Azuli Amsterdam mixed by Franky Rizardo & Roul and Doors is out now:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/azuli-presents-amsterdam-11/id467993095

When Roul and Doors started DJing in 03/04, House was not as popular and commercial as it is today, especially in the town of Maastricht where they were studying. Self-confessed novices to the genre at this point, they were playing Disco and Hip-hop and other massive tracks of the time from artists including Michael Jackson, Kool and the Gang, Dr Dre and Fatman Scoop.

'We always arrived at parties with three huge wallets carrying 360 CDs each, we wanted to be ready for every moment', says Roul.

Considering the current domination the Dutch have over the house music scene, it’s interesting to look at the climate in these early days. 'It took a while house finally started to get a grip on the audience in the south of Holland', states Doors. '‘Put Your Hands Up For Detroit’ was a global number one and I remember we were playing it for months before it caught on'.

Roul and Doors owe much of their initial house music inspiration to DJs including Roog, Erick-E, Copyright and Erick Morillo and since, producers such as Studio Apartment, Rasmus Faber, SUMO, Hardsoul and Chocolate Puma to Seamus Haji, Bob Sinclar, Axwell, Gregor Salto, Eddie Thoneick and David Guetta have had a bearing.

The duo also cite non-house producers such as Timbaland, Dr. Dre, Neptunes, Mark Ronson, Calvin Harris, Will.I.Am, Quincy Jones and Red One (among others) as having a great influence on their production techniques and as a pianist, Roul draws great inspiration from Van Morrison, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong and The Crusaders.

'To pick our top 10 tracks of all time was near impossible task' says Doors!

Here, the boys have a pretty good go at it, in the form of a pretty fun mixtape.