MARIE DAVIDSON
Marie Davidson is an electronic musician, singer, songwriter and DJ from Montreal, Canada. Active for more than a decade, Davidson’s work is characterized by an ever changing sound. She has produced music in a wide range of styles including Club Music, Ambient, Techno, Synth Pop, Rock and Spoken Poetry. While much of her work is introspective, sometimes qualified as dark and heavy, elements of humor and vulnerability can always be found. Davidson has released numerous albums under her own name and as Essaie pas on labels such as Ninja Tune, Cititrax (Minimal Wave), DFA Records, Holodeck Records, Teenage Menopause, Constellation Records & more.
She has intensely toured the world as a solo artist and with her other projects Essaie pas and Marie Davidson & L’Oeil nu. Her performances are known for their mixture of dramatic and playful energy. Aside of her own music releases, she has produced original music for Animals ofDistinction (AOD), the multimedia dance company of renowned choreographer and dancer Dana Gingras.
MARCELLUS PITTMAN
When other children were playing combat with G.I. Joe action figures in the early 80’s, Detroit native Marcellus “Malik” Pittman was playing his radio at maximum volume, listening to the sounds of “the Wizzard” and the “Electrifying Mojo”, in addition to the jazz outputs of Rosetta Hines.
Malik began his DJ pursuits for college parties, wedding receptions, “old school parties” in the early 90’s. In 1993, Malik released his initial work of production with local Hip-Hop collective “Home Grown”.
Shortly thereafter, he released “Essential Selections, Vol. 1” on the Sound Signature label, headed by Theo Parrish. In 1998, Malik forged a working relationship with Rick Wilhite, Theo Parrish and Kenny “Moodymann” Dixon, collectively known as the 3 Chairs. As production artists and selectors, they have helped to define an integral part of the Detroit sound.Malik’s sound has been around the Detroit and surrounding areas, as well as internationally, spanning Canada, the UK, Germany, Japan and Paris.
His dedication to production ushered the discontinuation of his latest residency with Northern Lights in Detroit. Malik is currently heading his own label, Unirhythm, which will release his upcoming projects.
DMX KREW
Ed DMX aka DMX Krew is a UK based artist, where he makes music and runs his labels Breakin’ Records and Fresh Up.
The first DMX Krew release was 1995′s “Got You On My Mind” on Dutch label DAP, and this was followed in 1996 by “Sound Of The Street” on Aphex Twin’s label Rephlex. This record hinted at what was to come with its mix of instrumental electro, synthpop and techno made on vintage equipment. Lots more releases have followed, mainly through Rephlex but also on diverse labels including International Deejay Gigolos, Power Vacuum, Sonic Groove and many others. DMX Krew remixes have also appeared of various artists including M.I.A., Man Parrish, James T Cotton, and many others. In 1997 Ed DMX started his label Breakin’ Records which gained a cult following as one of the UK’s first electro and bass labels with many releases from DMX Krew under various aliases, as well as first signings Bass Junkie and Mandroid. Later Breakin’ broke new ground with the signing and debut release of acid maestro Ceephax Acid Crew
GUY CONTACT
Over in a hot humid corner of Australia, Guy Contact has been crafting low slung and sultry house rhythms. The subtle softness in his percussion is released by comforting yet pumping acid grooves. The resonant acid lines and psychedelic textures are balanced against an ethereal and atmospheric backdrop.
His sound has been snapped up by Bitterfeld, R.A.N.D. Muzik, Butter Sessions ,Coymix, Craigie Knowes & most recently X-Kalay. The versatile EP’s euphoric & utopian mannerisms are emblematic of the producer he has become. Plasmic yet pounding, often mind bending and sometimes soothing, this resourceful character’s well-crafted alias is soon to hit a dancefloor near you, along with it, that trademark Australian sound.
Guy Contact has been treating the international music community to a warmth combination of slow-paced downtempo and geared-up trance inflected music that allowed him to hit a few of the most relevant European and UK dancefloors last year.
With a bunch of upcoming eps in the bag, Guy Contact is getting ready for his next tour.
EVANORA UNLIMITED
“Evanora:Unlimited is a multimedia project from Oakland, California interdisciplinary artist Orion Ohana. Exploring world building, music, film, fashion, and varying mediums of performance art, Evanora:Unlimited is not an artist alias but the title of an ever-changing formless concept and cinematic world showcasing various characters,self-described as “a based on true events erotic science fiction religious horror epic”.
Ohana is also known as their recent side project Marjorie -W.C Sinclair. Conceived in 2020 with no intention beyond being a private account to share songs made for fun among close friends that would be otherwise be unreleased, The project would soon subconsciously take on a life and personality of its own over the year becoming a shapeshifting yet distinct character within a complex storyline crucial to the world of Evanora:Unlimited.”
JAMES HOLDEN
James Holden is an electronic musician and tinkerer who has worn many hats across his twenty year musical career: producer, remixer, DJ, record label boss, synth maestro, band leader, mix engineer, software developer and all round jack of all vaguely musical trades. Charting a haphazard course somewhere between unashamed dilettante and virtuosic polymath, Holden is an artist who seems to find it difficult to settle, no sooner finding himself momentarily aligned with one musical milieu (trance, progressive house, minimal techno, IDM, synth, jazz…) before his latest set of explorations lead him on to
pastures new. Holden was just nineteen years old and not quite finished university when he fell into a professional career in the more commercialised end of dance music, when an early 12” (Horizons) was picked up by a Sony Music-backed imprint in the trance glory days of 1999.
A career as an international DJ and remixer to the stars (from Madonna and Britney to Radiohead, New Order and Depeche Mode) opened up before him, aided and abetted by his own proudly DIY Border Community imprint and a certain unstoppable remix of label protege Nathan Fake’s The Sky Was Pink, a bonafide dance anthem which in various corners of electronic music came to define the sound of the mid-noughties. In 2006 he gently flexed his album muscles with the prescient The Idiots Are Winning, an EP of idiosyncratic dancefloor bangers and DJ tools which somehow swelled to album proportions and cemented Holden’s status as a vibrant new force in electronic music.
MAINLINE MAGIC ORCHESTRA
Xumba Xumba is Mainline Magic Orchestra’s first son, a tribute to 80s balearic pop that evokes Mediterranean Sea, old school house and vocal chorus without lyrics…Daniel 2000, JP Sunshine, Nile Fee and John Heaven start here their first travel. Welcome mates!
Tettsui is the first EP by the Mainline Magic Orchestra, a first attack on the jugular that push up the collective from Empordà at the top of the dance floors. Through four tracks, the creators of Xumba Xumba bring us an album with two different moods that represent the strengths of their sound. On the one hand we have MMO Theme and Xumba Xumba, with a certain aftertaste of the Ibiza 80’s sound, and on the other hand Okilele and Jack Sparrow, two more forceful themes designed for the dancefloor of the disco late at night…
THOOM
Beirut-born, New York City-based pop singer Thoom releases her ballad EP Fantasy for Danger via New York label Good Question fresh off contributing vocals to Yves Tumor’s most recent single ‘God Is a Circle’ with Ecco2k.
Based in New York City by way of Beirut, Chicago, and Berlin, a sense of place is a major theme in Thoom’s music. Thoom has now found a home and creative community in New York’s burgeoning downtown scene having shared the stage with artists like Club Eat, Frost Children, and The Dare. But much of the EP’s content is inspired by Thoom’s first weeks living in New York during which she was overwhelmed by a recent heartbreak and isolation in a new city. It was this impulse that led her to accept a ride from a stranger cruising around Manhattan one late night during those early weeks. “I wanted to die but I was really horny. It’s what kept me alive.”
SAPPHIRE SLOWS
Sapphire Slows is what you might call an everything-ist: she produces, DJs, plays synth and her eerie, drone-like vocals float over her tracks, embellishing their shadowy textures. After the brutal awakening of the 2011 earthquakes in Japan, she became motivated to pursue a career in music.
Now a notable name in Tokyo’s electronic music scene, she has toured North America, Europe, China, Australia and her home country of Japan, and released an impressive body of work, with LPs, EPs, tracks and remixes coming out on the likes of Not Not Fun, 100% Silk, Kaleidoscope, Nous Disques, Kalahari Oyster Cult, Hivern Discs and most recently AD93. While some of her songs are submerged in a blue-ish, slo-mo haze, like her name suggests, others have a
sound that is both indelible and difficult to neatly categorise. Taking cues from minimal, electronica, ambient and off-kilter pop, her own music feels greater than the sum of these parts, combining an unerring sense for space, detail and atmosphere with slow-motion melodies and heady, cosmic vocals to create something personal and truly unique.