Mark Farina

“I look at my job as a modern day traveling minstrel, to bring new music to as many places as I can, and expose obscure records that, otherwise, might go hidden.” While Mark Farina may be able to sum up his job description in a sentence, there is much more to be written.

Mark developed his musical tastes in Chicago listening to house music on the radio, living in one of the country’s most primordial breeding grounds for house. Around 1988, while record shopping at Imports Etc, he met Derrick Carter and a friendship began. “I just ended up there between classes, just ended up buying his picks. He steered me toward the cutting edge house producers of the time.”

“I started playing when I lived with my parents and didnt have any bills to pay so I could just buy records. My intentions were never just to make money. Its nice, but its kind of turned into a job by accident - it was a hobby that turned into a job.”

When Farina first started wandering from his passion for the purist forms of House into what grew into one of his trademark styles, Mushroom Jazz, he was playing the main room in a club in Chicago and got demoted to the B-room after playing too many Martin Luther King Jr. samples. Mark experimented with a deeper style, dropping De La Soul, disco classics and other stuff that wasnt being played in the main room. However, in 1992, Mark found a welcome place for his collection of downtempo tunes accompanied by a small run of mix tapes entitled “Mushroom Jazz.”

Originally launched as a cassette series, the Mushroom Jazz tapes grew from the first Chicago run of 50 copies each on to the next stage, where 500 copies of several volumes were easily distributed and sought after.

As the Acid Jazz boom began, Mark perfected his sound and fused the newest tracks from the West Coast’s jazzy, organic producers with the more urban sounds he had championed in Chicago. While the predominant musical force in SF was still dark, dubby house and wicked style breaks, the city embraced the downtempo movement with a healthy bunch of live bands and DJ’s generating the tunes.

Mark Farina, along with Patty Ryan-Smith, created the now legendary weekly Mushroom Jazz club night in San Francisco in 1992. Every Monday night the crowd slowly germinated from 100 for the first few months to 600-700 two years later. As time passed, Farina and Patty put their energies into another project, the first Mushroom Jazz interactive CD-ROM for OM records. After a three year run, where the club established a fanatical, cult like following for Farina and the Mushroom Jazz sound, the club closed its doors and transformed into a CD series accompanying tours.

Since 1989, Mark Farina has been traveling the globe performing at literally hundreds of shows a year, sometimes DJing both of his prefered styles in two different rooms at the same party. At other events, he’s been known to play extended sets that lasted over eight hours. In his house sets, Mark is known for his uniquely effortless journeys on the jazzy side of Chicago House, mixed up San Fran style.

This wandering record minstrel has played to incredible crowds all over the globe. Consistently drawing new fans to his style of chunky-funky rhythms and deep underground house. Mark plays upwards of 200 shows to over one million club goers per year. Voted in the top DJ’s of the world by URB, MUZIK, and BPM magazine, his taste making skills continue to turn the heads of seasoned veterans as well as younsters just getting into the music.

On CD, Mark has recorded both of his dominant musical personalities. His first mix, “Mushroom Jazz” on OM Records, is defined by a hip hop sub-groove with Jazzy, dubby elements in the downtempo range. It was followed by “Seasons”, a critically acclaimed House mix. An Imperial Dub mixed CD, a guest slot in the pedigreed “United DJ’s of America” series, “Mushroom Jazz 2″ (OM Records), “San Francisco Sessions” (OM Records), “Mushroom Jazz 3″ (OM Records), “Connect” (OM Records), “Mushroom Jazz 4″ (OM Records), his critically acclaimed artist album “Air Farina” (OM Records), a double live cd with Derrick Carter “Live at OM”, another double mix cd “Sessions” (Ministry Of Sound), “Mushroom Jazz 5 and 6″ (OM Records), and a mix cd for Fabric London series (Fabric London).

For booking Mark Farina please contact nneka@aptentertainment.com

Pezzner…

Up until 2008 Dave Pezzner was virtually unknown to the electronic dance music community, aside from his works in the duo “Jacob London” (Classic Music, Doubledown, U-Freqs). For 16 years he cut his chops with partner Bob Hansen, creating eccentric house and break beat rhythms often crossing the lines between bad-ass, funky and hilarious.

In the winter of 2008, Pezzner took to his own studio to begin work on his first solo output composing songs that are more serious, with an abstract artistic sensibility. Quickly Dave’s catalog began to materialize with a signature sound: Lofty percussive themes with intentions to create hypnotic soundscapes for the body as well as the brain.

It wasn’t long before Pezzner found his first 5 songs scooped up by London-based Freerange Records, covering the first two EP’s of his career, “Other Lover” and the epic three-part masterpiece “Almost Here.” These two EPs garnered him massive support from artists as varied as John Digweed, Laurent Garnier, Peter Kruder, Steve Bug and Ben Watt, setting up Pezzner as a producer on the rise.

These first two releases laid a solid foundation for his career and follow-ups are now in the pipeline on San Francisco’s Om Records imprint, London’s Urbantorque Recordings, plus another EP for Freerange. Dave has also got an arsenal of remixes forthcoming for heavyweights including Josh Wink, Mark Farina, and Mike Monday. Its a dizzying number of releases for an emerging artist, but now that Pezzner’s stepped out on his own, he’s definitely got a lot to say.

Woody Mcbride (DJ ESP)…

American Techno and Acid Icon DJ ESP aka Woody McBride is in the mix. With releases and remixes on Dave Clarke’s White Noise, Josh Wink’s Ovum, Eric Powell’s Bush, Fat Boy Slim’s Skint, Novamute, Acid Tracks, Drop Bass Network and dozens of other labels there are just a handful of stateside producer/DJs so prolific. His own label Communique is now 15 years old and continues to promote the underground sound and push it into the future.

Either LIVE PA or Vinyl DJ sets, ESP always delivers hard psychedelic tribal dance music in a way that only he does. “I get up there and play like I am playing at Mayday, Nature One or Further… In 1988 I saw Metallica in my small home town of Bismarck, ND and for the 100 of us that were there, they played like there were 50,000 screaming fans… I learned my lesson that night… give it your all every time…

ESP has flown over 5 million miles worldwide performing at some of the best and worst events the techno scene has ever known. “I love this life… I love the music I play… I love the people I get to party with!” His 1000’s of gigs include Mayday, Nature One, Dragon Ball, Elektromind, Rex Club, Orbit, Further, Acid Wars, Church, Eurobeat 2000, Big One, Underground Sound, Monox, Ultraschall, Tresor, Cubik, Terriakianarkisaki and many more…

He plays weekly on several international radio stations and works tirelessly to create new music for the galactic consciousness.

Greg Campbell Bio…

In 1991 Greg Campbell, an Indiana living skateboard riding rebellious go getter, who also played bass guitar in a punk band covering Misfits, Black Flag, and Clash songs, decided to reach outside of the box of his musical tastes with discovering a passion for late eighties retro/electronica, Industrial, and obscure avant garde. Falling in love with technology and the sound of sequenced rythyms, Campbell yearned for an education of this new sound in every way possible. Without the internet and only a small support system of somewhat like minded peers it was not easy to reach further outside the box of expansion. A few years later, Campbell found further inspiration by having the priviledge to travel up to nearby Chicago, visiting record stores such as Wax Trax, Reckless, and Gramaphone. Building an even more impressive collection of hard to find quality pieces, both dancefloor and mellow, those early visits were crucial in development of Where Campbell is today. Since Chi town has such a rich musical history and liveliness, it wasnt but a few more Chi trips til he discovered other sounds such as funk, disco, jazz, and of course Chicago House Music. Soon to follow Campbell discovered the early wharehouse and rave scene going to the all ages Indiana events, picking up mixtapes from such local midwest heroes such as David Hollands, Mike Bryant, “Cyberjive” John Larner, John Acquaviva, Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak, Terry Mullan, Hyperactive, Woody Mcbride and Paul Johnson just to name a few. In 1997 Campbell took up the opportunity to move to Detroit, where he landed his first industry position marketing and PR work for one of the top 5 clubs in the country at that time, the legendary Motor Lounge. Gaining a vast knowledge of the rugged and deep history of Detroit Techno and House, Campbells next step was to start DJing and mixing the two sounds of Detroit and Chicago together to form something fresh. Campbell bought his first DJ equipment in 1997. Paying his dues, spending the next three years spinning house parties, small shitty bars, and the “slow nights”, at Motor while slowly but surely making a mark. 2001 came and Motor Lounge closed, Campbell got a very promising offer to resident and co host the hottest club in Indianapolis IN called Eden. The opportunity was taken and the move had been made. Holding down this residency furthering the industry contacts, Greg made an impressive well respected name for himself spinning unique material while blending and cutting to keep the crowd on their toes at all times. On top of spinning every weekend Greg also landed an awesome job effectively doing promotions for the biggest up and coming record label in America at that time OM Records, giving the label influential exposure and increased record store sales in Indiana. Soon enough, even for Indianapolis, the DJ pool got overly saturated so Campbell chose to invest in the necessary studio hardware/software to start producing his own blend of originality. While taking the time to learn the production aspects, Greg used his industry connections to the fullest extent and started touring all over the midwest, eventually playing on both the east and west coasts. During those times the production talent was developing and the sound coming from Campbells studio was a blend of disco, a dash of late 80’s avant garde, mixed with modern day synths and innovative programming along with beefy in your face drum patterns. Desiring a good quality controlled outlet to market this one of a kind original sound Campbell was producing, he decided to start his own record label, entitled Full Flavor Music which was launched in late 2007. The label, which is proud to push the finest and freshest sounds to the ear of the modern dancefloor speaker freaker. 2010 has proven Full Flavor Music to be critically acclaimed, which the press, radio, and major worldwide DJ’s have praised the label and its releases. Mark Farina, Pezzner, Monoman, and J-Phlip are just a few names of the handful of artists that are a part of the Full Flavor family.  The goal of the label that Mr Campbell heads is to provide a platform and shine a light upon the up and coming heroes(and occasionally definitive ones) of house music who provide the perfect beat. A guaranteed crowd pleaser as a DJ, his dancefloor plan has always been to play music by the unfairly overlooked artists as well as replenishing goosebumps to the crowd. Continuously focusing on House musics revolution and providing for the people the sound of tomorrow, Greg Campbells future will only shine brighter. For bookings please contact… greg@fullflavormusic.com

MONOMAN

(CO AMBUSHED RECORDINGS UK)

BIOGRAPHY

monoman has been in and around the music industry for over 7 years. Having studied Sound Engineering at one of the UK’s top music colleges, he began his career as an engineer for various artists, producing a variety of music styles and building his own studio in the process. monoman soon branched out with his own productions fuelled by his obsession with all types of music.

Monoman’s sound is a mixture of his influences, differing his production styles from deep house to Chicago bump to tech house and can currently be heard in a variety of DJ boxes.

2007 saw monoman first release on the ever-popular 4Kenzo recordings along side two of the heavyweights Mastiksoul and Rui Da Silva, cementing his status as a high class producer. In 2007 monoman embarked on running his own label “Ambushed Recordings”, which is showcasing exclusive tracks and up & coming artists and is proving to be a great success with limited releases topping the download charts.

Matt aka monoman has released a number of highly successful tracks on Mastiksoul’s Kitsam and Hoshi imprint, with his biggest track to date being a collaboration with DJ Sneak and Herve to remix ‘Droppin Kisses’ on CR2 records (due for mainstream release this year).

Monoman has also done exclusive productions for 4Kenzo, Robsoul Recordings, Patsada, Baker Street and has licensed remixes for the likes of Flatpack Traxx, Clean House and Ambushed Recordings to name a few. Monoman also appears on various compilations including Mastiksoul’s ‘MyHouse’ Album and DJ Sneak’s ‘Special House blend’ Mix compilation.

Monoman’s sound has reached the sets of Andy from Groove Armada, Fedde Le Grand, DJ Sneak, Yousef, Derrick Carter to name a few.

Currently monoman is regularly making DJ appearances in Europe and is highly sought after amongst music promoters in the UK. Monoman will soon be returning to Europe to cover France, Belgium and Bulgaria with plans also for a US tour late 2009 early 2010.

All said, the future is looking very bright for monoman. Watch out for upcoming releases on Robsoul, Baker Street and of course CR2.

If you are interested in booking monoman please email:

info@ambushedrecordings.com

Mike Disco

Mike Disco first stumbled upon House Music at the age of 15 in 1995. His love for this music came from his interest in Disco, eventually leading him to an underground party in Denver CO with Mark Farina headlining. It was love at first listen. Shortly after he purchased his first set of turntables and started Djing. Fueled by the sets of DJ’s such as Garth, Jeno, Markie, and Thomas of the Wicked Crew, Doc Martin, Mark E Quark, and of course Derrick Carter and Farina. Mike Disco was living the mid 90’s house music dream. After finishing High School in 1998 Mike moved to New York City, then to LA. While in LA Mike had the priviledge to meet Rudy Artavia, a local house DJ and LA scene pioneer, who taught him to use the MPC 2000 and make electronic music.

In 2001 Mike Disco decided to move back to NYC to finish school. The opportunity shortly followed to work with Andy Butler(Hercules and Love Affair) and had a short lived project that fueled Mike’s creativity to start producing more and more music. In 2004 Mike moved back to Denver to attend recording arts school at the University of Colorado at Denver. While in school he played keys in a pop group and recorded multiple bands, then got into sound design and audio postproduction for film. Mike graduated in 2007 with a BS in music with an emphasis in recording arts and music technology.

Today Mike works professionally as a sound design artist/composer/audio post production specialist in Denver. His first house music releases have came out on East Coast label Pin Up Recordings all including remixes and or the remixes by artists such as Jay Tripwire, Patrick Turner, and Jake Childs. Denvers own Full Flavor Music is Mike’s latest home for future releases involving the up and coming talents of underground dance musics latest shiner…Mr Mike Disco ladies and gentleman.

Mike is just one of Full Flavors up and coming artist/DJ’s that will rock the future of dance music for many moons to come. Book him now for a gig…djmikedisco@gmail.com

J-Phlip

J.Phlip, known to most as Jess or Jessica Rose Phillippe, was completely ruined when she discovered house music in her hometown of Champaign, IL just 2 hours south of Chicago. This location might help describe the how or why behind this unique genre bending blend that Phlip brings to the dancefloor. Perhaps it was the proximity to Chicago that let house music make its influence, but the distance that allowed her the freedom to eventually welcome other sounds into her mix. Her sets posses this fun lets-not-forget-this-is-dance-music feeling and simultaneously keeps you guessing as to what might come next. Her collection spans house, tech house, deep house, techno, random bleeps, and special bloops. In 2005 she won ‘Beauty and the Beats’, a national DJ competition held by BPM magazine, that lead to a tour with DJ Rap, Colette, and Reid Speed. Since then she has made a name for herself as a DJ in Chicago after becoming a pivotal party of their dance music scene for many years.  She currently holds title as a well known DJ-slash-Producer in San Francisco after being signed on as an official member of the Dirtybird crew and securing residency at San Francisco’s infamous Endup nightclub that is notoriously know for non-stop never-ending parties.

On her first release for Dirtybird, “J” has created a track that is both intricate and massive. A wall of devastating bass anchors Rumble Rumble’s assault, bolstered by an effervescent rhythmic net of popcorn snaps, soda cans popping open, and seductive whispers and giggles at the very edge of audibility.  Immediately following her debut record on Dirtybird, she dropped remixes on Justin Long’s Dotbleep as well as Denver based label Full Flavor Music, and original tunes on Alland Byallo’s Nightlight Music and Airdrop out of the east coast.  Claude von Stroke and J.Phlip spent some studio time together writing the super bass heavy low-riding hyphy tune “California” that has been heard worldwide this summer and is soon to be released as part of Claude’s album.  Also, look out for J.Phlip’s upcoming remixes and originals on Dirtybird, including a remix of of Claude’s collaboration with Bootsy Collins!

to book J.Phlip please contact andrew@motherbirdagency.com

William Alexander

Hailing
from Cincinnati, Ohio William Alexander creates a different style of
hip-house with his signature sound along with timely lyrics that
creates a fresh style of house music. Hip Hop, Jazz, and Soul are
some ingredients that William blends to form his own hip-house sound.
With basslines that pound the dancefloor, William Alexander has
landed hits on labels such as Oomph, Lingo, Full Flavor Music, and
Flatpack Traxx just to name a few. 

For
booking William please contact williamalexander@lingorecordings.com

Matthew Bandy

Born in Flint, Michigan, Matthew Bandy grew up surrounded by the sounds coming out of the nearby Motor City and the many 45’s from his parents record collection. These sounds were to become a determining factor in defining his musical approach today. Bandy’s communion with house music has now brought him to international recognition. Remaining true to his musicality, Bandy has interwoven passion and originality through his creative ambitions in djing, producing, promotions, and operating a record label.

In the early 90’s Bandy was introduced to Dance music through the Midwest rave scene, a melting pot of sounds encompassing Techno, Hip Hop, Disco and House. Then living in Kentucky, far from a major metropolitan area for music, Bandy travelled to parties around the country. He developed his musical tastes by pulling his influences from the sounds of Chicago, Detroit, and the East and West coasts. By the late 90’s, Bandy was hosting his own events and introducing new music to his local scene. Having presented DJs such as Halo, Kevin Yost, Johnny Fiasco, Terrance Parker, Traxx and Onionz, Bandy simultaneously hosted Kentucky’s first and only electronic music radio show – “Through The Vibe” on WRFL. The show continues to broadcast to this day.

In 2000 Bandy focused on writing and producing music to further his creative vision. In doing so he created the studio collaboration and live act, Deep House Souldiers. This was a successful and creative partnership with Joel Hopper, now producer for Nappy Roots. In 2003 Matthew formed Limestone Recordings and moved to Denver, CO to expand his musical horizon. Deep House Souldier’s went on to release, “This Is Why We Dance,” on Matthew’s own Limestone Recordings which was licensed to Ben Watt’s “Buzzin’ Fly Vol. 1″ compilation. His label was also featured in Urb Magazine’s 2004 “Next 100”. Now he has released a wide range of music on labels such as Soulheaven, Seasons, Drop, and Nordic Trax as well worked with the likes of Chez Damier, Jay Tripwire, Aaron Ross and DJ Dealer to name a few.

His scope as a producer and his love for live music has taken him beyond the House sound. Matthew, alongside bass player Casey Sidwell, was one of the creators and driving forces behind ‘Know’, a jazz/funk/soul band for whom he produced and performed with. Know was built from many talented musicians and featured the soulful vocals of Venus Cruz. For 2 years Know held a weekly residency which became highly regarded within the city’s underground live music scene. Their events were home to some of Denver’s finest rising musicians, poets and artists. Further to this Matthew was involved in hosting two of the city’s most respected underground parties, Community and Afroblu.

You can find his music on compilations worldwide licensed on Defected, Universal, Om, Astralwerks, Large Records and many more. Now living in London, Matthew is living proof that no matter where one resides, originality and dedication is more important than ones locale.

Information on Booking Matthew Bandy please contact matthewsbandy@gmail.com