Vitalic (born as Pascal Arbez in 1976) is an electronic music artist. According to a joke made in an interview, Arbez is Ukrainian and emigrated from Ukraine to East Germany when the Berlin Wall fell, accompanied by his dog, 'Mini Robot'. Pascal was actually born in France and is of Italian descent.

His first singles were released in 1996 and 1997, but were confined to the underground electronic music scene. However, he became good friends with Michel Amato, a.k.a. The Hacker, whom he met in the Rex, the 'techno temple' of Laurent Garnier. The Hacker suggested him to send his new tracks to DJ Hell, head of Gigolo records in Munich. Pascal did so, and International DeeJay Gigolo Records, released the well known Poney EP in 2001, which was a huge success shortly after its release. With the track 'La Rock 01', Vitalic created a club anthem which was subsequently played by Sven Väth, which was a hit with clubbers in the summer of 2001. The track was also included on many compilation albums, even rock compilations.

In 2005, Vitalic's debut album, OK Cowboy was released on Different/Pias. Pascal states that all of the instruments used in the album are synthesized. His official website states that 'the only thing he can't fake is the emotion that galvanizes his music.' V Live, the first Vitalic live album, was released in 2007.

www.vitalic.org

Miles Whittaker and Gary Howell named themselves after a notorious group of witches that reportedly still haunt Tynedale Farm on Pendle Hill, but far from draping themselves in goth, the pair have spent twelve years immersed in everything from '92 hardcore to abstract minimalism, coming up with a sound that crosses vintage warehouse with Detroit and deep dub. They've released six mysterious, bass-heavy EPs on Modern Love since 2003, and appear on an independently released EP called Typewriter.

Pendle Coven Online

Larry 'Mr. Fingers' Heard came to prominence in the early days of Chicago House for his work in his with Robert Owens and Ron Wilson as Fingers Inc. The music they produced helped define the genre and the era – many of the original tracks can be still be heard in DJ sets across the world and continue to influence house producers today. He mixed the warm euphoria of disco with the visionary, technologically inspired structures of early techno to create some of the most influential house music ever made.

His long career has continued almost uninterrupted, peaking again recently with the new wave of deep house. His warm acid productions that emphasize instrumentation rather than percussion exemplify the new sub-genre and have garnered him a new generation of listeners.

www.myspace.com/larryheardakamrfingers

Since emerging in the early 90s, Mouse on Mars has been on a perpetual course of reinvention, indulging in complex, heavily hybridized forms that include everything from ambient, techno, and dub to rock, and post-rock. They've taken electronica to new levels with fragmented melodies and an aversion to what's expected. Over more than ten years and a dozen albums, Mouse on Mars have set about creating new musical languages, only to tear them down again with each new distortion, proving that since getting together in 1993, the duo Jan St. Werner, from Düsseldorf, and Andi Toma, from Köln are one of the few electronic groups to stand the test of time; their albums are sent into the worlds of pop, rock and electronic music like missives from sound researchers, and the results are always surprising.

www.mouseonmars.com

Foreplay.
As Funkstorung, Chris de Luca and partner Michael Fakesch released an uncountable amount of records on !K7, Compost Records, Acid Planet, Musik aus Strom and many more. Especially their remixes for Bjork, Wu-Tang Clan, Speedy J and Plaid attracted worldwide attention. Their unique mix of old school hip hop and cut-up beats can confidently be called groundbreaking for the genre. Right on time for Funkstorung's 10th anniversary in 2005 the album "Return To The Acid Planet" was released. It shall be their last. In 2005, de Luca moved to Berlin and in the spring of 2006, Funkstorung split up. At the end of the last millennium, East German buddies Carsten and Sascha went out into the big wide world – to Berlin. Sascha became Apparat, Carsten turned into Phon.o. Since then, Phon.o released a number of 12 inches, EPs and two albums on labels such as Cytrax, Detroit Underground, Normoton, Tigerbeat6 and T.Raumschmiere's Shitkatapult. His last album "Burn Down The Town", released in 2005 on Shitkatapult, is a firework of techno, booty hip hop and eurocrunk. It made vocalists such as Kevin Blechdom, Gold Chains and Detroit MC Stadik fight over the mic.

The first time.
The two met in 2004, when Phon.o was support act for Funkstorung's "Disconnected"-Tour. They liked each other so much that without further ado Phon.o was let loose on the masses again at Funkstorung's "Isolated Triple Media" release party. Craziness galore on the dancefloor!

The next date.
For the release of his last album, Phon.o then invited de Luca to fool around with his single "Trick Or Treat" and strike back with a remix. De Luca was bubbling over with ideas and it was only a matter of time before the two would team up.

Inseparable.
De Luca and Phon.o joined forces in the spring of 2006. Since then, they've been rocking clubs and festivals all over Europe with their ass-kicking sets as "Chris de Luca vs. Phon.o". This unconventional combination of intergalactic hip hop, ghetto beats, sexy booty IDM and dirty techno goes beyond typical contemporary genre boundaries. Berlin, there is new shit in town and it doesn't stink!

Versus.
Currently, the two are locked inside a studio where they are working like crazy fuckers on new tracks for their upcoming album to be released in 2008!

www.chrisdelucavsphono.com

Andy Stott (b. 1979) has done a lot to push Manchester based Modern Love to the forefront of bass heavy techno over the last two years with his subtle but powerful approach. His music seamlessly spans the dub-tech divide, bringing a complex and idiosyncratic signature style to productions that are impossible to pigeonhole. Influenced by the classic producers like Carl Craig and Basic Channel, he draws too from early IDM and plumbs the depths of UK dub for deep bass and melancholy backdrops. Stott also incorporates treated piano and a myriad other style snippets. In only two years, Stott has risen to the forefront of bass heavy techno with his subtle but powerful approach.

www.myspace.com/andystott_modernlove

PROSUMER & MURAT TEPLI FEAT. ELIF BICER
(Playhouse, Ostgut Tontrager)

Prosumer is Berlin based house DJ and producer Achim Brandenburg. Originally from Saarbruecken, Brandenburg cut his teeth on classic Detroit Techno and Chicago House when he was working at Southwestern Germany's local Hardwax store. He developed a taste for soulful house music for labels like Prescription, and the chimes can still be heard in his productions today.

Brandenburg began to DJ and adopted the moniker Prosumer, taking the name from a character in the sci fi novel The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler, the writer famous for inspiring Juan Atkins with the phrase 'techno rebels'.

Prosumer has recently developed a live show with Murat Tepeli, a Cologne based producer he met at the Saarbruecken Hard Wax. Together they perform with laptops and hardware, drum machines and synths, as well as incorporating soulful live vocals from Brandenburg and singer Elif Bicer.

Murat Tepeli is one of Cologne's outstanding Producers. His musical influences range from disco, to hip-hop and the origins of house to current productions. He uses micro samples with old Chicago sounds to produce timeless and deep House music. Tepeli made his recording debut in the summer of 2005 with the EP On A Ride (Playhouse), featuring vocals from Prosumer. An EP by Prosumer and Murat Tepeli featuring singer Elif Bicer is slated for release on Ostgut Tonträger in early 2008, with a remix by Cassy on the B-side. An album is set to follow shortly after.

http://www.myspace.com/prosumer

Murcof's breakthrough album, Martes (Tuesday), was released on the Mexican label Static Discos in February 2002. It drew on the works of Arvo Pärt, Henryck Górecki, and Giya Kancheli, and contained samples from Arvo Pärt's Sarah Was Ninety Years Old, Giya Kancheli's Vom Winde Beweint, Night Prayers, Morton Feldman's String And Piano Quintet and David Martinez's Musica Para El Silencio stretched and distorted over delicate beats. The album was picked up and released by the UK imprint Leaf Records in May of the same year after a chance meeting with Tony Morley at a Leaf party in Barcelona around the time of Sonar 2001 when he was there to perform with NorTec Collective. In 2002-3 Corona played shows all over Europe and North America, including the Mutek and Sonar festivals.

Murcof has since collaborated with a number of artists from different fields, particularly contemporary classical, and has been commissioned to remix both Kronos Quartet and Miles Davis as well as Mexican artist Florencia Ruiz. He has performed with video artist Saul Saguatt at the Imax theatre La Geode. Paris, with musicians Erick Truffaz and Talvin Singh at the Montreaux Jazz festival.

Corona has also worked piano virtuoso Francesco Tristano, performing at the 2007 Sónar festival, and on Tristano's latest album Not For Piano. Francesco Tristano is one of classical music's rising stars. The album was produced and mastered by Murcof. Corona has also scored three feature films, including 2007's La Sangre Iluminada (Enlightened Blood), with further soundtrack work in the pipeline; his music has been used in countless film, TV and dance productions worldwide, and he picked up a Qwartz Music Award in 2006.

www.murcof.com

The Birthday Party Crew are: Ben B the Master of Disaster and Chief Consultant on French Hip-Hop. Sly1 Prime Minister of Slammin Electro-Jams and Hell-fired Garage. Lil' Jean Minister of Education and two-time winner of the Bday Party Dance Contest. Dj Donna Summer Ambassador of Goodwill and selector of booty-rocking jamz. OhBoyGeorgeMichaelJacksonPollock Secretary of State and wild-eyed purveyor of Funk. Uncle T Head-Supervisor of Party Damage and Vice-President of Dance Floor Merry-making. MC Jane Special Agent in charge of media assassination and all around nice person.

www.birthdaypartyberlin.com

Curses

CURSES!* is not a total rookie. Wrapped in this elegantly designed cloak of mystery is bass heavyweight champ DROP THE LIME. Under this new guise, he's all about reigniting the excitement of early nineties dance music. But he's so not retro. His peculiar brand of mutated house defies everything you think you know about 'proper club music'. He makes evil records that challenge you to play them out, LOUD, and then amply reward you for doing so.

When Drop The Lime hijacks his doppelganger's music, he shows no mercy and punches up pretty much everything. The resulting all-levels-in-the-red, jacked-up House morphs in and out of Electro, Dubstep and Grime and is, frankly speaking, kind of scary. In a good way. In a Female Convict Scorpion way.

www.myspace.com/cursesareforever

Huoratron

For his noisy, bleepy performances as Huoratron, Finland's Aku Raski uses hacked, hand-held icons of 80s technology: Nintendo Gameboy consoles. The consoles are modified to produce distorted, rough sounds and heavy bass that were never features of the original product. He has remixed Zarkus and Jori Hulkkonen, and a Huoratron track was included on the Bunker Records 2005 compilation Sound of Sumi. Raski is a Helsinki-based composer, producer and artist. He also performs as part of Nu Science and Rolf Sebastian.

www.huoratron.com

Peter Votava aka Pure started DJing and producing in 1991, and has since released upwards of twenty records, both solo and collaborative works, on labels such as Drop Bass Network and Praxis, as well as his own labels Loop, Atmosfear, and Sub/Version (together with Christoph Fringeli of Praxis). Votava's work had a huge influence on the development of hardcore techno and helped invent what was to become known as breakcore. He's collaborated with artists like EC8OR, Liza´n´Eliaz, Gangstar Toons Industrie and Christoph Fringeli, but is best known for his early 90s group with Christopher Just, the famed Ilsa Gold, whose innovative pranks and heavy rave sound paved the way for subsequent generations of mash-up and breakcore producers.

Stylistically, Votava has always pushed the borders of speed, darkness, and general weirdness. In the late nineties, he began composing and producing abstract, improvised home-listening music with releases on the Mego, Staalplaat and dOc Recordings, Votava's current label. Votava began dOc in autumn 2001, initially as an outlet to release a mix of his own solo and collaborative works, but has since broadened into a platform for like-minded musicians such as Martin Siewert, Vitor Joaquim and video artist Dekam, with whom he often collaborates.

Together with Jason Forrest and DISK/CTM, Votava organizes CTM breakcore offshoot, WASTED.

http://pure.test.at

Jahcoozi are a Berlin phenomenon producing bass heavy, abstract electronic beats mixed with ragga, dancehall and hip hop – illectronic blip hop with huge helpings of vocal attitude. The group is a multi-national trio made up of UK vocalist/lyricist Sasha Perera, German producer Robert (Robot) Koch and Oren Gerlitz, multi-instrumentalist from Tel Aviv. Jahcoozi built a reputation on their wild live shows, and went on to make a name for themselves with their debut Fish. After being signed to Kitty-yo in 2005, the band produced their first long-player, Pure Breed Mongrel.

Jahcoozi's Myspace site reached an astonishing 100 thousand plays in only a matter of months and they even became Artist of The Month on New York based MTV DESI in November 2006 after their video made it to Nr. 4 in the request charts. 2006 also saw an invitation to remix UnknownmiX's The Siren for Ata's Playhouse label, and in 2007 Ewan Pearson's Fabric 35 mix CD featured Jahcoozi's Ali McBills.

www.jahcoozi.com

For her Islaja project, Merja Kokkonen (b.1979) constructs surrealist landscapes loosely aligned with aesthetics of the Finnish free-folk scene. The singer-songwriter has a richly nuanced vocal style; melancholic, Jandek-lite backed by a range of instruments – most of which she plays herself – guitar, harmonium, melodica, glockenspiel and miscellaneous percussion. Her arrangements are sparse, but nonetheless have a distinctly psychedelic feel. They range from delicately melodic to patently dissonant, often tinged with rock or Goth inflections.

Kokkonen made her solo debut in 2004 with Meritie, a distinctly acid-folk collection of thirteen songs that she wrote, played and recorded herself. She has since released two more albums as well as a CDr and a 7' single (split with TV-Resistori); all the official releases have been on Fonal Records, the independent label known for championing avant and outsider music from Finland. Kokkonen's 2007 album, Ulual Yyy, was received with critical acclaim for its beguiling atmospheres and textural qualities – notably the technique of layering slightly askew doubled vocals. Her third full length, the long player was also notable for it's absence of 'folky' signifiers - acoustic guitars and jingling bells disappeared and were replaced by electric guitar noise, synthesizers, piano and saturated drums – edging the music closer to psych-rock than psych-folk. While the lyric content of her songs is, being entirely in Finnish, unfathomable for most of her fans, the emotional messages communicated through Kokkonen's singing, speaking and whispering are completely accessible.

www.islaja.com

Xavier van Wersch (b.1976) short-circuits predictable machine responses to create physical, organic electronic music. The complex feedback networks he (re)constructs from defunct equipment are used to create compositions, performances and installations that explore human/machine relationships with control/chaos.

Originally from The Netherlands, Van Wersch was raised with classical piano and violin training which set the foundations for his experiments with composition and electronic music as a young teenager. At first spurning the conservative music academy for the freedom of visual arts, Van Wersch was eventually drawn back to study Sonology at The Hague's Royal Conservatory after discovering abstract electronic music. Van Wersch's final exam composition for the Conservatory, Odysseia, was included on the 2001 compilation His Master's Noise - The Institute Of Sonology, released on Dutch experimental label BVHaast Records. The compilation gathered pieces from artists who had worked or studied at the Institute for Sonology, including Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varese and Gyorgy Ligeti.

www.sonic-wargame.net
www.xaflab.tk

[Det.Ele.Funk Records]
"Put the fun(k) back into techno"

Paris The Black Fu, his multiple personalities and Mysterious Mr O, the butcher, are behind the Detroit Grand Pubahs, known for their capricious on-stage antics fuelled by techno beats and funk a la Parliament.

The Pubahs began in 1998 after the fortuitous meeting of founding members Mark Goudy (Paris The black Fu) and Andy Toth (Dr. Toefinger) in Michigan. They took the international club world by storm in 2000 with the track they are best known for, Sandwiches. The electrofunk-infused booty anthem became and underground hit in Detroit after it was released as the A-side of the Mad Circus EP in 1999 on the small independent label, Throw, run by Brian Gillespie. The lewd lyrics ensured fast exposure, and it was subsequently picked up New York based Jive Electro – a label most often associated with Groove Armada – as well as Pepper Records in the UK.

The duo's wild live performances sealed their success. As part of their 'put the fun(k) back into techno' agenda, they donned wigs, fake beards, outrageous costumes, or in Goudy's case, a skimpy thong. In May of 2000, the Detroit Grand Pubahs played to a packed house at the first Detroit Electronic Music Festival, wowing the crowd with a set that included Sandwiches as well as unreleased tracks. They toured extensively over the next couple of years and released their first full-length album, Funk All Y'all, a mix of funk, techno and bizarre booty on Intuit-Solar. After another single on Jive Electro the Pubahs began releasing singles on Steve Bug's Poker Flat Records in 2003, first The Clapper, followed by Big Onion in 2004, which led to their second album, Galactic Ass Creatures from Uranus.

www.myspace.com/detroitgrandpubahs

Though Andrea Sartori is a newcomer to the international scene, he's been active in his Italian hometown Bologna for years organizing events and performing live. Sartori's original sound is an alchemy of funk, dub, jazz and minimal techno, in his own words 'a recreational sound, which reminds one of the frivolity of 70s funk and fusion, the disengagement of video game and cartoon soundtracks and the Italian genre of Musica Leggera (easy listening).'

Sartori made his full-length album debut in 2007 with Il Tagliacode on Stewart Walker's Persona Records. The music was assembled from a large pool of live performances recorded Italy, with sonic textures coming from female voices, kalimba, live drums, guitar, electric piano, harp and incidental sounds. Sartori collaged and composed each track to develop the source material from each soloist into a comprehensive whole, processing the sounds, allowing the click/stutter/buzz constants of modern electronic music through, as well as employing reverb, tape delays, and distortion pedals to create a vintage acoustic space.

With the intention of using live samples to be woven in later, Sartori used mostly soft synths and virtual drum machines to craft the early arrangements and textures for Il Tagliacode. For the recordings, Sartori was invited to the studio of Giampiero Stramaccia, an Italian musician resident in Foligno (a calm city in Umbria, Italy and a retreat for many upcoming Italian jazz artists) during the summer of 2006. With a hard disk and some mics, Sartori moved into the studio for seven days where he was visited by some of the best musicians in the Umbrian scene. He explained themes he was interested in, recorded the musicians improvising around the theme, and later integrated the recordings into his work.

www.myspace.com/andreasartori
www.personarecords.com

Seamlessly arbitrary, the conjunction of elements ABOMINATIONS has put its filthy hands on and crushed together since its still very young inception appear to be like those elements' intrinsic character: profane. Genre-defining terms like grindcore, death-metal, black-metal, noise, and its many sub-divisions, call for specific images of genre, its audience, age group, musical mannerisms, social and dress codes, visual/ lyrical imagery and, depending on which side you position yourself, respect, fanaticism or hatred. From another side of the bay, improvisation, sound art, drones, layered sounds, performance art, electronic music and processing, sound poetry, and vocal artistry conjure up a tradition of modern thinking concerned with the evolutionary but critical aspects of development (and sometimes, academic laden over-intellectualization) that the arts have called for.

www.myspace.com/abominationsss

Guitarist Robert Piotrowicz is most often associated with the blurry areas of crossover between noise and electroacoustic improvisation. In his improv projects, Piotrowicz explores the sonic potential of electronics – usually in the form of synthesis – and the guitar, playing it with standard improv techniques that employ the instrument as a sound source bracketed off from normal connotations, using a bow for example, or metal, paper and other miscellany. Piotrowicz works on solo projects as well as studio and performance collaborations.

Piotrowicz started playing drums when he was twelve, and later switched to guitar, ending up with his own noise rock band in the 90s called Stuckoceiling. Around 1998, Anna Zaradny joined the group and they began to focus strongly on experimental and improvised music. In 2000, Piotrowicz began playing concerts with well know improv figures as John Butcher and Tony Buck. Around the same time, he and Anna Zaradny founded the label and festival MUSICA GENERA. Since 2002, all their activities have been strongly connected with the label, festival and improv/experimental events in Poland.

Rurokura and the Final Warn (2006) was Piotrowicz's first solo release, following recordings with Stuckonceiling; Can't Illumination, an album with Anna Zaradny and Burkhard Stangl; and CDR releases on Polycephal and Phase! Records. Rurokura and the Final Warn appeared on emd.pl/records, a label already boasting releases from Daniel Menche and Xavier Charles.

EMD Records
www.musicagenera.net

Leonard is something of a stalwart in the French electro mash-up scene, blending everything from hip-hop, French chanson, old school electro, electroclash, crunk, and club. He's known for the apocalyptic videogame rap he releases on Ekler'o'shock.

Born and raised in 70's suburban Paris, Leonard was in high school band, Cosmogonifutil, with Olaf Hund; together they released an album did a series of gigs. Later he started working with young director Laurent Hart, for whom he composed the music for the video game Borderland, and also for a series of short films, Cartonman. Both were nominated and awarded at festivals in Germany, Austria and Biennale de Lyon. In 2002, he traveled throughout France and Europe as a DJ and sound designer for Philippe Decoufle's Cyrk 13 (soundtrack by Olaf Hund). He's also composed music for a play, Universal Dancefloor (Night Fever Theatre Company).

Associated with the Musiques Hybrides label since 1999, Leonard began releasing music in 2003 beginning with the De Leonizer EP. His debut album, Leonizer Fever, followed in the same year. By the end of 2004, Leonard had finished his second solo album, 2, which featured appearances from guest rapper Maxx (ex The Goats). The album appeared on his own label Leonizer Records. A collaboration with Maxx was included on Matthieu Gazier's Ekler'o'shock label compilation, The Unexpektheadz, in 2005, leading to the production of Leonard's next record, Coup de Foudre, an EP with Maxx and French vocalist Meninamandine, an exploration of old school electro, crunk and electroclash.

Leonard de Leonard's newest EP Screaming Dance, is due for release on Ekler'o'shock, with remixes by Chris de Luca and Phon.o.

www.deleonard.com
www.myspace.com/leonarddeleonard

Tron Lennon is the collaborative performance project of Paul Bell (turntables) and John Ferguson (guitar). In their improvised performances, they integrate recorded material – audio and visual – by using it as a source to be mixed into a greater whole. Bell uses Ms Pinky VJ software to manipulate digital video via turntables, enabling him to finely control the speed and direction of clips, as well as allowing him to incorporate sounds from records with conventional mixing techniques. Ferguson, while contributing processed guitar sounds with unconventional modes of production, uses Max/Jitter and live camera feeds to weave performance gestures into re-recorded and synthetically generated visuals. The project has been nominated for the transmedile08 Award.

www.tronlennon.co.uk