A couple of years ago Brian Transeau, Ali and Sharam of Deep Dish, and Lieven and Kurosh of DC label Music Now were sitting round a table at the Miami Winter Music Conference, joking about the potential of Washington DC as a major center of dance music. “We’re really going to put DC on the map,” they declared.

Back then, everybody just laughed and ordered another round of drinks. The idea of DC having a significant role in the dance world seemed highly implausible. But now, things are a little different. BT and Deep Dish are practically pop stars in Europe, gracing magazine covers and having the security of multi-album deals with major labels. Their songs reach the upper levels of the British charts (Deep Dish’s remix of Delacey’s “Hideaway reached no one), joining other DC folk like Victor Imbres and Jean-Philippe Aviance of Alcatraz (whose “Giv Me Luv” was a huge dance hit worldwide). Along with the solid remixing careers of local garage team 95 North, and of the Baltimore-based Basement Boys, and the rise of local DJs like Scott Henry and Scott and Robbie of Hardkiss, as well as other DC names to watch like John Selway, the city is finally making a name for itself. Right now Brian Transeau is even working with such major league AOR talent as Tori Amos (also, coincidentally, from the DC area—she went to Brian’s rival high school). The city is suddenly hip. Dance mags in Europe are talking about a DC scene, a DC sound even. It may have been only a joke two years ago, but now the capital is firmly on the map.

“There are so many American cities which people expect music to come out of: Chicago, Detroit, New York. But until now DC has been completely overlooked.” Aden Ikram of Smile, originally a native of DC, expresses a strong pride in the music of his hometown, and believes that the success currently enjoyed by acts like Deep Dish, Alcatraz and BT is far from a coincidence. “It’s shocking that so much talent’s coming out of there,” he says. “But it’s not just an accident. The guys at the head of the scene in DC are very smart. They’ve all really worked to build something.”

First out of the gate were Deep Dish, the Iranian-born duo of Ali “Dubfire” Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi. Their intricate, slow-building deep house, with its elaborate industrial force percussion and complex melodies found legions of fans worldwide, first on their own Deep Dish label, then on various Tribal releases (including two excellent compilation albums), and now on the UK’s DeConstruction imprint, with which they have recently signed a three-album deal. The fruits of this, their “Junk Science” LP, should be released very soon, with a first single dropping in August, and the second, with vocals by Lem Springsteen, soon after (look out also for remixes for the Pet Shop Boys and a follow-up Delacey single).

A subsidiary label, Yoshitoshi, allowed Ali and Sharam to release tracks by their friends and collaborators, and it was here that Victor Imbres and Jean-Philippe Aviance, as Alcatraz, released the splintering hard-house of “Giv Me Luv.” Jean-Philippe had been DJing around DC for a long time, and Victor, coming originally from a hardcore breakbeat background and known for his frenzied non-sleeping working schedule, was engineer for most of the early Deep Dish tracks. Apart from their Alcatraz project, Jean-Philippe records as XS (with a number of releases on Yoshitoshi), and is currently indulging his love of nu energy with a series of tracks for Music Now. Victor is currently working on tracks for his new label, Loop, to be launched presently.

Alongside Deep Dish the other important label in the story is Music Now, known for a far more trancey sound. Lieven De Geyndt, a Belgian who had been DJing techno at some of the area’s early raves, started Music Now in 1992. Originally a record store, it blossomed into a label in ’93. Lieven was always firm about his musical philosophy. “I wanted to create a label that couldn’t be pigeonholed into one type of sound,” he says. “Even if sales weren’t that great I wanted a label with a history that was worth something.”

It was on Music Now that Brian Transeau rose to fame, his single “Embracing the Sunshine,” coming to the attention of UK kingpin DJ Sasha and pushing him into the forefront of the UK’s frenzied dance scene. A classically-trained musician, Brian’s music spans a wide variety of styles and influences, though it is for his anthemic housey trance that he is known. Brian hit pay dirt as the UK’s flavor of the month after his friendship with Sasha led to him signing with Paul Oakenfold’s Time-Warner-backed Perfecto label (which will shortly be licensed in its entirety by New York’s Reprise offshoot Kinetic Records), though his debut LP for Perfecto was in fact composed entirely of material he had cut for Music Now.

Currently, BT is deep in collaboration with Tori Amos, and as well as having her sing on a track “Divinity” on Brian’s album (which he is currently remixing), he will probably produce several tracks on her next LP. In the meantime he’s putting together his next album, on which he promises an abundance of “sounds you’ve never heard before.” Explaining in a little more detail, the effusive Transeau talks of “Incredible performances by real musicians manipulated out of all recognition: loads of guitars morphed with a 303 line.” In addition, BT is putting together his own as yet unnamed label, on which he promises a series of bands that have “absolutely nothing to do with house music.”

With all these successes, there’s no doubt that DC-based artists are currently making a name for themselves, but what inspired this barrage of creativity? Musically, DC is known for two things: go-go and hardcore punk. The go-go scene is an intensely localized phenomenon, and apart from a few bands (eg Trouble Funk, Chuck Brown and The Soul Searchers), and as a minor inspiration to early hip-hop, never had much influence outside the city. On the other hand, the city’s punk scene is known worldwide. It was in DC that the seminal American group Minor Threat (who later mutated into Fugazi) was formed, and it was here that a young Henry Rollins and his group Black Flag began. Dischord, Minor Threat’s label became the cornerstone of the hardcore punk movement (like Sub Pop did for grunge).

This musical heritage hardly points the way to the city’s current explosion of dance music. Unlike Detroit or New York, it’s hard to see how DC’s past is influencing its present musical output. However, Ali of Deep Dish believes that the punk movement was an important inspiration. “The work ethic that those groups had really rubbed off on me,” he says. “Their refusal to sign with major labels, the emphasis on doing things yourself, a reliance on your own efforts, all that was very important to Deep Dish.”

Perhaps also it was the lack of a strong dance tradition which allowed the current scene to flourish. This is an idea Lieven definitely supports “It’s true,” he says. “There are no idols here: no Knuckles, Morales, Vasquez to follow in the steps of, so people here aren’t trying to imitate anyone.” Without the shadow of an overbearing tradition to follow, people in DC had a clean slate to work on. They were free to try anything they wanted.

BT is adamant that this is the case. “Not only has the city played no part whatsoever, but it’s ignored everything we’ve been doing,” he insists. He points out in fact that most of the artists in question are from a small rural area at least 40 minutes from downtown, and declares emphatically, “There is no scene in DC.” He recalls a club called Exodus which was an important inspiration to him and Ali for its musical eclecticism but refuses to acknowledge much of what is around today.

So is there a DC sound, or is this the invention of journalists eager to tie a few things together? “I think there’s a DC scene but not a DC sound,” argues Ali. “It’s just different producers with their different interpretations of dance music.”

“If there is such a thing as a DC sound it’s because we’ve all worked together,” suggests BT, emphasizing the fact that all of the current DC breakouts have shared studio time with each other. “There’s a real community feeling among the people who are making music here—but we definitely bring different things to the pot.”

“It’s inevitable if you’re in the studio with other people you’re bound to be influenced,” admits Sharam. “But everyone has their own vision.”

Lieven offers his own explanation as to how the DC sound came about. “The first few songs out of DC to catch people’s attention were definitely experimental, and as it caught on, we stuck with that. All the songs comong out on Music Now and Deep Dish were pushing the edge. People were fed up with the Miami sound, the New York sound, the Detroit sound. So we were just putting out stuff that was different. If that meant that there’s now a DC sound then so be it.”

In a move which cements the success they are enjoying, the Music Now and Deep Dish labels are collaborating on a joint venture to build a studio and office complex for themselves. They are also pushing forward with plans for a joint CD of DC talent. Entitled “DC:CD”, this should surface around late summer. And now that everyone in the scene is reaping the credit they deserve, the ugly specter of rivalries and professional bitterness, which was a much-emphasized sub-plot to the DC story, looks like being finally submerged.

And in this new atmosphere of friendliness and co-operation, the city of Washington DC looks like continuing its vibrant productivity, perhaps even joining New York, Chicago and Detroit in the list of American dance cities. “The best way to prove everybody wrong is to have some hits,” smiles Ali, happy to have confounded the skeptics. “Success is the best revenge.”