Khalwinder Singh Ajji who we knew as Joe ‘Da Earthquaker’ Ajji 1974- 2011
Joe Ajji, known as ‘Da Earthquaker’ on the Talk Audio forum boards, simply didn’t wake up last Friday, 29th July 2011. I had called his mobile, blithered my usual silly singsong, ‘Hi Joe, Whaddaya Know? It’s the Fat Man’ greeting, only to have had his brother answer it and tell me the horrible, confusing and distressing news that he had died in his sleep that morning. At this early stage, we have simply no idea as to cause.
There are as many kinds of audio fanatics as there are motoring ones. From the refined to the raucous in each case. And Joe was an incandescent happy audio enthusiast, glowing from within with far greater depth, knowledge, expertise and passion for all of sound than anyone I else I know. And very few I think knew quite how wide his tastes went, or how deep, as he tended to show only the Sound Pressure Level, or ‘˜Boom’ side to his passion in public. It wasn’t any secret, he just liked the HiFi stuff for home and the boom for driving and fun.
Below, left to right: Darren Millard (boss UK dB Drag), Joe Da Earthquaker Ajii, Mark Smith, Mike Organ (Guru)
Joe’s chirpy presence at so many SPL contests across pretty much every discipline, was a given. Always in and out of his mate’s cars and always grinning, chatting and ferreting away at the issue of ever yet bloody louder, deeper and more insane levels of bass in his own and his chum’s systems. He was the UK importer of the Earthquake Sound brand of high end American car electronics and audio as well as running a successful computer business, KSA Digital Solutions. Earthquake is a brand I was involved with when working in the trade as an importer myself and I know that Joe had a good relationship with the owners in San Francisco, who I know too. So he had access to some stonking kit and was in the middle of yet one louder build in his own familiar Mercedes estate. I saw it ‘˜in progress’ the day I went to get the news of Earthquake becoming a Talk Audio Site Associate brand. I left my wife shopping in Bluewater with her mate and posted a ‘This Week’ blog from Joe’s computer out the back of his I.T. shop in Kent. The workshop will take some clearing, as it is heaped in interesting stuff, including a rare mother lode of sick and ill quarter inch Revox tape reel-to-reel analogue recorders.
Have you seen Pulp Fiction? If so, you will recall Uma Thurman dancing to Son of a Preacher Man after flicking one such machine to ‘˜play’ in the segment where she plays Mrs. Mia Wallace, the gangster’s moll. It was Quentin Tarantino’s homage to the acknowledged best possible, highest fidelity analogue audio source that exists. I saw these and Joe told me all about how he loved them and loved fixing them in rare spare time moments. I told him how glad I was that these machines would not now go into the darkness, broken..
He insisted I come to his house and listen to his system, with fabulous Titan speakers with tube tweeters on the top and his own minty reel-to-reel machine, lined up perfectly, of course. We sat and checked the quality of the Titans and I was impressed. But they were ‘˜normal’ performance compared to HiFi of the absolute eccentric I went to visit with him in Windsor. Joe said I was the only person he knew who would truly appreciate the depth of this bloke’s HiFi obsession and enjoy his £140,000 stereo system and beyond-exotic loudspeakers. He had been waiting ages to go visit and just knew I would ‘˜get’ the whole thing.
Always grinning
The chap we went to see was intense and a little odd. In truth, I think he was once of those you often find in HiFi and high end computing alike. Massive intellect, profound knowledge and utterly obsessed. And maybe slightly Asperger’s. He wasn’t brilliant at the social interacting bit. He got my name wrong and called me ‘˜Dave’ and yet he was on a mad roll, telling me all about his approach to HiFi, talking at thrice the speed I do (!) and delighted that I was doing a brilliant impersonation of keeping up with him. But Joe did tell him, that it was Adam, not ‘˜Dave’ quite clearly. Yet, like Trigger in Only Fools & Horses he kind of ignored that and just carried on calling me ‘˜Dave’. He also used the word ‘˜incite’ (as in to encourage a riot or murder) when he meant ‘˜excite’ which was all about Materials Science and the panels of speakers wobbling and how his behemothic enclosures had fourteen laminated layers.
It was mine and Joe’s private joke that when talking about HiFi, he’d call me Dave.
But Joe’s love of the Bass was as deep to the bones as anyone’s and as a result, the shock and misery of his sudden passing is reverberating through the bass head community like a 25Hz pressure wave. I know he was proper loved by so very many folks he came to meet as he was so resolutely sunny and cheerful and exuded a warmth that will be missed desperately. He was a lovely bloke, a diamond geezer and funny too. If there was a group of bassheads giggling, it’d often be Joe in the middle, infectious humour in full contagion.
And now he’s gone from our midst, thieved away from us far too young. According to Sikh culture, his soul will be born again in another body, human or animal and I’d like to think of him as a Blue Whale, floating around the planet and issuing great basso bellows into the ocean of 180dB at 16Hz while calling his mates. But Sikhs also believe the human life is supreme and that the next life depends on the deeds of the past. On that basis alone, I worry not, for the other souls he touched were all warmed by his light.
I’m gonna miss the little guy something chronic.