Carl Craig
Carl Craig is described as a creative visionary, an electronic music icon, an esteemed Grammy-nominated composer, a world-class DJ and an ambassador for his native Detroit. Yet the common thread that runs through Craig's broad musical canon and creative projects is a resounding fascination with futurism. The 41-year old producer has cultivated a unique path as an artist, entrepreneur and civic leader, guided by his tendency toward forward thinking.
Looking back now to Craig's early releases from 1989-1992, one can see how much the wild variety found in his early music set the groundwork for his diverse career. He's fortunate to serve as an inspiration and influence to countless artists in the underground electronic music scene as well as crossover acts like Underworld, Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem. His 1992 Innerzone Orchestra cut "Bug in the Bassbin" was credited as the spark that inspired the evolution of drum‘n'bass. In typical Craig fashion, "Bug..." continued to develop, morphing into a live jazz composition in 1996. In turn, those experiments laid the ground for Craig to incorporate Jazz elements onto his 1999 I.O. album "Programmed."
Paul Kalkbrenner
Even though reality shows have been trying to prove otherwise, a successful career as a musician, even as a pop star, cannot be forced with a pre-packaged crash course. As of 2010, Paul Kalkbrenner has tallied up more than 15 years of experience as a producer and live act, all the while learning what it means to go purposefully from one step to the next. When the Berlin Wall fell, he was 12. The soundtrack of his youth, and of the majority of his generation, was still in its infancy, awaiting its breakthrough: techno music. The fall of the wall meant reunification, but above all, a sense of no holds barred. The eastern part of the city became the anarchic, creative playground for a euphoric youth, now freed from bureaucracy.
The early 90s were formative years for a young Paul Kalkbrenner as well. Eventually, in one of many long and sleepless nights on the dancefloors of E-Werk, Planet and Whale, the dream was born to make music himself, and anything less important would be put aside. A job as TV editor got him through the mid-90s and financed his first music gear.
Dubfire
Growing up in the Washington, DC area, Dubfire spent much of his youth playing the guitar in school bands and listening to heavy doses of classic Hip-Hop, jazz/rare groove, dub reggae, new wave and industrial. Dubfire was also influenced by the local punk scene and the music of hometown bands like Fugazi and Minor Threat. Members of these bands also worked at a local record store called Yesterday And Today Records, and this is where Dubfire first picked up on the sounds of acts such as Kraftwerk, Ministry, Jesus & Mary Chain, Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound and Einsturzende Neubauten. Through this heavy industrial influence, namely the sound of Chicago’s famed Wax Trax! label, Dubfire discovered the Chicago house scene and what labels like Trax and D.J. International Records were releasing.
Dubfire's eclectic new mix is the product of his diverse past and addictive music personality, and this mix is more about Dubfire personally and as a DJ Dubfire's mix was compiled with tracks that he's both really into at the moment and that have also had a profound influence on shaping his love for music.
Soul Clap
Elyte and Cnyce's paths were crossed for all time when a Sun Ra light beam sent from Saturn collided with the P-Funk Mothership and sent them tumbling to earth.
By harnessing the past Soul Clap looks to the future, with forward thinking productions, remixes and edits, creative DJ sets and some of the USA's best dance music events. With the city of Boston firmly in their grasp they organize the highly praised Dancing On The Charles and, and every Wednesday they host Midweek Techno, the area's longest running techno night.
Soul Clap's training goes beyond history lessons to mastering all the elements of the DJ and producer: knowledge, mixing, programming, performance and experience. They honed their knowledge by teaching a university course about dance music at Tufts University. Soul Clap themselves learned that "house wears many hats" and were instilled with the sounds of New York, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia while fostering an addiction to crate-digging, that has become a worldwide quest to acquire the best music.
Fatboy Slim
It's the late nineties. DJs are the new rock stars and Fatboy Slim's unique musical blend of vaudeville and vodka has the sweat dripping from the ceiling of Brighton's infamous Boutique. A grinning Fatboy Slim drops the needle on 'Santa Cruz', the record that had kick started the acclaimed Skint record label, and takes a bow before the crowd. The drumfest of the big beat revolution is in full swing and he is most definitely leading from the front.
Fast forward ten years and Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook) has successfully helped take dance music from the clubs, into the living room and to the top of the charts – earning him a unique place in the nation's heart along the way. Across four acclaimed albums – 'Better Living Through Chemistry', 'You've Come A Long Way Baby', 'Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars' and 'Palookaville'. Recently Norman released his Greatest Hits.
Ben Klock
Berlin born DJ, producer and label owner Ben Klock is without a doubt one of the most significant characters in techno's recent history. A resident at Berghain since its opening in 2004, he has been able to leave his mark on the club's unique sound, in turn the special space influenced Klock’s approach as a DJ and producer as well.
His music is free of crippling nostalgia and rather wins you over with consistency, tension, and dynamics and time and time again with a sensibility, one would usually expect from house music. In this vein, Klock pursues an unexacting fusion of quantum jumps and tradition – including effortless melodies or hook lines. Being able to harmonize this method of industrial austerity, natural musicality and an impressive physicality is Ben Klock’s great art and skill.
Marcel Dettmann
Ruff, rugged and raw. Mentioning Marcel Dettmann as well as his feeling for and vision of electronic music, his way of dealing with it, is impossible without these attributes. Whether you take his DJ sets (Marcel has been made a resident DJ at the old Ostgut and also at Berghain from the very start), Dettmann’s productions for the self-conducted MDR label, his remixes for the likes of Fever Ray, Junior Boys, Modeselektor as well as Scuba, or if nothing else his debut long player for Ostgut Ton into account, all the various contrasts and distinctions that come with it are manifested in these qualities.
Techno as Marcel Dettmann defines it, is neither a movement without history nor wistful nostalgia. In the hands of the Berliner, the well-known game of hi-hats, bass lines and kick drums draws its tension and momentum from a historically grown tradition and the conscious decision to break the rules.
Three
Currently residing in New York City, Three has been tirelessly holding the flag for underground electronic music in the US since his rise out of the sunny state of Florida in the early 90’s. In that time, he’s emerged as one of the brightest DJ talents in the US and continues to be a true inspiration for many of us. Three’s tour dates show both diversity in audience and a genre-bending passion for good music; he’s held residencies at NYC's Twilo, Cielo (Robots) and Love, as well as Florida’s legendary Simon’s while playing lauded guest spots at San Francisco’s Wicked party, Fabric (UK), Panorama Bar (Berlin), Blk Market Membership (NYC) and forward thinking events like Japan’s Labyrinth Festival and Australia's Rainbow Serpent.
Armed with a sound that borrows equally from vintage acid-house, techno and underground electronica, his Hallucination Limited imprint is held in the highest regard. On April 1st 2009 this hard to find vinyl-only imprint started unveiling previously vinyl-only releases digitally for the first time exclusively with Beatport. The first release was Three’s label mix compilation "Hallucienda" in both mixed and unmixed formats. 'Hallucienda' captures both the eclecticism of Three’s DJ sets and the label’s musical output.
Shlomi Aber
Recognized as one of the main techno pioneers and influential artists of the recent time, Shlomi has the kind of impact usually reserved for inbound meteors, the reason for which is buried in a ground swell of genre-defying appreciation and support. a comment taken from a recent "Radio 1" interview provides a probable insight as to why his productions are hitting such a broad mark, "No matter if it's hard or soft, it just needs to touch your mind, body and soul at the same time. That's what I call a 'Good Record'."
This personal approach, married with 12 years production experience that takes influence from jazz, funk, minimal, acid and, in particular the old school Detroit techno movement, lead by revolutionaries as derrick may and Juan Atkins. Means he now boasts some of the world's most prestigious labels on his ever-expanding CV: Cocoon, Ovum and Renaissance to name but a few. Tracks such as Sea Of Sand, After Love and Tel Aviv Garden have become engraved on Top 10 bestseller lists for 2006, whilst his release "Crop Duster" has already been described by every aspects as '...a classy piece of Underground fodder...,' not to mention his worldwide funky techno anthem with Ovum Recordings, "Freakside," which became his trademark.
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