EPISODE 59: Manu Riga – The Nighttime – Sovve Remix (Bonzai Progressive)

Manu Riga was formed in 2004 by Adriaan Baussens and Sven van Hove.Soon they released their first vinyl on Okina Music.Good feeling and a remix by Drkucho was hitting the belgium dance charts on the 22th spot in 2005. Sadly distribution wasn’t catching up with the demand.After this dissapointment Manu Riga didn’t really felt home. Creativity had no freedom.
After a break of two years, Sven & Adriaan gave Manu Riga a second chance but this time they promised they only would follow their heart and do what they like to do.
After sending the 2005 track Tai chi girl to Bonzai Musicthey found that home.Bonzai appreciated and loved the different approach of Manu Riga.Manu Riga signed an artist deal with Bonzai Music in 2010
a remix for Quadran and George V followed soon.
Time in Between is the first which is typical for their style .Progressive with a touch of Tribal and emotional synth
Bonzai progressive means coming home for Manu Riga.

EPISODE 60: A. Mochi – Dao (Bonzai Basiks)

A.Mochi is one of the most prolific producers, Live performers and DJs in Tokyo’s rich Techno scene. As a producer he released his music with labels like Len Faki’s Figure, Luke Slater’s Mote-Evolver or Francois K’s WaveTec. Initially Rock music captured his attentions as a younger man, however, the impact of the heavy, fat bass and beats of electro music changed his musical life forever, which became the basis of his career today. It was the continuous groove consisting of inorganic and dark electronic sounds that drove him further… obsessed and completely absorbed.

Gradually with the use of computer, his interest and skills in production grew. Simultaneously, his performance as a Live act and DJ at Maniac Love (which is known as one of the legendary clubs in Tokyo) kicked off which made the dance-floor erupt, people started to notice the great talent he was offering. Since then he has been booked as a guest artist at world-renowned clubs in Tokyo.

In 2007, after releases on labels like ‘Highland’, ‘Hardsignal’ and ‘Tremors’ gathered him some respect, he signed a release with ‘Mote-Evolver’ owned by the UK’s legendary techno pioneer Luke Slater. In 2008 he released two 12 inches for the ‘Kumo’ label, which also features artists such as Alex Bau from ‘DBH-Music’ in their core roster. Furthermore he brings out ‘Orion EP’ for the label ‘WaveTec’ owned by it’s founder, the legendary house music DJ and purveyor of the the deep space, Francois K. In October of that year, ‘Battery EP’ which was released on Figure, the label owned by resident of one of the world’s most famous clubs (Berlin’s Berghain / Panoramabar), Len Faki. In 2009, his work as a Remixer of Shin Nishimura in May for the label ‘SCI+TEC Digital Audio’, the label of Dubfire aka Deep Dish. Figure which was released on ‘Figure19/Black Out EP’ turned into massive club hits in that year. 2009 will see a further release, his work as a Remixer of Len Faki’s ‘Death By House’ in Septemer for the label ‘Cocoon Recordings’, the label of Sven Vath.

His trademark intense bass energy and sub-sonic trickery profound work, finds wide acceptance by popular artists like Len Faki,Luke Slater,Francois K.,Richie Hawtin,Adam Beyer,Dubfire,Mauro Picotto,Slam,Rejected,Chris Liebing,Dave Clarke,Len Faki,Deetron,Speedy J,Paul Van Dyk,Anja Schneider,Mark Broom,Alex Bau,Brendon Moeller,Jerome Sydenham,Josh Wink,Joel Mull,Samuel L Session,Julian Jeweil,TomCraft,Umek,Felix Krocher and more. As a producer and artist, A.Mochi will certainly bring even more sophisticated, powerful music to his audience in the years to come.

EPISODE 61: Citizen 42 – Castle (Bonzai Progressive)

Citizen 42 is the Techno and House alias of Andy MacDougall aka Andy Tau.

Over the last few years Andy has been releasing trance and progressive under the pseudonym Andy Tau and Trilucid, with regular support from top DJ’s and a string of succesful releases on several high profile labels, as well as tracks featuring on Trance Nation mixed by Andy Moor, Gatecrasher Anthems mixed by Paul van Dyk, Trancemaster 7001 and many more.

As well as his involvement in trance Andy is also an accomplished house and techno producer releasing music as Citizen 42, with several tracks lined up for release throughout 2010 and 2011.

In this release for Bonzai Progressive he offers us two original tracks, In Focus and Castle.

EPISODE 62: Jamez – Spring (Eyepatch Recordings)

Dutch producer Jamez has had a hand in more good records than most of us have had hot dinners. Apart from the by-no-means trifling matter of co-producing house record – 51 Days’ ‘Paper Moon’ – he’s also been at the birth of the Trancesetters, the splendidly-named Tata Box Inhibitors, P.I.M.P., Loophole, Amfibian, Mindfunk and an ever-expanding list of inventively-spelt production credits. You’d wonder, looking at the fellow’s discography, whether he ever got any kip (we’ve been assured by his family that he does).

Jamez, for those that haven’t been paying attention, was part of a Dutch triumvirate – the other two being Dobre and DJ Zki – that helped transform European house music in the early 90s. Working closely with Dutch outfit Touché Records, they produced a series of consistently great singles of wildly differing styles ranging from the jazzy (Jamshed), deep (51 Days) and the acclaimed harder style of Tata Box Inhibitors and Trancesetters. While most UK DJ’s looked to the US for new records, oddly, lots of American DJs – Danny Tenaglia being a particular fan – championed this new European style (Underworld’s Darren Emerson was also an early supporter of Touché’s releases).

Like many a young European, Jamez was turned on to dance music via the burgeoning rap scene of the eighties, before hooking up with Dobre who, as luck would have it, had a small home-studio. Experiments in dance ensued. A meeting with DJ Zki at a radio station completed the Three Musketeers’ line-up. Early releases came out through fellow countryman Robin ‘Jaydee’ Albers’ First Impressions label, but it was through Touché Records – started with Dobre – that Jamez and his cohorts gained international recognition.

Both 51 Days’ mournful ‘Paper Moon’ and Trancesetters’ heavy-hitting ‘The Search’ were massive New York club hits. Plenty of others were staples in DJs’ boxes around the world, probably because Jamez has mastered the art of syncopated and punchy beats, mellifluous keyboards and catchy hooks. Soulful dance music, in other words. As a remixer, Jamez is no slouch, either, having turned in superb mixes of Paperclip People’s ‘The Climax’, X-Press 2’s strident ‘The Sound’, Humate’s ‘Choose Life’ and a stunning rerub of Der Dritte Raum’s ‘Alienoid’, transforming it into a hypnotically textural house cut. The list goes on and on.

After more than 100 releases on world class labels, numerous remixes and many appearances on compilations, he definetly put his mark down.

As a DJ he also did his part. Flying from one city to the other, keeping the crowds shouting for more. His mix of techno and tech house takes the listener on a journey through unknown territories, well known hights and deep smooth plains.

After a well deserved sabbatical Jamez returned to the scene in 2008, where he hooked up with Soulboy. In the summer of 2009 Christian Smith (Smith & Selway) did a remix for Trancesetters ‘The Search’. The track had big support from Hernan Cattaneo, James Zabiela, John Digweed and Adam Beyer. Together with Soulboy, they produced the track Surface Tension, which was in 2009 Kevin Saunderson’s summers favourite and was frequently heard on Ibiza Global Radio. Not only he is frequently asked for remixes but 2010 will be the year of launching his own label Repressure Recordings together with Soulboy and his management team A&G Agency.

Four Seasons EP it’s his latest work for Eyepatch Recordings with four original tracks, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

EPISODE 63: Airwave – Hello World (L*C*D* Recordings)

Born in 1977 in Brussels, Laurent aka Airwave is a natural born musician. At the age of 7, he discovered and has developed since then his perfect ear, a precious gift that would later lead him to release his very first records at the age of 18, on the infamous Bonzai record label. Back then, under the influence of 80’s and 90’s electronica, he already knew what he wanted and fought for his right to express himself, which led him to the very first Airwave release “I want to Believe” EP. This alongside with the many other aliases and collaborations (Fire & Ice, Planisphere…), and the development of Bonzai records outside Belgium (UK, Germany, Italy and many other countries) made his career take off in 1999.

Releases were just dropping like rain on Scotland, that made him hit dance top tens and dj charts several times. Versatile in the studio, also extremely gifted as a producer, he’s of that generation that breaks boundaries by doing any kind of music, whether it’s house, chill-out, trance, progressive, techno. Virtually any dj has played a record of his in the last ten years, seeing him championed by the likes of Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, John 00 Fleming, Tiësto, Armin, Judge Jules and many, many more.

“Believe”, his very first critically acclaimed artist album, was released at the end of 2002. A much better (and of course updated) version of it “I want to believe”, that in a way “looped the loop” was released in 2003 and confirmed the successful career that he had already achieved.

But he always wants much more…

Because of all this knowledge, because of all the endless possibilities he feels he has as a musician, he put together a new concept as a performer in order to promote his 3CD album “Trilogique”, a perfect definition of versatility, bringing the audience 3 different tastes of electronic music into one single package, and showing how much difference matters. As guided by the Greater God like he uses to say, he developed the Triloset, a combination of dj’ing with totally improvised keyboard parts on top of them, which led him to promote Trilosets first instead of Dj’ing, although the audience had seen him DJ worldwide since 2000, with many gigs in England, Scotland, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, South Africa…

The brand new Triloset concept led him to countries he had never been before, with the likes of Turkey, Qatar, USA, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and many others, finally having the Airwave treatment they deserved!!

Today, Laurent’s discography counts no less than 500 productions, a lot of them being collaborations and remix works for the biggest superstars of nowaday’s dance scene (Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Judge Jules, Markus Schulz, M.I.K.E, Yves Deruyter just to name a few). Time saw him finally running Bonzai Records with his long time partners and friends, and also expanding his knowledge of acoustics in order to develop his producer career, as a sound designer among others.

And God only knows what tomorrow will be made of for Airwave, but keep in mind that the boy does deliver whatever happens, this for ten years already, with a huge passion and a huge amount of fans pushing his back up to the top electronic musicians hall of fame.

EPISODE 64: Bastiq2ooo – No Exceptions (Eyepatch Recordings)

New extended play from Bastiq2ooo in Eyepatch Recordings after his first very well received Elegiac.
The release comes with four original tracks, No Exceptions, Rio, Stamina and Greetings From…

EPISODE 65: SaDu – Hug & Play EP (Bonzai Basiks)

Thanos Dimitriou aka Sa.Du was born in 1978 in Athens, Greece. Got into Techno and Trance music in his early teens. He started playing music in 1994 making his debut at a local station. He made parties with some friends in clubs, industries and not only, with some big Greek guests like Mike Dee, Verros, Johnny sin and many others, until 2002.
In 2004 he came back as a dj and played in many clubs on the Greek islands.
In 2008 Sa.Du started producing techno music and made three E.Ps the Sa.Du E.P, the Kyklos E.P and the Time A Part Of Life E.P
In 2009 Sa.Du changed his music style into deep techno and minimal. He send a track to the team from Bonzai Progressive and the first E.P was released with the name Sa.Du, which opened a new page with fresh and deep sounds. Two more E.Ps followed the DREAM E.P and the MACHINE AND A MAN E.P.
2010 sees the release of his track Lost In Deep, a deep feeling track with some progressive touch and trip sounds, with some special remixes.
Today Sa.Du is collaborating with the famous Greek dj of Techno, Mikee and in 2011 we will see them together making fresh beats and parties.

EPISODE 66: Quadran – Vertigo (Bonzai Progressive)

New release from Quadran in Bonzai Progressive.
With a life long career in the music industry Quadran has had support from all A-Llist DJ’s across the globe and a series of hit releases in the 90’s up until today. The release comes with the original track Vertigo plus two remixes from Zas & Sanze presents Mindgamers and Planisphere.

EPISODE 67: Code Duello – Closer (Howz Choonz Recordings)

Code Duello, also known as Funky Space Pirates was born in 1987. The San Francisco Bay Area native was a fan of hip-hop growing up, and was planning to produce hip-hop beats the moment he had the resources to do so. House and techno was not even part of the plan.

Before the huge dance music boom that just happened recently in the USA, it was very taboo to like house and techno music. I discovered the good dance music through internet radio and I got into it late at the age of 16 or so. Before the internet, you had to really dig for the good music because the radio stations here would not play it, and barely anyone considered it music here or they were completely ignorant of it all.-

The artist enjoys challenging himself, and whether it is under his Funky Space Pirates alias which is a funky, uplifting, progressive house sound, or as Code Duello which is a more techie, chord heavy, aggressive, experimental, deep, cold, dark sound, he does his best to make something that he would not expect out of himself.

Part of the fun in making music is the mystery. I love exploring new sounds, so I always try to sound different but leave a sense of my style on the projects I work on. Even though my projects have a certain sound, I make it a goal to achieve their themes in a different way.

EPISODE 68: Damir Pushkar – On The Airport (Mint & Mustard Recordings)

Damir started producing music back in 2006 under the name »DAMPA«, signed successfully several tracks on Total Wipes Records, Italy. After a period of time, Damir was bored and unsatisfied of all the same sounds in the scene.. and so decided to take some time to bring out something different and interesting.

In 2009 he finally camed out again, this time under Damir Pushkar. He collaborated with the Groove Bugs Duo , the biggest Jack-House producer Dj’s from Croatia and did an album together on Pin Up Recordings .

Three months later, he collaborated with Fabian Jakopetz, and made an album called »New Names« which came out on the cult belgium label »Bonzai Music«. The track »New Names« was N°1 selling track on DJ TUNES for 3 weeks , and N°2 for 4 weeks infront of David Guetta, Armand Van Helden, Deadmau5 and FatboySlim.

Just few time later he was asked to do a remake of the first DJ TIESTO track ever, »The Tube«. The remake was a success and got hugh support from almost all top Dj’s and producers around the globe. Many other tracks after went great, just like »Locked Up« track from Slammin Muzik , which appeared on IBIZA TOP 30 ANTHEMS 2010 on La Bien Et La Mai Records next to Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso, John Dahlback, Peter Brown, Kid Massive etc.

Damir also won the Mydjspace remix contest, besides hundrets of great attenders.
The Damir Pushkar’s remix of Jake Childs – The Blame got the first place and it’s waiting to be released on Bush Records next to Carl Cox , Joey Beltram etc…

In 2011, Damir signed a track in a collaboration with B.Original called »Call Me« which will be out on Mr.V’s new label with a remix, will be done by superstar Kenny Dope! An album waiting to be out on Oda with massive remixes by Johhny Calypso , Tech Stan …He is remixing just now for Vincent Vega , Darren Bailie (Guru Josh Project), Piatto, Tovar and more!

Damir released over 100 tracks and more tracks which are coming up in 2011 on labels such as: Diva Records, Butan Records, Pin Up Recordings, Bush/Boo Records, Slammin Muzik, Bikini Records, Soul Channel, Uniform Recordings, Oda Records, No-Logik Records, Desperadoz Records along many others.

Damir continues to keep his quality and unique style of producing music . From end of 2009 till the begining of 2011, Damir became one of the most successfull producer from Croatia.