Scratching the Surface

Over the course of the past ten years, Washington D.C.'s Palash Ahmed (left), along with his partner, Saeed Younan, have accomplished what every aspiring house jock daydreams about: They're among an exclusive group of stateside house DJs who have attained international headliner status, playing frequently in club Meccas such as Ibiza, London and Montreal, as well as in Spain, Portugal and Israel. The duo also heads up its own label, Addictive Records, whose releases are in high demand by some of the world's top DJ talent -- Danny Teneglia, Carl Cox, Sasha and Digweed, just to name a few. But it's Ahmed and Younan's unique style of progressive house, often described as an eclectic mix of groove-rich tribal-tech-infused sounds, that seems to have been the secret of their success. When the pair began playing clubs in D.C. and taking stabs at producing original tracks in 1994, they were fortunate enough to count Teneglia among their earliest supporters. He used a track of theirs on his DJ Magazine mix compilation and the twosome's career took off from there. Suddenly Nick Warren was interested in working with them, and soon they found themselves filling in for Teneglia from time to time at his Vinyl residency in NYC -- an opportunity any house DJ would give his right arm for, easily. Catch Palash this Thursday, July 22, at the Church.