Johan Gielen started DJ'ing at the age of 17 in his homecountry Belgium, and has during the latest 15 years build up an international fame spinning as a DJ in Japan, Australia, Germany, Spain, Holland, Belgium, England, Northern Eireland and Israel.
Besides DJ'ing Johan is a very sucessful trance producer working with his "partner in music" Sven Maes. Johan and Sven are behind European smash hits from Airscape, Balearic Bill and Abnea. Furthermore they are well known for their remixing skills which can be heard on productions on releases by Chicane, Delerium, Vengaboys, Ti�esto, Scooter, Boy George a.o. Most recently they have proved that they are also capable of creating commercial dance hits, just having finished a single for Alice DeeJay.
Currently, Johan Gielen and Sven Maes (Svenson) have broken up, going on their sepearate ways.
Belgium's Johan Gielen informs tense house beats with a trace of spiritual and ecological trance. Spinning records since he was a teenager and moving up through local discos and big-name clubs, Gielen's first taste of real success occurred in 1995 in Japan where owners of Tokyo's the Velfarre demanded a weekly residency. Although the distance proved worrying, Gielen agreed and continued to return to Belgium in-between stints to work on his own productions and remixes. The results of which -- Airscape's "Pacific Melody" and Alice Deejay's "The Lonely One" and remixes for Chicane, Vengaboys, Scooter, DJ Tiesto, and Boy George -- showed off a style of open-armed Ibizan benevolence well-suited for the rising late-night ebullient crowds in Holland and Wales. By 2000, Gielen was experiencing his biggest year to date. While working the festival circuit in Germany, South Africa, and Norway, he strengthened his ties to Sven Maes (Svenson & Gielen, Blue Bamboo, Body Heat), released mix albums (Academy of Trance and Trance Match), and formed his own production company, Johan Gielen Music Productions. Tiesto's Black Hole Recordings kept the heat on with the 2001 release of Gielen's In Trance We Trust 004, which sold more than 60,000 copies throughout the European territories. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
The roots of Boa can be found in Auburn Heights, Michigan in 1969 when high school student Ted Burris (bass, vocals, organ) enlisted fellow student Bob Maledon (piano, bass, organ, vocals), who he had seen jamming at a mutual friend's house. They met at Maledon's garage to play, where Paul Manning (guitar, vocals) heard the racket the twosome were making and had to be involved. The three continued jamming until deciding it was time to add other member. Brian Walton was recruited to play keyboards, and, after trying out numerous drummers, Richard Allen filled the drum seat. They called themselves Anvil and performed cover songs as well as a few band originals. In 1970 Anvil recorded an album at a Detroit studio that was never released, although a few acetates were made, before breaking up due to changing musical tastes. The members, however, got back together in 1971 and decided to give recording another shot. Instead of dusting off the Anvil moniker, the band chose to rename itself Boa. They recorded Wrong Road live on a two-track in a warehouse in Auburn Heights, and the album was privately pressed and released in March of 1971 with Manning taking the pseudonym Captain Hook since he was playing with another band at the time. Almost immediately after, the band broke up again and went their separate ways. ~ Stanton Swihart, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
Parker Gispert (vocals/guitar), Julian Dorio (drums), and Hank Sullivant (bass) create the rollicking indie rock sounds of the Whigs. With a jaunty mix of Westerberg-like style and a heartfelt country disposition, the Whigs made a name for themselves playing shows as students attending the University of Georgia. Additional opening slots for the likes of the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, and the Futureheards quickly followed for the Whigs, thus leaving their 2005 debut album Give 'Em All A Big Fat Lip to be picked up by ATO Records. Rolling Stone also hailed the Athens, GA trio as one of the "10 Artists To Watch" in 2006. A headlining tour and a shared jaunt with Jonezetta and Mute Math coincided the reissue of Give 'Em All A Big Fat Lip that fall. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
Since Beequeen will no longer be releasing drone-music, Wander was formed in the winter of 2000. Principally based on organ-drones, Wander has plans to release their material on various formats, but on every format only once. There's a nice challenge...
French DJ-producer born in Paris. He played on radio stations, before becoming resident in the legendary Paris club "Palace", where he played every Sunday. In 1992 he started producing together with Laurent Pautrat. Since then, he has had a huge number of releases and remixes.
Zero came together in San Francisco in 1984 as the brainchild of guitarist Steve Kimock and drummer Greg Anton. Both accomplished musicians, the two met while playing together in the Heart of Gold Band which later evolved into Ghosts. In the early years, Zero's lineup was rather fluid but the group still managed to release a few independent albums: their debut in 1987, Here Goes Nothin', the sophomore effort in 1990, Nothin' Goes Here, and their live album in 1991, Live: Go Hear Nothin'. In these early years their main focus was extended instrumental jam-oriented songs.
In 1992 the band took a bit of a different musical direction by teaming up with legendary Grateful Dead songwriter Robert Hunter. To sing his lyrics the group brought in local Bay Area blues singer Judge Murphy. The band quickly began a more intense collaboration and in the process managed to put together a more stable lineup. This resulted in their 1994 major label debut, Chance in a Million, a live album recorded in the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. The collaboration with Hunter continued and in 1997 the band released a self-titled studio album. This was followed with another live album Nothin' Lasts Forever in 1998. ~ Curtis Zimmermann, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
David Friesen's music ranges from hard bop to mood music that borders on spiritual new age but on a higher emotional level. While stationed in Germany with the Army in 1961, he taught himself the bass. After short stints with John Handy and Marian McPartland, Friesen worked with Joe Henderson for two years. He toured Europe with Billy Harper (1975), made his recording debut as a leader that same year on Muse, started a longtime musical association with guitarist John Stowell (1976), and appeared with Ted Curson at the 1977 Monterey Jazz Festival. After working with Ricky Ford, Duke Jordan, and Mal Waldron and touring the U.S.S.R. with Paul Horn (1983), Friesen settled in the Pacific Northwest. He often plays the Oregon bass (an electrified acoustic bass) these days and has recorded as a leader for Muse, Inner City, SteepleChase, Palo Alto, ITM (including an intriguing series of duets during 1992-1993), and Global Pacific, in addition to some smaller labels. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
Born November 7. 1967 in Paris, France. He's been a DJ at several different clubs since the early 1980's. His first album, "Just A Little More Love", was released in 2002, ten years after his first single "Up & Way".
France's David Guetta belongs to the sparkling wave of DJs that combine Daft Punk's sleek house with a pinch of electroclash's punch. Guetta had been DJing around France playing popular tunes, but his brain was particularly rewired in 1987 when he heard a Farley Jackmaster Funk track on French radio. He taped the track, took it to a gig, and cleared the floor with it during one of his own sets. Things loosened up a year later when acid house came to France and Guetta successfully promoted his own club nights. It was on one of those nights in 1992 that he met Robert Owens during the Chicago house legend's European tour. Guetta played Owens some of his own tracks and Owens picked one he liked enough to sing over. It was "Up and Away," a minor hit that lurked in garage DJ crates for the next four years.
Guetta's attitude that he only produces good music while he's having casual fun kept him from releasing anything until 2001's "Just a Little More Love." The track featured American gospel singer Chris Willis, who met Guetta while on vacation in France. Another slow burner, "Just a Little More Love," kept popping up in sets for the next two years, first in an electro version, later in a pumped-up Wally Lopez remix. During this time Guetta snuck out a bootleg remix of David Bowie's "Heroes," retitled "Just for One Day." Bowie gave the go-ahead to release the track officially and Guetta had a massive hit on his hands. Guetta featured the liberated boot on his first mix CD, Fuck Me I'm Famous, named after Guetta's successful Ibiza-based party. The fun-loving slacker DJ finally got around to releasing a collection of his own productions in 2004, Just a Little More Love on Astralwerks. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)
A former bouncer at punk clubs, Joseph Williams, Jr. was the first of the New York rappers to embrace gangsta rap, and when he burst out of Ft. Greene, Brooklyn as Just-Ice, he gained instant notoriety. Muscle-bound, tattooed, aggressive -- he resembled Mike Tyson in more than just looks -- and with a mouthful of gold teeth, he certainly stood out. His debut album Back to the Old School proved he was more than just a pretty face. It came out on the independent New York label Sleeping Bag, and certainly sounded like no other hip-hop album, thanks to his fast, forceful rhymes, DMX's human beatbox as well as the distinctive production of Mantronix's Kurtis Mantronik.
When he was held by Washington, D.C., police regarding the murder of a drug dealer in 1987 ("Murder, Drugs, and the Rap Star" read a Washington Post headline), it gave him an even greater notoriety (he was never charged with the murder). Declaring war on D.C.'s go-go scene and loudly criticizing Run D.M.C. (then the ruling New York rap outfit), Just-Ice set a pattern for many a future hip-hop feud. Little could halt Just-Ice's ascension to hip-hop stardom, though the departure of Mantronik from Sleeping Bag was a bad omen. KRS-One stepped in to produce 1987's Kool & Deadly, an album that swapped Mantronik's hi-tech skills for raw, elemental beats and rhymes. The British and New York public that had so enthusiastically embraced Back to the Old School were diffident about this one, and 1989's The Desolate One (with KRS-One back in the producer's seat) was no great improvement. By 1990, both Just-Ice and Sleeping Bag appeared to be quickly fading as a new generation of rappers and labels overtook them. He continued to release albums at intervals across the 1990s, but they were on tiny independent labels and were rarely noticed. Just-Ice was a member of hip-hop super session, the Stop the Violence All Stars, who released one single ("Self Destruction") in 1990. The revival of interest in old-school rap in the late '90s created fresh demand for Back to the Old School, but Just-Ice appeared unwilling or unable to capitalize on the renewed interest. ~ Garth Cartwright, All Music Guide (from mp3.com)