Nick Curly
After six years of running the respected Cécille Records and establishing it as a go to label for fans of a certain strain of house music, the label is going on something of a hiatus. As such, Nick Curly is now focussing on his other main interest, 8Bit Records, and it will be here that the German DJ and producer will hone in once again on the deep and tracky tech house sound that made him so well known in the first place. As well as releasing more of his own EPs, he will of course continue to A&R new talent for the label at the same time as continuing to work with friends and peers like Johnny D and Marcus Fix, who have been a constant throughout Curly’s musical life.
In 2014 the Nick Curly also enters a pantheon of DJ greats with his entry into Defected’s hallowed In the House mix series. It’s a perfect hook up given his close relationship with the label – not only did Defected re-release his debut artist album, Between The Lines, in 2012, but they also helped serve up some killer remixes of it from seminal acts like Larry Heard. On top of this, of course, Curly is a long time DJ who first cut his teeth during his teens with a residency at the legendary Vibration Club in the Karlsruhe region of Germany.
Since then he has gone on to hold down residencies in Ibiza with Kehakuma at Space, where he helped define that night’s sound for a number of years, as well as turning in an official mix CD for them in the past. He’s also mixed an official CD for Cocoon, another Ibiza night at which he has been a popular guest, whilst outside Ibiza he has played the world’s biggest and best festivals and most connoisseur clubs including Womb in Tokyo, Sonus Festival in Croatia, D-Edge in Brazil, Eastern Electrics Festival In London, Love Family Park in Germany and Gypsy Club in Russia.
Curly’s productions and the music released on his labels has come to be known as the Mannheim sound – a deep and tracky tech house style that is loopy and involving, folding you into the groove with each rotation as various elements of soul and melodic beauty infuse the spaces left behind. Whilst tech house is a genre much maligned; Nick Curly has been, is, and always will be a shining example of just how the genre should sound.
“I have a new EP coming out in that style,” says the man himself. “It’s back to more like the stuff I started with; the Mannheim sound that helped launched my international career. People, especially DJs, expect this from me and I know DJs are playing it already.” With a renewed focus on his boutique 8Bit label, plenty more productions in the pipeline and an ever busier DJ schedule, Nick Curly becomes an ever more essential member of the global house community with every passing week.
Paolo Martini
Paolo Martini’s career spanned over 30 years where he started spinning in many important clubs throughout Italy and exploring his ability as a producer, first going solo and then joined with his long time friend and collegue Gianni Bini.In few time the duo Bini & Martini released hits like “Dancing with you”,”Happiness”,”Burning up”,”Say Yes”,”Stop”.
Starting to become popular in the business Paolo and Gianni began working for different labels like Defected,AM÷PM,Strictly Rhythm,Emi,Peppermint Jam,Universal,Sony,Azuli,Z Records,Nervous. They established the labels Ocean Trax,handled the remix of records from Kylie Minogue,Jamiroquai and achieved record results in the world charts throught different projects like”House of Glass”,”Goodfellas”and “Eclipse” while his reputation
as a DJ brought him to spin in prestigious clubs throughout Italy and Europe.
Paolo has been a testimonial for several clothing brands such as Diesel and Adidas,the mixer Rane MP2015,Nokia and hit the roads with many MTV Tours.Throughout the years his radio mixes have been played on the most popular national networks including Radio Dee Jay,Radio Italia Network,Radio M2O (Italy),BBC Radio One (London,UK),Radio FG (Paris,France),Ibiza Global Radio (Ibiza,Spain)
Since 2008 Paolo establish his new label Paul’s Boutique and work in the studio constantly with Paul C. Since then, the pair have worked tirelessly in the studio and not only seen their music supported by many of the industry’s biggest names, but also seen their work feature on labels including Area Remote, Terminal M,100% Pure, AMA Recordings, Great Stuff, Kiara Records and of course Paul’s Boutique.
2013 is the year of the boyz! After the great response of “Take Some Time” on Terminal M, they strikes again with both tracks “Spunk” on Materialism and “We Repeat” on Cecille Numbers so the duo increase their fame even more : “Spunk” reach # 2 on Beatport Tech House chart and Top 20 on Beatport Main chart as well,sitting there for quite a long time, while”We repeat” became one of the most played tracks for few months,from clubs to festivals and it has even been choosen as the original soundtrack for the trailer of “Love Family Park 2013″.
New releases and tracks in the forthcoming months will be release on labels such Hot Creations,Moon Harbour,Terminal M and Material.
Ilario Alicante
Born in late 1988 under the beautiful Livorno’s sun (italy), the “enfant prodige” Ilario Alicante starts to raise is passion for music at the earliest years of his life,when his mother educated him to listen music for his own pleasure.
Time goes by and Ilario takes his first steps into italian nightlife and dj world,first with some average media,experimenting D.I.Y. mixes within the four walls of his own “epic” room and then digging a personal sound style until he gained the resident-title at “Pachamama Club” (in Pisa).
From this springboard he started hangin around the best italian,german and spanish clubs,finally landing into Cocoon’s family,falling in love at first “sight” with house music and her thousand shades,waving from latino-ispanic from a minimal-electro sound.
At this point he devoted his production style only to these rhytms,also if his dj-sets are stuck to the quest of something special everytime.
Hardly inspired from artists such as Hawtin,Marco Carola,Villalobos and Luciano. The great bunch of Ilario’s production are really estimated inside the international dj-system claque.
“Vacaciones en Chile” directly throws Ilario into the house music business,defining his supernatural talent with “Living Near Africa” (Cecille).
Playing also in 2008 at Rotterdam’s Time Warp as the youngest act of ever,now he’s unexhaustedly performing just in the best world clubs,under the flag of Sven Vath’s Cocoon family and Deep Moves Rec.,his own record label.
