“Matthew Herbert is a musician and producer working predominantly in the field of electronic music. Known for ignoring the boundaries and mangling the conventions traditionally associated with the genre, he is one of the few independently-minded artists to have made a considerable impact on both media and public while striving to be innovative and experimental. As a recording artist since 1996 he has released music on a variety of record labels under aliases such as Doctor Rockit, Wishmountain, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, Transformer, under his own name and with the Matthew Herbert Big Band. In recent years he has played at The Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals, Paris Pompidou Centre, Tokyos Blue Note, Sonar and Glastonbury and supported Bjõrk at the Hollywood Bowl. Along with over ten albums of self-written, produced and performed music, he has contributed production work to albums by Björk and Roisin Murphy and remixed artists as varied as Moloko, R.E.M., Perry Farrell, Serge Gainsbourg, Yoko Ono, John Cale, The Avalanches and Cornelius. He also owns and runs Accidental Records. ”

http://www.last.fm/music/Matthew+Herbert

Duration : 0:6:8

[youtube 2h2X8gXn49Y]

“Miguel Migs (real name Michael Steward, also known by the pseudonym Petalpusher) is a Deep House Disc jockey and producer from San Francisco, California.

Migs began his music career at 18 years old, as a lead guitarist and songwriter for a Santa Cruz local band called Zion Sounds. The band split up in the mid-1990s, however Zion Sounds african and jamaican style is said to have been a major influence in Migs personal career. After the band dissolved, Miguel Migs went on to explore electronic music production.

Miguel has produced over 100 remixes to date, including remixes for a number of mainstream artists. Such artists include Britney Spears, Macy Gray and Lionel Richie. Migs has been associated with a variety of record labels, most notably Naked Music Recordings.

In 1998 Miguel co-founded the deep house record label Transport Recordings, along with fellow DJ MFR and Naked Music label director Bruno Ybarra. According to a 2004 article by Stephen Thanabalan in DJ Magazine, Migs was credited for his soul-driven vibes and hailed as one of the pioneers of the nascent house and chill-out revival scene alongside Dimitri from Paris and Bob Sinclair as a result of his early foray into Deep House in the late 1990s and early 2000s, releasing several highly sought after singles and remixes under the Petalpusher pseudonym. Most recently, in 2005, he founded Salted Music, a record label under Om Records.

Miguel Migs stands at the forefront of electronic musics soulful realm. Whether tackling his original productions or remixes, he achieves an organic-soulful sound by combining the best of both the electronic music world and live instrumentation.

For many years, Miguels productions have been included on countless compilations and his records have slid into the crates of top DJs across the globe. His music has also landed on numerous TV Shows, including Six Feet Under, Sex in the City, and MTVs Road Rules and Real World.

Contrary to many of his club-centric DJ/producer peers, Miguel is not always concerned with the potential dance floor appeal of his soulful tracks. Its music you can enjoy and listen to at home, in the club, or anywhere. Not necessarily just to rock the dance floor. explains the Northern California native, who grew up with a true love of reggae, soul, classic rock, jazz, hip-hop and just about everything else.

His impressive discography includes more than 100 original productions and remixes on seminal independent labels such as Salted Music, Naked Music, Astralwerks, Yoshitoshi, NRK, Black Vinyl, Large, Chez, Transport Recordings, Om Records, Defected Records and many others. His recordings have consistently made waves in the underground circuit and have landed on DJ hype charts internationally. He is highly regarded when it comes to remixes, having worked with major label artists such as Macy Gray, Lionel Ritchie and Britney Spears. Miguel additionally has released numerous mix CD compilations on labels including Defected, Naked Music, Southport Weekender and NRK.

Never one to sit still, Migs started his own label Salted Music in 2004. Having been associated with an extensive number of labels throughout his career, he came to realize a desire to have his own base, a vehicle for building his own catalogue of quality material. Salted Music is a foundation for Migs to choose and release music that inspires him, as well as release his own productions and compilations.

As a producer, Miguel realizes a strong connection between his electronic music productions and live musical background. He writes his own lyrics and plays his own instruments, be it guitar, bass, percussion or keyboard.

As a DJ, Miguel was recognized and nominated for best DJ in the 2004 House Music Awards held in London. Migs maintains the same approach to his sets as to his productions, combining a variety of influences and styles fused together. The result is funky, deep, soulful, bumping house music. I like to mix it up and keep it moving smoothly, taking the dance floor through a very spontaneous mix into the realms of quality, deep house music depending on the mood in the room, says Migs. But, whether its vocal, tracky, dubby, moody, percussive or broken beat, the sound always remains soulful and funky.”

http://www.last.fm/music/Miguel+Migs

Duration : 0:4:49

[youtube AgSbmP-A9eE]

“Aril Brikha (1976-) is a producer from Stockholm (though born in Teheran, Iran) who initially discovered electronic music listening to the likes of Depeche Mode, Front 242 and Jean Michel Jarre before discovering the more futuristic sounds of people like Robert Hood and Underground Resistance.
When not getting any respond in the native country he sent a demo to some of his favourite record labels stateside. Before he knew it Derrick May released The Art Of Vengeance EP featuring the track Groove La Chord on his Fragile record label in 1998, and was playing it all around the world. This was followed by the release of the Deeparture In Time album also on Transmat.
His live sets has been highly appreciated all the way from DEMF in Detroit to Fabric in London, playing his take on Detroit-techno with his special soul and funk to it.”

http://www.last.fm/music/Aril+Brikha

Duration : 0:7:0

[youtube VigsTSQppsY]

“The Real Thing, a Liverpool based vocal group, had its origins in the Merseybeat boom of the 1960s. Lead Singer Eddie Amoo was a former band member of The Chants, whose beat singles gathered considerable critical acclaim, although they failed to chart. After continuing to record for various record labels, the band name was eventually dropped.

Re-labelled as The Real Thing, and with brother Chris Amoo, Ray Lake and Dave Smith on board, they got their big break following an appearance on the “Opportunity Knocks” ITV talent show. Spotted by an ex-Radio Luxembourg DJ, Tony Hall, he played a significant part in their early career development. Even so, success was not immediate, and contracts they signed with a couple of major record labels came to nothing, before signing to Pye Records in 1975. A spell acting as backing singers on tour with David Essex, also helped to increase their profile.

With a song written and produced by Ken Gold and Mick Denne, The Real Thing finally emerged in 1976 when “You To Me Are Everything” sailed up to the Number One slot in the UK singles chart.

It led off a list of nine hits on Pye over a three year period, which included “Can’t Get By Without You”, and “Can You Feel The Force”, both of which were top five success stories.

Their brand of commercial sweet soul music, mixed with disco influences, established their popularity with the British audience. They were the UK’s best selling black group of the late 1970s, but a switch to the Calibre record label in 1980 slowed the momentum. Subsequent material fared less well, although remixes of their first two hits charted some 10 years after their original release.

The group, with three of the founder members still on board, continue to perform and record to this day

Chris Amoo is also a regular on the Dog Show circuit, the highlight coming in 1987, when his Afghan Hound, Champion Viscount Grant, was crowned Supreme Champion at Crufts.”

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Real+Thing

Duration : 0:3:49

[youtube OAP9F-_twyE]

“Thievery Corporation is a Washington DC-based production and DJ duo consisting of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton and their supporting artists.

Their music can be characterized as downtempo/electronica with influences of dub, acid jazz, indian classical and brazilian styles fused together with a lounge aesthetic.

Thievery Corporation is on the Eighteenth Street Lounge record label named after the swank DC club owned by Eric Hilton, but several of their singles and EP’s appear on the 4AD and !K7 labels.

In 2002, they released The Richest Man in Babylon on their ESL label. This fifteen track album is similar in sound and timbre to The Mirror Conspiracy and features performances by vocalists Emiliana Torrini, Pam Bricker, and LouLou.

Indra, the third track from The Mirror Conspiracy, was featured in the opening shots of The West Wing season five episode Gaza and in an MTV(India) promo for the programme Non Stop Hits.

The group also received support from Scrubs star, Zach Braff, when Braff used the title track on ‘Lebanese Blonde (1998) on the soundtrack of his film Garden State. This resulted in boosted sales for the group after the film’s release.”

http://www.last.fm/music/Thievery+Corporation

Duration : 0:3:57

[youtube MFAq-OG2NhY]

“In 1998, Musicom, (a three piece from Brussels consisting of Pierre Mussche, Ernst Meinrath and Renaud Charlier), began crafting tracks of cool electronic ambience mixed with orchestral hip-hop, as soundtracks for adverts and underground films. Scottish born Esra Tasasiz was working in Brussels at that time writing and composing songs with various Brussels based artists. She joined Musicom and the four decided to work together on recording a short piece of music.

It was during these sessions that it soon became obvious that their creative output worked outside the confines of cinematography and Airlock were formed.

The production of their first album ‘Drystar’ stretched over a period of two-and-a-half-years. During this time Airlock met with cult film director Oliver Van Hoofstadt and wrote some tracks in conjunction with the making of three of his films – Keo, Snuff Movie, and Parabellum. ‘Face Down’ the composition that appeared on Parabellum, finally made its way via European radio stations to the desks of British record labels as part of a demo. After being spoilt for choice, they signed up with One Little Indian on which ‘Drystar’ was released in 2001.

The connection between Airlock and films was kept alive with their work on Roman Coppola’s the “Making of” of CQ. Furthermore, many tracks from ‘Drystar’ were used in films and series such as “CSI”, “CSI Miami”, “As If”, “Model Behaviour”, “5 go dating”, and more.

Airlock began work on their second album. The album was completed in October however, before they had played the album to anybody, all of the masters were destroyed in a studio fire. Airlock had to re-record the entire album! Whilst the studio was being rebuilt, the band decided to write some new songs for the album and worked in an improvised studio with minimal equipment. Though they had to change their working habits by that (the band considered this as a positive challenge), it also gave them the opportunity to concentrate more on the writing itself.

The new album ‘Symptomatic’ has elements of tension, naivety, strength, conviction, vulnerability and freedom.

Compared to their debut with its various musical directions, ‘Symptomatic’ is more coherent. There are less instrumental tracks and warm sounds of analog synths are used on all tracks. The content of the album however, deals with a mixture of emotions, experiences and expressions (or symptoms…) resulting from the issues Airlock had to face.”

http://www.last.fm/music/Airlock

Duration : 0:5:52

[youtube oEWRILNwRNI]

12″, 33 1/3 RPM Vinyl Long Playing records – invented by Peter Goldmark in 1948.

From “CBS SUNDAY MORNING” 2-2008

Duration : 0:6:50

[youtube tggLYE87Ed0]