ARTISTS « Marendadisc - label collective

Aqua Bassino

aqua-bassino-myspace

“Jazziest Brother”

Edinburgh born Aqua Bassino aka Jason Robertson released his first material on Laurent Garnier and Eric Morand’s cult F-Communications imprint back in 1995. It was the beginning of a fruitful relationship that spawned a number of EP releases, and two albums, namely 1998’s Beat’s N Bobs and 2006’s Rue De Paris. Over the years, Aqua Bassino has remixed the likes of Norma Jean Bell, Joseph Malik, François Dubois and more recently Charles Webster. Jason Robertson now lives in Barcelona and presents with Manuel Perez his first artist release on Lace: «Luv’Inside», following on from a remix of Alton Miller’s Everyday I Do.

more info

http://www.myspace.com/aquabassino

Bonnie Drasko

bonnie-drasko-1

“Ampurdan’s Groove Master”

Who is Bonnie Drasko?

He is a Spanish DJ and producer named Marius F, who is from Northern Catalonia. Born in 1981, Drasko has had a long love affair with music. He started his musical studies aged 8 and later discovered the joys of electronic dance music.

Aged 18, Bonnie Drasko moved to Barcelona, where he fell under the spell of the city’s club scene, inspired by sounds emanating from Detroit, Chicago and Berlin. In 2004, Drasko started DJing and making his own music, inspired by styles such as techno, house, minimal, disco and electro. In the last five years, he has DJ’d at many clubs and parties. He has released a number of his own tracks on digital labels and other platforms.

more info

http://www.myspace.com/bonniedrasco

Tunis Diaspora

“The Sliti Bros”

Tunis Diaspora is the project name uniting the 3 Sliti brothers. All 3 born and raised in the area of Ibn Khaldoun in Tunis, they are DJs and producers on their own rights. Their dedication for Detroit and Chicago sounds is a known fact. With their Tunis Diaspora Project they wanted to mix those two influences with their North African and Mediterranean roots. The result is a series of 3 tracker EP’s where they will expose their definition of deep house and techno: It is funky, raw and heavy on percussion.

Their story began in the mid-eighties when big brother Mourad got hooked by the hip-hop movement and became a skilled break-dancer, before his passion slipped into creative DJing, which lead him to open his music culture to Jazz, Soul, Funk, R’n’B and later on House, Garage and Techno, always working for the local clubs.
Further to becoming Tunisia’s electronic music pioneer, he moved in 1991 to Gothenburg, Sweden where he continued his DJ career. From there he turned to be an important figure of the Swedish club-scene, bringing over and played all over Europe and Asia, also federating worldwide audiences with his popular radio shows broadcasted on stations such as Mark fm, City fm (Sweden) , Selekta (U.S.A), Interface Pirate Radio (UK) and Mfm (Switzerland)… As an accomplished producer, Mourad has released many of his tracks for labels such as, G-Force, Eloge, Rachdingue, Soul People Music, Next Dimension Music, Selekta … and remixed artists like Hakan lidbo, Alton Miller, Manuel Perez or Pawel Kobak.

The second brother of the three - Nabil - started already mixing in 1992/1993 before migrating to Geneva, Switzerland where he also continued his career, establishing himself as one of this country most effective and creative Djs, working for clubs like : Le Pretexte , FBI , Alhambar , Fenomeno, 2eme Bureau, l´Aiglon, l´Ethno, Scandale…which naturally lead him to get into putting up together some nice tracks with his very special energetic touch.

It did not take long before the youngest - Dali - found his place behind the decks.
He followed to the letter what he was taught by his precursors and, just like them, also moved to Europe and chose Paris as a place to live and get inspired by. Before long, he hooked with the essential house players of the French and international scene and got some cool releases on labels like Soul People Music, Selekta …

Geneva, Paris and Gothenburg are a living part of their respective music production, and you can hear it in what they do, but at the end of the day they all meet at the same point if it ain´ t Detroit, it must be Chicago… with on top that unique and specific oriental vibe only them could create… It’s a family affair!

more info

www.myspace.com/djdalisliti

www.myspace.com/nabilsliti

www.myspace.com/djmouradsliti

Alton Miller

“Detroit’s Legend”

Growing up in the 1970’s in the Motor City, Alton Miller was molded, shaped and reared on Stevie Wonder, Santana, Parliament Funkadelic and the Philadelphia sound…

It was during the early 80’s Alton became friends with a young Derrick May that he decided to start spinning records, citing DJs such as Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan and Timmy Regisford as prime influences.

By the latter part of the same decade, Miller joined forces with George Baker and Chez Damier to start the Music Institute, which was one of the epicentres of the underground House Movement, helping to create the musical volcano that erupted worldwide in 1988.

Between 1989 and 1991 he toured the world with his music. Alton’s affinities for rhythms inspired him to take up conga drumming, leading to an accompaniment for the locally based Katherine Dunham Dance Company. Drumming and its connections to rhythms of all music have proven to be influential to his musical growth…

He then joined forces once again with Derrick May, first as an employee of the artist’s Transmat Records label. Besides his EP on Transmat’s sub-label Fragile, Alton recorded “Pleasure Baby” for Serious Grooves/KMS Records. “I Like Having You” was a debut for his vocal talents. “Dusk” was recorded under the pseudonym Aphrodisiac and was critically acclaimed on both European and North American charts.

By the mid to late ’90s, he had increased his presence in the Detroit area through a number of DJ performances and a stream of stunning twelves.

Since his early recordings Alton has amassed worldwide success and exposure as a House music producer or DJ, and he has recorded and released music for some of the best independent labels in the industry. Guidance Recordings and BPM Records were plateaus for Alton’s inner growth as a musician and songwriter / producer.

Past and recent releases include recordings for Planet E, King Street/Nitegrooves, Trackmode Records, Moods and Grooves and KDJ. Alton teamed up with vocalist / playwriter Dorothea Sharon on their debut single “Glory” for the Japanese label Life Line Records.

Alton debuted on Peacefrog in 2003, with his first album “Stories from Bohemia”, a powerful, moving collection of mature jazz tinged, soulful house grooves with flavours of African and roots music… The release of “Chose to Believe” (Original full vocal) and “My Life” on Deeper Soul Recordings out of Chicago debuted at nr 42 on the DJ Mag Breaks and Beats chart. The recent release of “Abstract Messages” (feat Enid) on Seasons Limited, or his album “Souls Like Mine” on R2/BBE, has also strengthen his position as one of the most influential leader of thedeep-house/nu-jazz scene in the world.

Altons remix credits to date include: Sean Deason’s “Allegory Metaphor” on Intuit-Solar, Jacob Desvarieux’s “An Di Adie” on Distance, Kenny Carvel’s “Rise ” (featuring the late John Redmond) on Music 101 and Llorca’s “I Cry” featuring Mandel Tuner on F-com.

more info

http://www.exchangebureaumusic.com/altonmiller/
http://www.myspace.com/altohit
http://www.myspace.com/altonmillerdj
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Alton+Miller

Alex Augé

“Jazz Player”

Aside of being a Europe-class respected jazz player, Alex Augé happens to be graduate as jazz and modern-music teacher. He has been working for well known music high schools like « JAM - Jazz action Montpellier », « Cité de la Musique de Marseille » or « Conservatoire de Béziers », and more recently for “Conservatoire National de Région de Perpignan » where he could develop some ambitious cultural projects.

With his very eclectic background, Alex has played saxophone as long as he can remember, which led him to perform with many jazz bands (Catalan Sax, Nahman, Mahjong 4tet, André Mallau…), duets (Entre Deux) and other big-bands, but also in traditionnal acts (Mescladissa, La Cancon de la Mina, Les Voix du Sud), as well as institutionnal ones (Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra).

Also influence by the Jamaican sounds, his great experience allowed him to « reach the charts » with contributions to successful projects such as Regg’lyss or The Wailers.

Into avant-guarde music, Alex Augé has participated to some cutting-edge releases from « Palumbo » and he is currently partner in crime of Raph Dumas with « Jazzamix » and « The Primaveras » studio project live acts.

On top of his many activities as live performer, music teatcher, project leader, song-writer and composer, Alex Augé has created Deepart Productions and Publishing and runs one of the most established recording studio in South West of France.

more info
www.myspace.com/jazzamix

Maria Angeli

maria-angeli1

“London-Rome”

Born in the sensual city of Rome into a renowned Italian family heritage of household-name artists and film makers, it was only a matter of time before Maria Angeli’s own natural talents as a performing artist would simmer to the top. To capture and nurture this raw and exploding creative force, Maria was promptly sent to train at top performing arts schools. It was not long though before she realized that the harder she tried to resist the temptation, the more seductive the idea of relocating to the most dazzling and dynamic European city to pursue her artistic career became. So at the tender age of seventeen, Maria trusted her instincts and packed her bags and moved to London. After an initial avalanche of acting work in various stage productions, short films and commercials, Maria made an executive decision to focus on her true calling: a musical career as a singer songwriter. In 2001 she stood behind a studio microphone for the very first time to belt out deep, sultry house vocals that would blow away Swedish-based DJ and producer Pawel Kobak. This creative collaboration and Maria’s evocative and seductive voice resulted in the two seminal tracks: “You Got Me” and “Looking After No.1″ that were later released as the cornerstone of Kobak’s now hugely successful record label, Route 45 (www.route45.com) In 2002 a chance encounter with London-based DJ and producer Stephen Wakeling, and veteran guitarist Bruce Lister sowed the seeds that are today yielding the fruits of a formidable and copious creative partnership on the verge of musical greatness. Performing as ReddMoon, Maria Angeli and her production partners recently completed their forthcoming album, “Between Earth & Air”, a tour de force of soul-laced electronica, chilled-atmospheric down tempo, and warm, dreamy British folk that will silence any naysayers or so called musical purists. The album was a labor of love for the trio and the perfect vehicle for Maria’s wonderfully velvet and seductive voice. It features an impressive and diverse list of guest musicians including Heather Hoyle, JOndrums, Leon Grant, and members of The London philharmonic orchestra. Tracks to look out for include “Once In a ReddMoon”, “How Could We?”, “Where Do We Go?” and “Ten”. And while her ReddMoon project was coming to fruition, the highly prolific Maria was not sitting idly on the side twiddling her thumbs. She features on three pure electronica tracks on the “Elektric Red” album part of the cutting edged KosmetiQ collection: “Modern Life” remixed by Detail and Stereovox, released on Qritikal records Revox and “Made in Italy” compilation, in February 2008 reached n.8 in Music Week’s upfront club charts. “Doin Jus Fine” also remixed by DETAIL and Frankie Fiasco, released on Qritickal records and “Underneath” one of the first releases also on Qritikal. Maria has also collaborated with London-based musicians/producers, Steve McCarthy and Toby Griffin, under their Parallel outfit. That project gave birth to numerous tracks, including “Something In My Head” that will feature prominently on Parallel’s forthcoming album to be released on i-label (www.myspace.com/parallelsound). And when you possess the vocal prowess of Maria Angeli, you don’t just hide between the technical wizardry of a recording studio – you take your live music show on the road. Maria performs regularly at some of the hottest venues in London, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, and Ibiza including Pacha, The Mermaid Theatre, Akab, and Yab. Maria’s refreshingly diverse vocal range and songwriting abilities have allowed her to work on a plethora of projects alongside established, progressive, and talented producers and musicians. Watch this space for live performance venues and record release dates.

more info
http://www.myspace.com/mariaangeli

Uninvited Partners

“Special Guests”

Uninvited Partners is a duet born in 2003 and revealed by the Tilt Festival in 2004 when they win the remix competition.
With a strong musical personality and a wish to create new bounds, they work in close collaboration with Enjoy & Lace Recording team, which put them at a professional level.

Sure that music melts quicker than people, the two Parisian go on this experience by adapting all their work into an astounding live, always playing at the edge of techno, electro, rock and deep house. A tour in Spain and France follows the next summer. On this occasion, they don’t hesitate to adapt great classics such as a remix of Nirvana’s “smells like teen spirit” or a bootleg of Juan Atkins’ “Jazz is the teacher”. They perform in famous places such as The Rachdingue or The City Hall in Barcelona. At the end of this tour, they sign “evd 66 connected” with Rachdingue Records.

The two following years give birth to several collaborations, including one with Philippe Monrose (Brooklyn funk essential) under the aka Talking World such as “on the rock’s” which is published on “Urban Walking” compilation.
Our duet gets also more and more interested in music applied to imagery and creates for short films such as “Couleurs amères” and “Guirilandia”.
They also create for particular visual concepts such as “the white horse” for 20B4.
Still wanting to be on stage, the duet keeps on performing in famous places such as the school of art “Villa Arson” in Nice or the micro club “la macarena” in Barcelona.

Strongly influenced by the music from Detroit, Univited Partners begins to work on a long-time-thought project with the writing of a music part directly inspired by techno’s first movements.
This part, entitled “Pyramide”, is signed in 2007 on Deeplay Soultec label and is unanimously approved by famous Dj’s such as Laurent Garnier, D’julz or Carl Craig.
Now performing also as a dj set, Uninvited Partners creates an original concept by mixing jazz, reggae, hip hop and techno, the last remaining their first reference. They set up in Paris, at the “Cello” club. In July, following their success with “Pyramide” and their applaused performance as djs, the parisian duet is invited at the famous “Jazz Festival de Montreux”, which they close on the Jazz Café’s stage with Claude Nobs himself.

After a break in 2008, the parisian duet comes back in 2009 by signing a remix of Hakan Lidbo on Enjoy Recordings and another one of Alton Miller on Lace Recordings. Always looking for new challenges, they keep on imagining new concepts with their friends Manuel Perez, Harmonalogik, Labulo, Jean Cédric, Philippe Monrose, Raph Dumas, Geoffroy aka Mugwump, Aqua Bassino and the whole team of Marendadisc.

http://www.myspace.com/uninvitedpartners

Max Cherry

“Trendy Not Only”

After being an active promoter of Enjoy and Lace record labels in Paris, Max Cherry, together with his mate Esteban, decided in 2004 to launch their own label : Vicky Productions.

In the beginning of 2005 Vicky Productions’ 2nd single (002) reached the second position of the “Dance charts” in England.

After developing further skills in music making and record promoting, Max Cherry stays now focused on his own productions for Vicky ; working on the side for eclectic projects such as Hektor (an electro-rock band he’s a part of) and Full Clip ( Hip-hop duet with a MC that is preparing his first album out in early 2010).

On the club scene, Max Cherry pays tribute in his mixes to all his musical influences, from brazilian beats to jazz through rock, funk and electro, in a permanent search of originality.

He’s, since recently, associated with another DJ, Franck Garcia, for a hi-energy 2 desks performance that should make some buzz in the months to come.

His last productions : one track “We love” and one remix for the hip-hop and house collective “Rouge à lèvres” consisting of Disiz La Peste, Grems and IVromain. Those tracks are included in the album “Démaquille-toi”.

Max has also been resident DJ in several prestigious clubs in Paris : le Wax, le Batofar, la Fabrique and performed as a guest in many others like le Pulp, le Nouveau Casino, le Dulcinea (Istambul), l’Opus, le Space , Le Mimo’s, Les Planches, Le Réservoir, L’Eurosport, Le MCM Café, Le Blau, Rachdingue (Espagne), l’Ailleurs (Toulouse), l’Absolut (Canet Plage), L’Africatek (Nîmes), le Bazar (Marseille), El Médiator…

He had been lined up with Daft Punk, Birdy Nam Nam, Digitalism, The Hacker, Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia, DJ Zebra, DJ Rork, DJ Sneak, Joakim, Almost, Esteban Bob Sinclar, Demon Ritchie, DJ Q, Roussia, Manuel Perez, John Thomas, Cyril K, Raphaël Dumas, Modaji, Ariel Wizman, Ivan Smagghe, Joe Davies, Claude Young, DJ Mellow…

http://www.myspace.com/maxcherryvicky

http://www.myspace.com/vickyproductions

http://www.myspace.com/hektorinyourface

selective discography

VCK001 : First Place EP (Vicky Productions)
VCK002 : Vicky Dance On Both Sides (Vicky Productions)
VCK003 : 003 (Vicky Productions)
VCK004 : ControlAltSup-Juskisses Remix (Vicky Productions)
VCK005 : I’am a Funky Man (Vicky Productions)
ENJ016 : Beat Conductor (Enjoy Recordings)
“We Love ” : Rouge à Levres (undercover)
“In A relationship” : Franck Garcia (Max Cherry Remix) (soon)
“Pas Assez Bien Pour Toi ?” : Hektor
“First album” : Full Clip “Soon”

LaBulo

“South’ sick sounds”

LaBulo was founded in 2002 by Julien Valette and Jerome Hoffmann. After several soundtracks specifically designed for theatre companies as well as museum and gallery exhibitions like works with the New York-based physical theatre company XP-Girl. This Montpellier-based duet started a live-act and some leftfield electronica dubby cool recordings. They appeared on the Rachdingue compilation in 2005 and got to remix « Pyramide » by Uninvited Partners (Paris) on the Swedish label Deeplay Soultec (Sweden). Also featuring on the Musik Discover compilation (Fr), they recorded a live session with 121 Records (Fr) and made a remix of the Swedish Hakan Lidbo. They just reased on the label Eklektik Records « 2 sides Vol3 ».

LaBulo plays an electro-house music with some sample action but with melodic qualities. A music made out of spontaneity, often composed while being performed live using laptop computers,… LaBulo’s music also borrows its harmonic lines from jazz. The instrumental texture, and the bouncing energy of its grooves, are influenced by funk music : Amplified guitars, Fender rhodes and electric bass blend with experimental sounds discovered in their research lab named BuloLab.
LaBulo live set gradually takes dancers from cosy entertaining house music to a more radical and polished sound environement.

more info
http://www.eklektikrecords.com - http://www.myspace.com/labulo

Nice

“Science fiction’s best friend”

Nice started his career as a DJ in the mid-nineties while he turned his attention towards Acousmatic music, which he studied under Denis Dufour. He then became an interpreter of the Acousmonium Motus as well as keeping a keen interest for the world of electronic music.

Attracted by a mixture of creative universes, he officiates the dressing of sound through many different means: fashion shows, installations, contemporary dance… His compositions are laced with his experience, and we can immediately feel his love of precise, chiselled sounds that - combined with a strangeness and fantasy - are the psychedelic expression of his creative liberty.

Nice unleashed his first production in 1999, the funky track “Sport & Detente” on the very first release of Lace Recordings. Two house singles followed up under the project name Babydoll (Enjoy Recordings) with Raph Dumas. Many releases in various styles came out since those days, with outstanding work on labels like Wrong Steps, Ruby Breakfast, Karat Records, Soulsoleil, Very Important Music, VirMinisketch, Feinwerk, Stickymouk, Force Inc, DTC Records, Famille Electro…

As a DJ, Nice plays eclectic and electric sets all over Europe, mixing minimal, house, funky techno and other hidden gems. To be listened and danced to, his fresh mix keeps the dance-floor banging and he leaves his audience tired out but always smiling!

single and ep