Master of the house The imposing DJ Carl Cox BY MICHAEL FREEDBERG

Go to http://www.thedjlist.com/ and you’ll find British house DJ Carl Cox ranked sixth among hundreds of contenders, besting David Guetta, David Morales, Miss Kittin, Sander Kleinenberg, Steve Lawler, and, at #19, Danny Tenaglia. His exalted position reflects his fame as an outdoor-venue rave and festival performer, where crowds as large as 50,000 hear him. The masters of the indoor dance floor — Junior Vasquez, Little Louie Vega, Peter Rauhofer, Junior Jack — are limited by the size of the clubs they favor. But Cox’s skill at the turntables and as a segue master supports his top status. He plays hard, fast, screaming rhythms, as edgy as techno but also as dark as classic house. His mixes clash and bump so they fight for attention. His 12-inch singles and CDs come from everywhere: British acid, Belgian techno, German electronica, Chicago house, New York tribal, Italian and Ibizan Europop, all blended into one intensely physical get-on-up. Cox imposes himself on the music, and there’s a lot to impose: he’s a stocky, muscular, nose guard of a man, and when he packs the beat, he pumps his whole upper body into the mix. Little wonder many of his fans come from the rock side of the tracks rather than house’s core. Cox has gathered his own tribe.

This Friday, he brings his stuff to Avalon, where he’ll play what amounts to a cameo set, two hours long. He does not like this. "It’s so hard, either two hours or nothing," he says over the phone from NYC in his all but impenetrable Manchester dialect. "I like to play for a minimum of three or four hours and really tell my story." Actually, he likes to play for 10, even 12 hours, as is the norm in Europe. "I just finished the Ibiza season. Nine weeks at Space [Ibiza’s most famous disco] on a Tuesday night with 4000 to 6000 people every night. It’s a 12-hour shift. I play house music from 11 pm on. There’s 1000 dancers already. Then at midnight, my guest DJ DJs for three hours. Then I DJ till 7 am myself. Maybe longer. In addition to Space, I managed to do about 25 gigs this season all over Europe. Add to that festivals in Australia, Australia, even Prague. My year has been unbelievable. Now I’m on a 30-day bus tour. Also I produced a new album. It’s called Carl Cox and Friends [and due in early 2006]. On it my guest DJs play too, guys like Josh Wink, Victor Calderone, LTJ Bukem, Rony Size."

Except for Calderone, who plays a softish soul-music style of house, Cox’s friends all play it hard, fast, tough, and cold, very much in his vein though not with his heavy hand, or with his sense of pop showmanship. "You’ll see the bus, it’s an amazing thing to see, full of Carl Cox paraphernalia."

Hard to imagine a bus full of, say, David Morales paraphernalia, or Junior Jack, or even Danny Tenaglia; these veterans of house’s small, indoor, intimate origins give their hearts to fans, and maybe a loving hug, but rarely props. Not so Cox. He simply has too many fans to offer hugs to more than a tiny selection. And so the bus and the amazing things.

But also the music. "In Boston, I have to cram a lot of music into such a short time, it’s a crying shame! Now my beat has house music with a bit of punk and of soul. It takes time to cross the lines, but you should be able to do it. Take people to where they’ve never been before. If a DJ plays safe, he never gets anywhere." That’s standard DJ talk, but I sense genuine frustration. And the hurry, as he fast-forwards his program. "That Avalon show you saw me at? I could not believe! By the time I really got into my set, the house lights were on!!"

Carl Cox | Avalon, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston | Oct 21 | 617.262.2424.