The Search for the Mysterious Christopher Just - I unknowingly at the time came across a random vinyl called Petra in 2015. My Berlin studio had over 8000 records in it, nearly all of them belonging to Cinthie, 3 Ikea racks of 5x5 box shelves packed to the brim full of vinyl. So one day i decided to start sampling her records. I started doing 1 box at a time, working very fast, quickly skipping through records with the recorder just constantly on, sometimes taking longer bits if the track was good, sometimes just a quick second here and there, the pads, breakdowns etc i was grabbing anything and everything, it took me 2 weeks to get through about 10 boxes, and at that point i thought i had recorded enough material and was getting quite tired of the whole process, and that’s when I stopped. Some years later as i was preparing my 1st essential mix, i was looking for new tracks and was going through my music library, I remembered about the recordings I made of Cinthie's records and that I'd discovered and recorded the whole of a Praga Khan track called Out of Control during those sampling weeks, it was in my head and I was considering to use it. So I digged out the recordings and as i flicked through all the sounds and noises looking for the Praga track i came across a loop that caught me by surprise. It was just a few seconds long, the sample played and then went to silence very shortly after. My ears immediately perked up. I thought wow what the hell was that? i played it again. to my excitement and disappointment there was only a short 3 seconds clip that I had sampled, straight away i thought to myself, why the f*ck didn't i record more of this track! Luckily i had 1 whole loop of 1 whole bar in the recording, enough that I used it on loop to build a full track out of it to play. I layered on extra percussion, created a breakdown and new kick underneath until I had what was a finished playable track to use for my mix. During this time Cinthie had picked up her records as she was about to start her record store “Elevate Berlin” so i didn't have the records in my studio anymore to dig through to find the track. So i messaged her and sent her the loop of the track. Surely she would know it, after all, it was her record! “hmmm im not sure, perhaps its a Johannes Heil record, sorry Dax for some reason i cannot think what this record is” damn, i was devastated that Cinthie didn't know it, she was literally my only hope. Meanwhile BBC wanted the track list for the mix, and I had used my new version of the track, but as I didn't have a clue what it was I made up a name, i called it “Cinwax 001 - Origin Unknown” I started to get messages “hey what is this Cinwax track? i can’t find it anywhere.” I started to play the track out in clubs and festivals, sometimes people would come up to me at the end of my set and say, ‘hey what’s that track you played tonight, it was also in your Essential Mix but there is no information of this track on the internet” i would say, i'm really sorry but i don't know what it is. They obviously wouldn’t believe me, they thought i was hiding the track i.d, which i have been known to do in the past, but this time i really wasn't. They would say “well how do you have it then if you don't know what it is!” i would try explain the story but it sounded so far-fetched no one ever believed me. A year later i had a lightbulb moment. I was listening to The Hacker’s track Nu Nrg and I noticed it had such a similar vibe to it, similar style, and similar noises! aha it must have been made by The Hacker! I was 100% convinced it was him. Without delay I messaged Michel (The Hacker) and i sent him the track, i said hey is this one of yours i been looking for it for ages. His reply “Yes its mine, i cant remember the name but it’s in my basement somewhere I will have to dig it out for you, but its one of my tracks from old Black Ops alias.” Brilliant i thought, i knew it! Straight away I went on Discogs to search for the Black Ops records by The Hacker, there were 4 tracks across 2 different records that were released, i went to youtube and found that 3 out of the 4 tracks were on there, but 1 track was missing. After listening to the 3 already on RU-vid and hearing that they weren’t the track i was after, I knew the 4th one that wasn’t online had to be the track I wanted. I thought ok for sure this has to be it then! I immediately went back to Discogs and bought the only 2 Black OP’s records that had been released. They arrived, i was excited. I quickly put record 1 on the turntable, a couple cool tracks but no not the track. Ok. Next. Got to the other record that contained the missing track that wasnt on youtube. Side 1, no that’s not it. Flipped the record, about to put the needle on, and im thinking wow this is finally the moment. I put the needle down, it starts playing a track back. WTF! To my confusion and dismay i didn't recognise it. This is not the track. i didn't understand. I messaged Michel again, hey Michel i bought your 2 Black Ops records but they don’t contain the track. Michel ends up saying “oh im sorry, then i don't think the track is mine actually, really sorry about that” i couldn't believe it! It was back to square one. I kind of just forgot about it and stopped playing the track for a couple years. Some time went past and one day I decided to put my clip of the track on Soudncloud to see if anyone knew it, and out the blue I get a message from a user called Jörn telling me “it sounds like Christopher Just, Petra.” Wow, amazing! At last, I thought! Around the same time I get a message from Stranger who had also been wondering what this track was for the last years. “Yo we found the track it's Christopher Just Petra!” It finally randomly came up on an online track i.d forum. Feeling relived, I bought the record straight away off Discogs. It arrived and this time it was the correct track, I recorded and sampled it straight away and was finally able to finish the remix I started from years ago. I started playing my new finished version again after the pandemic and the reaction on the dancefloor was always crazy. I decided to contact Christopher to see if he was up for releasing it. I found him on Facebook and sent a message, no reply, he didn't see it. I then messaged his brother no reply. I started messaging all his friends on facebook, 1 guy said he would pass the message on, but i didn't hear anything again. After a few weeks i was getting really frustrated, thinking oh boy here we go again another wild goose chase! I started messaging everyone and anyone who was remotely connected to Christopher, and ended up finding a DJ in Thailand who had played with him before, i contacted her and she promised me she would pass on my details to Christopher’s personal email address for me. A few days went by, and i finally received a mail from Christopher saying hi! After 5 years the search for Christopher Just was over! 😄
![Christopher Just - Petra 02 (Dax J remix) [Monnom Black 032]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
