Max Glazer burned it up at 'SNEP'

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

Thousands turned up at Hope Gardens on Saturday night for the Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project (SNEP). It was where London rave met Jamaican swag, and the two seemed to gel fairly well together.

For international disc jockey Max Glazer it was almost as good as it gets. "I tried to play a little of everything in my set," he said. "Some hip hop, R&B, pop and dancehall. It was an international vibe so it was great to see people rocking out to everything."

SNEP involved hundreds of thousands of party fans from across 50 countries exchanging the best party ideas. The huge crowd that turned out on Saturday night also experienced the fantastic musical skills from Coppershot's DJ Sanjay as well as DJ Engineroom, who was performing his last set under that name. From now on, he will smoke the turntables under the name Red Selector. Together, they warmed up the crowd nicely.

Max Glazer certainly felt like his audience responded well while he was in control at the turntables. "I felt like it went well. I'm really critical and always think my set could be better. I also had some technical difficulties with the turntables at the start of both sets, but once it got fixed I was really enjoying the vibe. That was a massive crowd!" After several trips to Jamaica, he said it is always great to see how Jamaicans respond to all genres of music.

Glazer took the gig as a last-minute replacement for DJ Baby Drew. He claimed that despite the late call he was ready to go. "Taking this Smirnoff gig was a no-brainer for me. The only thing I had to do was make sure I could shuffle things around, so I was able to fly out from New York the day of the party. I love the vibes down here so it was a pleasure to be able come to Kingston on short notice and party with thousands of people."

Job well done

With his job well done, the disc jockey, who has worked with some of the biggest and brightest superstars in music including global mega-star Rihanna, said while he has nothing in the pipeline with the Barbadian beauty, he does have several projects that he will now turn his attention to.

"This year, it's all about our Federation Sound productions," he revealed. "We have a Vybz Kartel song on VP's Reggae Gold 2011, and we digitally released the Flatlands rhythm and the Flatlands Remix Project, which consists of 12 remixes of our dancehall tracks remixed in crazy electronic dance styles. Everything is available digitally on iTunes. I'll definitely be working on more productions for 2012 and continue travelling around the globe."