hierbas/32/18779_2.png) [@Hierbas](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Hierbas)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 11:01am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/13 "2026-10-23T11:01:38Z")
for me, it’s all about the long, meandering trippy stuff rather than the disco screamers. So rare I get to hear that stuff out. Only Eric Duncan, Justin Van Der V and a few others seem to go there. ---
**Author:** ![Moodynann](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/moodynann/32/19533_2.png) [@Moodynann](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Moodynann)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 11:11am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/14 "2026-10-23T11:11:58Z")
The guy’s a tastemaker, and a true DJ’s DJ… Well… Maybe a close second to Eric Prydz. ---
**Author:** ![Pulsatio7](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/pulsatio7/32/17720_2.png) [@Pulsatio7](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Pulsatio7)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 11:28am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/15 "2026-10-23T11:28:29Z")
Aside from the music, he has charisma and presence that most people, especially most producers and DJs, don’t have. From the outside he seems to be living the ideal life that most of us trapped in the daily grind aren’t, I think a lot of his fanbase live vicariously through him because of that maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Kidpasta](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/kidpasta/32/35006_2.png) [@Kidpasta](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Kidpasta)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/16 "2026-10-23T11:29:48Z")
I love his three volume compilation series The Sound of Mercury Rising as well. ---
**Author:** ![ScottProper](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/scottproper/32/33790_2.png) [@ScottProper](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/ScottProper)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 12:05pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/17 "2026-10-23T12:05:20Z")
This. Seen him a few times now, he can be hit or miss but that’s dependant on the venue/space. Best was the Sub Club from maybe 10 or so years ago - Dominic was on before him banging it out **eye rolls** and he comes on and stops the record in it’s tracks. Played the long intro Welcome to the Pleasuredome and into Fire In My Heart and we we’re off. I think he’s a don in this small network of what we do. ---
**Author:** ![Kristoph](https://forum.testpressing.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/7cd45c/32.png) [@Kristoph](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Kristoph)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/18 "2026-10-23T13:14:57Z")
I was at this party and it felt like Sub Club were almost trying to force him into playing a house set with the warm-up. He just done his own thing of course and it was really good. I only got into the whole ‘balearic’ thing in 2008 ish. Before that I was strictly house and techno, so the cult of Harvey passed me by completely until I started becoming active on DJH and people were talking about him as some mysterious balearic shamen living in exile. It really made me want to see him and thankfully it just about lived up to the hype. So yeah, he’s very good at what he does, but a mixture of his big personality and being stranded in the states for years has increased his aura hugely. Fair play to him. ---
**Author:** ![Kidpasta](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/kidpasta/32/35006_2.png) [@Kidpasta](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Kidpasta)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 1:48pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/19 "2026-10-23T13:48:32Z")
Also him playing Willy Wonka’s Pure Imagination after an epic bongo breakdown and getting the crowd to sway peacefully. He has good command of the audience. ---
**Author:** ![Chris](https://forum.testpressing.org/user_avatar/forum.testpressing.org/chris/32/13168_2.png) [@Chris](https://forum.testpressing.org/u/Chris)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 3:12pm UTC](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425/20 "2026-10-23T15:12:14Z")
We were there that night too, loved that dance floor reset he did 😎 [Next page](https://forum.testpressing.org/t/what-s-it-all-about-harvey/7425.md?page=2)