Argenis Brito
Born in Venezuela, Argenis Brito is one of South America’s most diverse and experienced musicians and anything but your average live set. His long history in the music business has culminated in him becoming an international touring artist of solid underground repute in the last 10 years, taking him to every major clubbing destination across the globe, as well as cementing his position as an in-demand producer, proven by a multitude of releases on labels like Crosstown Rebels, Cadenza, Dame Music, Mobilee, Tuning Spork and Contexterrior amongst many others. A true musician, setting him aside from the crowd, Argenis continues to flourish as a curator and entertainer of boundary pushing electronic sounds.
A resident in Berlin since 2002, after stints in New York and Santiago de Chile during the 90s, he has proven to be a core part of the ever growing scene there, finding time to play at all the major clubs in between his international tours to South America, the United States, Japan or closer to home across Europe. Thanks to the development of his live act, with performance typified by often unreleased music unique to each gig, and crossing a spectrum of influence from latin music to dub, house and techno, he has been able to ensure that his performance avoids the traps of a monotonous or repetitive sound.
The breakthrough moment in Argenis’ transition from past musical experiences into his current love with electronic experimentalism came in 2006 with his double EP ‘Micro Mundo’ on Cadenza; elevating him to many high profile gigs across the world, including several Circoloco events. Since then, following extensive studio work as producer, vocalist, collaborator, remixer or a combination of everything on the most highly sought imprints around, including most recently in 2011, Crosstown Rebels and Dame Music.
2012 sees him on the cusp of the most productive period of his career, with a new Mambotur album set for release together with Pier Bucci in spring, a new Los Refrescos album scheduled with Dandy Jack, a further solo album and countless collaborations, such as with Dinky, Mike Shannon, David Delgado and also Ricardo Villalobos with whom he has been making some really interesting sounds such as the Peculiar track released earlier in 2011 on Sei Es Drum. This is all preceded with a fresh South American tour at the start of 2012, taking Argenis back to his homeland and the source of his inspiration for his particular sound.
Argenis was instrumental in his work with Señor Coconut, Tobias Freund and Jorge Gonzalez, where he pioneered the use of Latin American sounds and rhythms in the context of contemporary dance music. The significance of this came from the early 2000s when eventually Argenis, Pier Bucci, and also Luciano, perfected this style before making it the defining sound of underground by the end of the decade.
PAST EVENTS
Damian Lazarus
The mysterious allure of musical vibrations can perplex and intrigue in equal amounts at the best of times, not least when the sorcery of a certain Damian Lazarus comes into play. Crosstown Rebels, Day Zero, Get Lost, Rebel Rave, his own DJ and production career, the discovery of a wealth of influential talents…all of these achievements and more make him not only one of the most respected exponents of the contemporary house and techno scene, but also one of its key tastemakers and pathfinders.
As a DJ, his mastery is unsurpassed. A true storyteller, Damian often holds court at those special times of the day when only his kind of DJ sets are required. Moments that demand a soundtrack that not only fits the mood, but elevates the atmosphere and takes the audi-ence to a whole other level of experience. Besides playing at the world’s best clubbing institutions (resident at DC10 in Ibiza for almost 10 years), Damian also specialises in performing beyond the confines of the walls of a club. He is an expert in performing his magic in extraordinary outdoor locations; jungles, beaches, the Robot Heart bus in the Nevada desert, Mayan ruins in Mexico and a whole host of other spellbinding sites around the world. Just one look at the superlative Day Zero event will tell you what Damian’s ethos is when it comes to outdoor exploits. Add to that Get Lost and Rebel Rave, two more events that epitomise his approach to hosting alfresco shows.
Damian’s visionary abilities are no more apparent than in the curation of music and his discovery of artists via the seminal label, Crosstown Rebels. During its 12-year lifespan, the label has been responsible for launching the careers of some of our scene’s best-known names; Jamie Jones, Art Department, Maceo Plex, Deniz Kurtel… His A&R skills are second-to-none, in direct correlation with the curation of his DJ sets. It’s his dedica-tion to seeking out unique talents that has helped to make his label one of the most influential outlets of recent times.
Crosstown’s sorcerer-in-chief has also applied these same bewildering powers to the de-velopment of his latest collaborative artist project, Damian Lazarus and The Ancient Moons. Lazarus has been joined at the production controls by James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco, Arctic Monkeys, Florence), with album recording sessions recently completed in Mexico. The project brings together a wide assortment of vocalists, collaborators and players from around the world. Taking inspiration from Lazarus’s Lazpod series, Get Lost events and Day Zero festival, this is music for deserts, jungles and sunrises.
In tandem with the album project, Damian has also conceived a live show, with band members Zulu (vocals), Ben Chetwood (Percussion and Drums) and Rob Gentry (Keys) who perform live alongside the chief wizard himself on Modular Synths and FX. Damian Lazarus And The Ancient Moons hit the road in the Summer 2015, bringing a whole new dimension to festival stages and intriguing outdoor locations such as Glastonbury, Wilderness, III Points Miami, Crssd Festival and many others.
Throughout a career spanning many years Damian Lazarus has worked tirelessly to main-tain a constant flow of creativity and innovation within the house and techno sphere. Never losing focus, he continues on his mystical pathway to greatness, unleashing his positive spirit on the masses at every opportunity.
Open your mind, embrace the magic, and get ready for the next spellbinding chapter…
PAST EVENTS
Clive Henry
Clive is one of the UK’s longest standing flag-wavers for underground house music having been an original member of the West London house mafia, one half of the genre-defining tech house outfit Peace Division and resident at the world’s most musically influential nightclub DC10. Clive started his long musical journey way back in the mid-eighties when he was working after school to earn money to feed his vinyl addiction. He caught the DJing bug going to local hip hop jams in West London and listening to early electro/hip hop on pirate radio. It was all about to change however, when in 1988 he was introduced to London’s early acid house scene by Rocky and Diesel from Xpress 2. They took him to the seminal Spectrum and Shoom clubs which proved highly instrumental in shaping Clive’s musical future.
Not long after, Clive and Rocky started running their own successful nights in the emerging West London party scene called Bone and Gosh with guests like David Holmes, Andrew Weatherall and Ashley Beedle. It wasn’t long before Clive started playing at his own events, which in turn lead to bookings at other clubs, first in London and then across the UK. In 1998 he founded the iconic tech house label Low Pressings with fellow surburbanite Justin Drake who went on to become his production partner in Peave Division.
During this period Clive relocated to Ibiza every summer and in 2000 on after a night out at Space with fellow DJ Lottie they stumbled across the now legendary Circo Loco afterparty held at DC10 on Monday mornings. Back then DC10 was more like a social club for DJs, promoters and their friends and it wasn’t long before Clive was a regular feature at the club. He hasn’t looked back. During the last decade Clive has established himself as the British backbone of the club laying down his trademark brand of deep no-nonsense house music week in week out having being invited to join DC10 stellar roster of residents back in 2004.
Clive’s residency at DC10 brought him into contact with Crosstown Rebels frontman Damian Lazarus who quickly brought Clive into the Crosstown family.
With the re-opening of DC10 this summer after its year ban, 2010 promises to be an eventful one for Clive with his solo production path beginning to take shape and collaborations in the pipeline with good friends Jamie Jones and Dyed Soundorom. In addition, his new Rebel Rave mix compilation for Crosstown Rebels will be hitting the stores this August.
You can catch Clive regularly at Circo Loco in Ibiza, MuMu in Liverpool, Kubicle in London, Droog in LA and at Crosstown Rebels events worldwide.
Gavin Herlihy
Gavin Herlihy’s music has been a constant feature on underground house and techno’s most iconic labels since 2006. After starting this year with a bang with releases on esteemed labels Culprit, Crosstown Rebels, Get Physical and Leftroom his discography is backed up by previous outings on scene leaders like Cocoon and Buzzin Fly. As comfortable writing sublime deep house as he is at crafting no-nonsense future techno, few artists have achieved such a broad base of label support as this enigmatic Irishman.
Now based in the UK’s capital of house music, Leeds, Herlihy (pronounced Herl-i-hee) is an established feature on the global DJ circuit. He earned his place thanks to a two year stint learning his trade as an up-and-coming producer in Berlin at the end of the 2000s where he notched up gigs at the Panorama Bar, Watergate and Bar 25. In the last year his tracks have been championed by a diverse array of DJs from Seth Troxler and Ricardo Villalobos to Jamie Jones and Pete Tong. A split EP with Detroit legend Delano Smith last Summer was supported by the house and techno elite. Deep and dark bomb ‘With Me’ added fire to his ever evolving relationship with hot UK label, Leftroom while in February 2012 his Witching Hour single on Crosstown Rebel scored a Top Ten chart placing in Beatport’s Deep House Top Ten. It was closely followed by another bomb EP lead track ‘Get Loose’ which became a worldwide house anthem championed by many including Pete Tong on his Radio 1 show and iTunes in their featured tracks section.
It’s a long way from his debut single ‘Machine Ate My Homework’ in 2006, hailed by DJ Hell and Laurent Garnier as one of the tracks of the year. However, his roots in dance music lie much deeper than that. Herlihy’s teenage years were spent lost in the experimental rock of bands like Sonic Youth, Rage Against The Machine and Fugazi before uncovering electronic music during an eye opening festival pilgrimage to England at the tender age of 14. During this pivotal trip he remembers in particular hearing early drum ’n’ bass on a north London pirate radio station. “It sounded like the future being beamed down the radio waves,” he says. “And I’ve been chasing it ever since.”
The coming months will find Herlihy building on the success of his releases in 2012. With forthcoming music squared away for some of the scene’s most talked about labels, plans for his own vinyl only label in the making and his move last year to London super-agency Air London adding extra fire to his bookings, his star is set to shine even brighter than ever.
