Dave Ralph

There isn’t something in the water. Liverpool is Beatlerific and all, but name four world-class musicians other than the Fab Four to come out of the talent pool. Frankie Goes to Hollywood? Nice try. Atomic Kitten? Surely you jest. Melanie C from the Spice Girls? Stop, I’m going to pee my pants. But Sporty Spice is the fifth Beatle compared with Dave Ralph — at least outside the dance-music realm. But inside clubland, Ralph — a native Liverpudlian — stomps Mel C flat. The man has been spinning records for more than two decades. He mashed techno, house and trance during the British dance-music revolution of the early ’90s, served as resident DJ at Cream in Ibiza and provided tour support for the mighty Paul Oakenfold. Ralph has since left the shores of Blighty to set up shop stateside. But the new Massachusetts resident — Resident Alien, as his latest album clarifies — has done Liverpool proud with his own British invasion, dabbling in film scores and running his own label (Rfactor Recordings) and publishing company (Rfactor Music) when he isn’t on tour making speakers quake and asses shake. Maybe there is something in the water after all.