EPISODE 45: dPen & Nick Varon – Grasshopper (Progrez)

dPen

Born in 1982 in Athens-Greece, Yannis was exposed in several music styles and scenes from an early age. This variety of music styles transmet him a strong passion for an inner quest to find the kind of music that would represent him and express his feelings.

Saxophone and Flute player, having a diploma in music production from Berklee College of music, Yannis started to produce electronic music under the name “dPen”.

Currently, dPen has finished 2 new remixes for Quivver, Anthony Pappa and Chris Fortier for Silence Through Music label, he is working a remix for Universal Music and his is preparing his new monthly web tv show about music productions tip n tricks and new software presentations as he is the first Greek producer and one of the few producers of the scene that has 4 (software / hardware instruments) companies to endorse him as an artist.

Nick Varon

In search of his musical world Nick passed through various styles such as jazz & rock. These two major influences quickly led him to piano & guitar lessons.

In the late 90″s when house music was huge in his hometown Athens, Greece, Nick found himself in a club that Danny Tenaglia was playing at… and that’s how all started. This night determined his musical path. Sexy, Deep, Dark House would be his guideline from there after. Through DJ-ing Nick saw the way to express and share his music instincts in the best possible way.

Currently Nick holds a monthly residency @ Venue Club in Athens, Greece. His weekly mix every Monday @ www.danceradioglobal.com is getting bigger week by week. Something that you can verify by watching Nick Warren’s opinion in the last Top 100 DJ poll where he chose Nick for the “most underestimated dj “on the planet & listen to some of Sharam comments such as “Nick gives a flow in his DJ sets close to perfection”.

The first three tracks in this release, inMotion Tech Take Remix, BrianBerg Remix and UM Remix are the result of a remix contest.

EPISODE 46: Fabio Scalabroni – Analog Flavor (Eyepatch Recordings)

Scalabroni is an electronic musician and DJ who performed under several names – such as Scalabroni, Cogor, Hologram, Ambit 3, Bit Bucket his works include both own tracks and remixes for others.

In 1997, together with Andrea Angelini and Davide DOnofrio he created a small and independent label named Syncretic that produced and released two records W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G. EP and Antiorario. Under his Cogor alias, he produced three tracks released by Syncretic Records.

In he 1998 took part in the production of a compilation released by the magazine Time Out among other artists such as Marco Passarani, Lory D. and other artists from the Italian electronic scene.
In 2001 he worked with the memorable Italian rap band Assalti Frontali in order to produce the remix album 12 Remix da un Altro Mondo (BMG Records). Scalabroni played with Angelini, DOnofrio and Micheli on one track, while remixed two tracks under the name Cogor.

Between 2003 and 2005 he performed under the name Hologram and worked on several compilations: Broken Pots Hill Vol.1 and Broken Pots Hill Vol.2 – Label: Minimalrome Spacelab Compilation Label: R.O.R. AutoCD Compilation Netlabel: Wavengine

In 2003, the project Ambit3 started and Scalabroni together with his partners of Syncretic Records produced one track for the compilation, Mission Three: Establishing Electronix Network, released by Nature Records. In the same year, Nature Records and NAT2122 produced Ambit3s first album with the title Enwrapped.

In the last few years, he played as DJ and performed live DJ sets in various clubs and festivals like Arezzo Wave, Distorsonie Festival, Transcodex Festival, Warp Magic Bus Tour, M.I.T. Auditorium roma, l-ektrica Akab Club, Electroma Festival, Blueroom RialtoSantambrogio Club, Enzimi 2006 Termini-Roma, Rashomon Club, Metaverso Club, …

In 2007, another Ambit3s work was released Five Tales EP on Nature Records.

In the same year, he performed as resident dj with artists like: Legowelt, Abe Duque, I-F, Passarani and more.

EPISODE 47: Jimmy Galle – Spiritual Love (Bonzai Basiks)

Jimmy is born on August 17th in Luik aka Liege in Belgium. As his parents were boatmen he had to attend boarding school from the age of 6 onwards. To overcome the loneliness of boarding school his parents bought him a walkman. That event literally plugged him into music!

He listened a lot to music via tapes and the radio and developed a preference for house music.

After a long period of nagging and begging his parents he finally got the best birthday present ever on his 15th birthday: a music mixer and double deck cd player. Every free second of his time went into his devotion to music.

2 years later Jimmy got the chance to prove himself at a cool club in Antwerp: Het Eilandje.

Success was immediate: he got his first residency!

Not long before he got interested in making his own music. With his savings Jimmy bought his first PC with a sound card and a Korg keyboard. After a few years he discovered his own sound and at the beginning of 2004 he released his first record: Jim-Y – Digital Trumpets. In the meantime he was working on a project with his best friend Ruly. Jimmy had finished a new demo for which he had the perfect voice in mind and boldly he sent it over under the project name R & Y to his favorite vocalist and singer. And guess what! Only 2 weeks later he got contacted by Jan Johnston. Jan had already written the lyrics and called for a date to do the recordings for this song, that is how R&Y Meets Jan Johnston – Its Cold Outside was born.

This single was released in 2007 with remixes from Filterheadz and Sied van Riel.

In 2008 Morning On The Terrace got released on the label Bonzai Fiesta.

At the end of 2008, Ruly decided to stop with the project, and that was when Jim-Y changed into Jimmy Galle. Jimmy’s sound was different as a solo dj/producer. After this period different productions and remixes from him appeared on different labels.

Jimmy has played and is still playing in many known Clubs and on many events such as: Noxx, La Rocca, Café D’ Anvers, Industria, Chakra Party, The Factory, Lazurra, Petrol, De Rodenburg (NL), TranccSession, Playboy Deluxe, De Cinema, Space, Wicked, BBC, De Kaai, Red & Blue, Turbulance….

EPISODE 48: Rob Small – Bad Wednesday (Piston Recordings)

Rob Small is fast becoming one of the most exciting talents to emerge from the UK’s House & Techno scene. His style of Synthetic Techno and ‘Proper’ House Music dj sets has seen him devastate clubs the world over.

Growing up in the early 90’s and listening to Electronic Music was the main influence on Rob, with House & Techno being at the forefront of his inspiration. No stranger to the scene – at just 19 years old, Rob started his own club night off in September 2006. This event (named ‘Friction’) was held at one of the UK’s most infamous and undergrounds nightclubs – ‘The Mint Club’. The event was not only a platform for Rob to develop his own skills, but was also to showcase the talents of the many artists & performers from the North of the UK, some of which have gone to perform alongside the likes of Sven Vath, Ricardo Villalobos, Jamie Anderson, Loco Dice to name a few.

As a result of this event, Rob was approached by the North of the UK’s Underground Electronic Music Magazine ‘Traffic’ to be interviewed and featured in it for his efforts in his career, thus paving the way for his next step. After publicly charting and supporting various home grown talent, Rob was asked to come on board the now worldwide supported ‘Breakoutaudio Records’ as the main A&R consultant. The label had achieved more in a mere 18 months than most have in a decade due to, at the time, having a string of successful releases from the likes of Paul Woolford (2020 Vision Records, R&S Records), Audiojack (2020 Vision Records, Get Physical), & Deepchild (Kompakt, Trapez Records) and hosting label parties across the world at the likes of ‘La Terrazza’ in Barcelona to the WMC in Miami.

This new-found passion for the industry triggered Rob’s enthusiasm for music production, and in January 2009 his Detroit Techno influenced ‘Torment EP’ was snapped up and released on Selektor Music – a USA based label hugely supported by the industries best. Subsequently Rob went on to have a string of releases on various imprints across the globe, from Poland to Portugal, and France to South America, all of which resulted in him catching the attention, support and recognition form the industries finest such as Luciano, Laurent Garnier, Robert Owens, Jamie Anderson, Claude Vonstroke, Manuel De La Mare (303 Lovers), X-Press 2, Yves Eaux (Global Dj & Producer on Sander Kleinenberg’s Little Mountain Records label), Roger Sanchez, Gary Beck (Minus), Jet Project (VIVa Music), Murray Richardson, Terry Francis (Fabric), AudioJack (2020 Vision), Slok (Get Physical), Harold Heath (Lost My Dog), Dj Simi (Sci+Tec), Henning Richter (Beef Records), Rob Pearson (Evasive Records/Plastic City), Lunacy Sound Division (Cubism), Matthias Vogt (Motorcitysoul/Cocoon), Nils Nurnburg (Dessous/Save Room Records), Carlo Lio (Rawthentic) & Demi to name a few.

His debut Deep-House release on ‘Soulman Music Records’ entitled ‘Alto’ went straight to number 5 on the Beatport Deep House top 10 chart – thus thrusting him into the public eye, this release being one of three to hit the top 100 of it’s genre on Beatport just day’s after it’s release. His releases have been played and supported heavily on the likes of ‘Ibiza Global Radio’, to ‘X – Press2’s Ministry Of Sound Radio’, to Roger Sanchez’s ‘Release Yourself’.

Rob has played in super-clubs around the world alongside both well established and Up & Coming talent – highlights of these experiences come in the form of two Ibiza tours, and UK touring dates alongside Sasha, Matthias Tanzmann, Robert Dietz, Damian Schwartz, Jamie Jones, amongst many others.

All this, along with an exciting Dj Schedule has resulted in Rob becoming a prolific producer and in demand artist, and has now made many collaborations and completed remix duties for world-renowned labels.

This single release comes with the original track “Bad Wednesday”, plus two remixes by Villa Gombao Inc. and Mute:.

EPISODE 49: Thorin – Night Groove (Bonzai Progressive)

Thorin born on 7 October 1977 in Goirle, a small village near Tilburg. He didn’t stay there for long. At the age of 1 year he moved to Almelo which is a medium city in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Thorin grew up in a musical family, uncles who play guitar, Drums and many other instruments, aunts who sing lets say it’s all in the family.Almost everyone in the family is doing something with music.His father played in several bands some with guitar and others with percussion.

At a young age thorin got connected with music, influences from bands like Deep Purple, the Doors, Pink Floyd. Thorins taste of music is very wide from soul to funky stuff to modern music.In 1992, some friends introduced Thorin into house music nowadays so called oldskool house. While partying a lot Thorin got interested in DJ’ing. He bought some turntables and started to learn mixing 12″ records. After 6 months he controlled dj basics. Buying records and records and getting more DJ skills. He also got interested in producing his own music, lucky for him he got in contact with an old friend from his father. That friend started with producing in the early 80’s. Maurice learned Thorin the basics of Producing, Maurice already had released some music on different labels and did some things together with Sander Kleinenberg in the early 90’s. He was also Sander K’s first Sound/Audio engineer. In 1996 Thorin switched from the hardcore house scene to nice and chill Progressive House music. In 2003 Thorin and Maurice started producing together and while doing some social projects they had to start some kind of Production Company. So in 2006 the Promusic Foundation started. 2 cds released in 6 months working on a third, “stichting Promusic” got more projects and work then expected. With that reason Thorin decided to take a break with DJ’ing and focus more on Promusic.

Now in 2007 Thorin picked up DJ’ing again and started focus more on his own style of producing. Thorin bought a house and started investing more in a new studio. With a stable home base we can expect a lot in 2007.

2008, Thorin decided to stop buying vinyl and switch to digital mixing. He updated his home studio bought some new equipment and switched over to Traktor scratch with the time coded vinyl. Meanwhile several tracks got signed and released at different labels around the globe including: Reticent Recordings USA, Bit Records Mexico and Bellarine Records Australia. Thorin is working on some remix projects together with some friends in the States (Zodiacal Light, And3rsun and Dax Wadley) which will be 2 EP’s.

EPISODE 50: Ecco – Red Wall (Mint & Mustard Recordings)

At 14 Ecco discovered Electronic Music with the New Beat and the belgian clubs. He developed an ever-growing passion for this music until age 20 when he decided to buy his turntables and mix-table. He is interested in different styles such as techno, Tech House, Minimal and House music.

Very soon he had the opportunity to play abroad (Thailand, Ibiza, …) and in Belgium (Silo, Decadance, Cherry Moon, Fuse, …).

2004-2005 sees the organization of events such as United-Elektro parties, Kiss my Beat or Acid or Not parties.

Since 2008 he makes his own music and starts his net label (KMB REC)..