Nick Curly began his career at the tender of age 15 when he became the resident DJ at the legendary Vibration Club in the Karlsruhe region of Germany. Ten years later and he is now the resident DJ at the Loft Club in Ludwigshafen, as well as at the Soho Club in Mannheim,
A regular at clubs around Germany for much of the past decade, Nick is now becoming a sought after DJ in other European territories.
"Cool" uncles have always gotten kids into all kinds of wonderful mischief, but 22-year-old Peter O'Grady from London , better known as Joy Orbison, was especially blessed—he credits uncle Ray Keith with introducing him to jungle and U.K. garage long before he could ever hit the clubs. At the age of 13 he took up DJing and eventually moved into production, beginning with Fruity Loops-crafted 8-bar grime loops before shifting into headier territory that combined his love of house, disco, and dubstep with the atmospheric fuzz of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Josef K, and The Beach Boys.
Alan Abrahams AKA Portable AKA Bodycode has been in motion his whole life—growing up in South Africa, coming of age in London, decamping to Berlin and finally settling in Lisbon—and his deeply syncopated brand of electronic dance music has evolved with every step of the journey. His formative years were spent in an impoverished Cape Town township ironically tagged “Beverly Hills”, and to the backbeat of the first wave of Chicago house records he emerged out of the ruins of a post-apartheid South Africa. Inspired musically, yet frustrated geographically, he relocated to London in 1997.
One of Detroit's best kept secrets, Rick Wade has been producing late night tracks and tapping into the essence of deepness since the '90's. Known for their universal appeal and appearing on over 20 different labels worldwide, soulful, timeless grooves are his signature. Growing up in Buchanan MI, 1 hour outside of Chicago he was influenced by Chicago radio station WBMX and the Salsoul material and local stations that played the likes of Al Green and Isaac Hayes. Rick remembers:
Moodymann is the moniker under which Kenny Dixon Jr produces and DJs. He is a techno/house musician based in Detroit. He has created a thoroughly hybrid form of techno/house dance music via his innovative use of reworked riffs, samples and grooves taken from that city's historically influential jazz, soul, funk and disco scene. Some call it cut-up Detroit house. He offers a friendly wink backwards at the innovative early 1990s rave scene musicians through his extensive use of old movie sound track samples, mainly culled from the old blaxploitation and b-movie genres.
The Revenge is part of the Five20East squad. Productions include re-edits, house, hip-hop and techno. He has worked with several other producers over the years including Sub Club's Harri, who he records under the Mothership Inc moniker with. Other productions include work for 6th Borough Project, OOFT Music, Deportivo Street Team, Cronk Family Enterprises and more.
Citing names as varied as Theo Parrish, Dorothy Ashby and Stravinsky as major influences on his work, it is not hard to see that he has musical knowledge way beyond his (22) years, and having been an accomplished pianist since the age of 16 - he is a true musician. The variety in influences is mirrored in the diversity of his productions - one week it’s broken, the next a string quartet and sometimes just straight up gritty beats.
DJ Garth is a pioneering House music DJ who is largely credited with both defining and capturing the sound of San Francisco house music in the late 1990s. As a recording artist, his production is featured on several San Francisco club anthems such as "Twenty Minutes of Disco Glory". He co-founded the Wicked Sound system and established a series of memorable underground parties which were important in putting San Francisco on the club/rave map.
Danilo Plessow is a hard man to pigeonhole. Since 2003, he's been producing broken beat and jazzier material with Joachim Tobias under the Inverse Cinematics banner. Their debut full-length Passin' Through was released this year, but there's another reason why people have been talking about Plessow in 2008. He's the man that's responsible for the Motor City Drum Ensemble project, producing music which seems to encapsulate the spirit of Detroit despite being made in Stuttgart - a place that - next to Wolfsburg - is considered Germany's own 'motor city'.