Robert Racic (8 January 196425 October 1996) was an Australian DJ and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. He was influential within the local

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

and

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

circles, but was less well known internationally. Racic produced several top 10 ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' dance hits including

Volition Records Volition Records was a Sydney, Australia-based record label specialising in electronic music styles such as house, techno, synthpop, and trance. It was founded by Andrew Penhallow and was active from 1984 to around 1997. Andrew Penhallow fou ...

' artists

Severed Heads Severed Heads were an Australian electronic music group founded in 1979 in music, 1979 as Mr and Mrs No Smoking Sign. The original members were Richard Fielding and Andrew Wright, who were soon joined by Tom Ellard. Fielding and Wright had both ...

' "Greater Reward" and

Boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...

's "Freemason", "Insect" and "Gas Stop". He died in 1996, aged 32, of a brain virus,

JC virus Human polyomavirus 2, commonly referred to as the JC virus or John Cunningham virus, is a type of human polyomavirus. It was identified by electron microscopy in 1965 by ZuRhein and Chou, and by Silverman and Rubinstein. It was later isolated in ...

, which caused

progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is a rare and often fatal viral disease characterized by progressive damage (''-pathy'') or inflammation of the white matter (''leuko-'') of the brain (''-encephalo-'') at multiple locations (''mu ...

Biography

Robert Racic was born on 8 January 1964 and grew up in Melbourne. At the age of 18 he began working as a clerk at Waltons menswear store in Sydney. Soon after he was a DJ at the 45 Club, Kings Cross, on weekends and followed with other harbour city venues. He imported "New York garage and Chicago house records and as such became widely-regarded as 'benevolent godfather' to the nebulous Australian dance music scene." In 1987 he recalled how he started remixing, "I got tired of the way some 12-inchers present themselves... I wanted to make them more exciting... so I bought myself a reel-to-reel recorder, sat down and started to edit". One of his first remixes was of

Nona Hendryx Nona Bernis Hendryx (born October 9, 1944) is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, and author. Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Ma ...

' "I Want You" from ''The Art of Defense'' (1984), which was played on 2 JJJ radio by Tim Ritchie. In 1986 Racic started working with experimental music group,

, he collaborated with their founder,

Tom Ellard Thomas Temple Ellard (born 1962) is an Australian electronic musician best known as the founding member of the electronic and industrial music group Severed Heads. Early life Ellard's first music contributions began in the late 1970s as a tee ...

, on their sixth album, ''

Come Visit The Big Bigot ''Come Visit the Big Bigot'' (''The Big Bigot'' on the Ink and Volition LP releases) is the sixth full length studio album by Australian experimental group Severed Heads, released in 1986. The tracks "Twenty Deadly Diseases" and "Propellor" wer ...

'' (September 1986). Racic "would remix selected tracks for the dance floor market." In May of the following year he edited and mixed tracks for the group's seventh album, '' Bad Mood Guy'' (October 1987). Racic co-produced "Thief" (July 1988), a single, by

Rockmelons Rockmelons, often referred to as the Rockies, were an Australian pop/dance/ R&B group formed in 1983 in Sydney. Primary members are Bryon Jones, his brother Jonathon Jones and Raymond Medhurst. They had two Australian top five hit singles in t ...

with the band's members Bryon Jones, his brother Jonathon Jones, and Raymond Medhurst (see ''

Tales of the City ''Tales of the City'' is a series of ten novels written by American author Armistead Maupin from 1978 to 2024, depicting the life of a group of friends in San Francisco, many of whom are LGBTQ. The stories from ''Tales'' were originally seri ...

'').

References

External links

*
"Biographical cuttings on Robert Racic, disc jockey and dance music producer, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Racic, Robert 1964 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Australian musicians Australian electronic musicians Australian record producers Australian club DJs Australian electronic dance music DJs