Guest DJ’s
Amir Alexander
A Dj. since 93. A producer since 98. A true student of the music/culture. Amir founded Vanguard Sound in February 2006. After making his presence felt in the Chicago club scene via a meteoric rise culminating a Dj watch feature in Chicago’s 5 magazine, he completely disappeared and went beneath the underground to focus solely on advancing his production skills. Soon after linking up with G. Marcell and Hakim Murphy he began to release gritty tracks that have been charted and played by underground Dj’s world wide. His fourth release was the sleeper classic “Experience ep” a 4 tracker with Amir on side a, and G. Marcell on side b. Encouraged by the feedback, Amir then submitted tracks to New York city’s Plan B Recordings. The rest is history as they say……. Recording under the name Amir Alexander and the pseudonym Guerrilla Soul! this cat strives to bring a raw and gritty modern spin on classic Detroit, Chicago, and New York underground sounds.
Daniel Bell
While living in Detroit during the 90′s, Daniel Bell created a new musical vocabulary for techno music
based on “Blips” and “Bleeps” and streamlined repetetive rhythms. His music went on to influence a generation of producers from Josh Wink and Richie Hawtin to the minimal house sound in Germany. Best known for his timeless classic “Losing Control” and releases on his label Accelerate. This man is the Godfather of Minimal Techno.
Mike Huckaby
Mike Huckaby. It’s difficult to know where to start with a DJ/Producer of his pedigree, this is the man behind the legendary Record Time store in the Motor City, where he gathered an encyclopaedic knowledge of music.
Mike’s solo productions on his two labels, Deep Transportation and S Y N T H have seen great success and recently his baseline 87 EP on Sushitech sold out before it was even released. Mike will always be at the forefront of his sound, he is an innovator…an educator.
Jane Fitz
East London DJ, promoter and music journalist Jane Fitz has been Djing since the nineties in London and her old home Hong Kong, Jane has always shown a natural aptitude to house music of all kinds. She’s taken this passion for the music we all love around the globe, from Watergate to Free Rotation Festival to Secretsundaze, as well as at her own parties the now defunct PEG which had come to be renound in and around London and her new venture NIGHT MOVES. Her long running weekly radio show on myhouseyourhouse.net is very well respected, and it was perhaps her early work on pirate London radio stations that makes her such a good broadcaster.
Smallpeople
Smallpeople are Julius Steinhoff & Just von Ahlefeld aka Dionne. Together they’ve run the Smallville Record Store and Label, located in Hamburg St. Pauli since 2006. Like the record store, DJ-Sets from Smallpeople are focused on a wider range of music and can be quite diverse mixing between Deep House, Detroit Techno and some Chicago flavours, but always within the balance of atmospheric warmth and club suitability. Smallpeople have released on Labels like Underground Quality, Laid and their own Smallville imprint. The most recent release Black Ice was a huge hit in December and has been charted by many.
Specter
Andres Ordonez aka Specter developed and crafted his signature style of the Chicago house sound over a span of 22 years. Specter’s ambience-driven, organic touch exudes an infectious groove that is deeply soulful, sensual, earthy, warm and nocturnal with a good measure of sublime disco, acid house, jazzy inflections and pure funk. By 1999 and 2000, Specter had established himself as a respected DJ through his many mix tapes and playing loft parties around the city, He Also co-founded a production label with Damon Lamar aka Baby pop called Tetrode Music. The first EP release from Tetrode dropped in 2000 and became a underground classic. “For All the Music/Mystery”. Following up with the second release “Mediterranean/Defining Moment” in 2002. Tetrode 03 came out two years later in 2004 titled “The Deep Theory Ep”. Years later after taking off some time for personal reasons, Specter returned in 08 and released a track on Deep Explorer out of spain (Windtalker) and another track on Chicago label Eargasmic Recordings (I don’t need). The track was licensed for a harley and muscle mix comp called Deep house part 1. Recent releases on labels DownBeat(madrid) Sistrum recordings(Detroit), Altered Moods Recordings, Exquisite Music, Sequencias, and Sound Signature (Detroit) have etched his name as one of chicagos top djs/producers.
Joy Orbison
Joy Orbison (Born Peter O’Grady) is a DJ and producer based in London. His style is generally accepted as a coalescence of dubstep, UK funky, UK garage, and house. O’Grady achieved underground success with his debut single, “Hyph Mngo” released via Hotflush Recordings in October 2009.O’Grady credits his uncle Ray Keith with introducing him to jungle and UK garage at a young age. At 13 he took up DJing and eventually moved into production in his 20s, using Fruity Loops to create 8-bar grime loops before developing his sound combining house, disco, and dubstep. He cites influences as diverse as J Dilla, My Bloody Valentine, GG Allin, Josef K, and The Beach Boys.
Rick Wade
Rick Wade was born in small-town Western Michigan, less than an hour from Chicago’s South Side. In the mid ’80s, while studying at the University of Michigan, Wade gained his first gigs spinning deep underground house at the Nectarine Ballroom, the venue where Jeff “The Wizard” Mills was also making his name, for techno rather than for house. Simultaneously, Wade maintained a successful mix show on WCBN named “Journey To The Land of House.” It was a huge success, as were his subsequent gigs at clubs in and around Detroit. So much so that, by ’93, Wade was able to build his own studio and form a label, Harmonie Park. Wade has released his textured brand of house not only on his own label but also on the likes of Trackmode, Moods and Grooves, ATC, M3, Elevate, Chord 44/Container, Out Of The Box, Yore and Laid to name a few.
Scott Ferguson
Ferrispark Records
Scott Ferguson (Ferrispark Records). Growing up just a few miles outside of Detroit, Scott was inspired by trips into the Motor City with his older brother. There he stumbled across Theo Parrish and Kenny Dixon Jr. (Moodymann), who he has described as having changed his life. He then went on to set up his own label in 2001, Ferrispark Records, as an outlet for his own and his friends’ music. Scott has since moved from America and now resides in London, working in Soho’s Reckless Records.
Ernie
Minuendo Recordings
Ernie (Minuendo Recordings) is another DJ/Producer from the electronic underground scene in Madrid. His label, Minuendo Recordings, which he started with C.Gonzalez, has released work from Juju & Jordash, Patrice Scott, Jus-Ed, Dubbyman, Ricardo Miranda and Lady Blacktronika, amongst others. It’s sound is deeply centred in black sounds, deep house and disco.
Dubbyman
Deep Explorer Music
Dubbyman (Deep Explorer Music) is a Madrid-based DJ/Producer who is currently helping to push the deep house ethos in his own country and across the rest of Europe. Heading up his label Deep Explorer Music, alongside his brother Above Smoke, Dubbyman has had releases alongside international artists such as Kai Alce, Rick Wade and Mike Huckaby.
