Dopemixes

DJ Marky's life changed when he was playing at a São Paulo's nightclub in 1998 and was spotted by Brian D. Regarded as a stylist of the drum'n'bass, after enduring a lack of audiences in Brazil he gained success in the English scene, playing monthly at Bar Rumba in Piccadilly Circus and mixing music live for radio. In 1999, English critics deemed him "revelation of the year." His CD Workin' the Mix (1999) included tracks from E-Z Rollers and DJ Swift. He toured through Canada, Holland, Ireland, and England and opened for Prodigy at the Close Up Planet festival, playing for 20,000 people in May 1999. In 2000, he released Audio Architecture (which sold 30,000 copies in Europe) and participated in Otto's double CD Changez Tout. Chart success followed in 2002, with a remix of "LK (Carolina Carol Bela)" (originally by Jorge Ben and Toquinho) hitting the British charts as part of a full-fledged drum'n'bass revival. During his globetrotting mixing schedule, he recorded an Essential Mix for the BBC in 2004, and released his own work (mixing and occasionally production) on his associated Innerground imprint via releases In Rotation (2004), The Wizard (2006), The Master Plan (2007), and Makoto (2009). He has also released mix volumes in conjunction with 4hero (The Kings of Drum + Bass) and the long-running Fabric Records DJ series (Fabriclive.55). ~ Alvaro Neder

Vancouver resident and half of Sabota, Max has been instrumental in the building of Vancouver’s underground for the better part of a decade. His SLAB parties in Vancouver feature the best in underground house and techno. Max has performed at prestigious festivals such as Decibel, Mutek, and New Forms, and is a regular on the West Coast festival circuit and his diverse musical output has seen plays from some of the most important names in the scene.

London-based DJ/producer Teneil Throssell (aka HAAi) aims to bring out the inherent psychedelic qualities in dance music with sets that incorporate rare records from around the world. After a stint in psychedelic band Dark Bells, Throssell took up DJing, originally as a resident at Ridley Road Market Bar. In 2016, she became the resident DJ at Phonox in Brixton, boosting her profile considerably. Given the freedom to play all night long on a weekly basis lead to unpredictable, trippy sets and a loyal following. She followed with the release of her own productions, including 2018's Motorik Voodoo Bush Doof Musik, which encapsulated her internationally eclectic approach.
Born in an isolated part of Australia -- somewhere between Perth and the Margaret River -- Throssell spent her youth learning guitar to pass the time, until one day she took a risk and jumped on a plane to Sydney, immersing herself in the punk rock scene there. Alongside bassist Ash Moss, she eventually moved to London, where they started a psychedelic rock band called Dark Bells; despite getting to a stage where they were playing U.K. festivals, the band eventually broke up. Soon after, Throssell took a trip to Berlin, where she unlocked her passion for electronic dance music on the Berghain dancefloor. It wasn't long until she set about pursuing her newfound interest, landing a residency at Ridley Road Market Bar in London. Over time, her sets at the bar morphed into a combination of rare Turkish funk, African drumming, and Middle Eastern dance music.
HAAi's adventurous selections caught the attention of Joe Coghill, Jacques Greene's manager, who asked Throssell to support Greene for some of his U.K. shows. Coghill also put her in touch with club owner Andy Peyton, who was looking for a new resident to take over from Jasper James at Phonox. In 2016, HAAi began her weekly all-nighters at the club. This opened many doors for her, leading to international bookings and exposure for Coconut Beats, which began as a party in Dalston before expanding into a weekly club night and a record label. It also led to the release of her debut singles, "Be Good" and "FEELS," as well as her debut EP, Motorik Voodoo Bush Doof Musik, in 2018. By the end of the year, she had performed at numerous festivals, including, Glastonbury, Field Day, and Nuits Sonores, and her contribution to BBC's Essential Mix had been crowned the program's best mix of the year. In 2019, HAAi signed to Mute and released the six-track EP Systems Up, Windows Down. ~ Liam Martin

London-based producer/DJ Skream (Ollie Jones) played a vital role in the development and popularity of dubstep during the 2000s. Following early collaborations with fellow genre pioneers Benga and Loefah, he released one of dubstep's most easily recognizable tracks, "Midnight Request Line," in 2005. His tracks and remixes helped shift the genre from being a darker, more minimalist form of club music to something more melodic and accessible, paving the way for its mainstream popularity by the beginning of the 2010s. Skream's biggest commercial success was his involvement as part of dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man (with Benga and Artwork), whose self-titled debut album reached number one on the U.K. dance chart. However, while primarily associated with dubstep, Skream has never limited himself to one genre, and much of his work since the mid-2010s has explored house and techno.
Ollie Jones had the good fortune to be working at the Big Apple record store when he first started making beats at age 15 and armed with a cracked copy of the Fruity Loops music-making software. Big Apple was at the center of the early development of U.K. garage's dark, half-speed offshoot dubstep before it was even called dubstep, and it was at Big Apple that Jones, who recorded as Skream, met fellow beatsmiths Benga and Hatcha. Hatcha was a DJ at the seminal club Forward and was only too happy to debut the dubplates of both Skream and Benga's early recordings. Their music took the tension and release formula of dance music, removed the release, and layered in more tension instead. With slow and pounding basslines and wobbly treble, they were creating a kind of music that summoned and summed up feelings of urban paranoia, but in an enjoyable way. Emphasizing the sub-bass made them popular with clubbers, but they were also popular with bloggers. Championed and spread by word of mouth on the Internet, Skream went straight from being a name in Croydon to being known around the world.
When the owner of Big Apple founded a label to give a home to tracks by dubstep artists, Skream was one of those who released material on it. Other early Skream singles appeared on Ital, Tectonic, and Tempa, who issued his breakout classic track "Midnight Request Line," which received praise and airplay from far outside the dubstep scene. The track appeared on Jones' first full-length album, Skream!, which was released in 2006 by Tempa. Skream began hosting a weekly program on dance music station Rinse FM (later joined by Benga), and continued releasing acclaimed singles and EPs, including the long-running Skreamizm series. His first mix CD, Rinse: 02, appeared in 2007, followed by Watch the Ride in 2008.
Skream began producing remixes for non-dubstep artists (including Depeche Mode's David Gahan and Klaxons), furthering the genre's popularity. In particular, his rave-inspired mix of La Roux's "In for the Kill" helped contribute to the song's international success. Skream's second full-length, Outside the Box, appeared in 2010. The album was significantly more pop-influenced than his earlier work, and also contained a few dramatic drum'n'bass tracks. Magnetic Man's debut album also arrived that year, and contained several hits, including the U.K. Top Ten-charting "I Need Air" as well as collaborations with John Legend, Katy B, and Ms. Dynamite. Skream and Benga left Rinse FM in 2011 and began DJ'ing on BBC Radio 1, earning a weekly slot in April of 2012.
While Skream continued releasing dubstep 12"s on labels like Deep Medi Musik and Nonplus Records, his club sets began incorporating techno, house, and disco, and his own productions reflected the shift. The disco-inspired single "Rollercoaster" (with Sam Frank) appeared in 2013, as did All Gone Miami 2013, a double mix CD shared with British dance music legend Pete Tong. The more aggressive techno track "Bang That" was released by Boysnoize Records in 2014, and subsequent tracks appeared on tech-house label Crosstown Rebels and Skream's Of Unsound Mind imprint. Skream's mix CD Fabriclive 96, a fluid selection of techno, house, and electro tracks, was issued by Fabric in 2018. ~ Jody Macgregor & Paul Simpson

Known on dancefloors and tastefully progressive U.K. radio programs as Floating Points, producer and DJ Sam Shepherd has applied his love for gritty funk, slick R&B, and avant-garde jazz to house, techno, and orchestral compositions that have tended to be equally stimulating through club sound systems and headphones. After trickling out tracks for several years, the project broke through to a wider audience with the full-length Elaenia (2015), a richly produced album that, for many, served as an introduction to Shepherd's hybrid style. His wider-scoped works since then include Reflections: Mojave Desert (2017) and Crush (2019).
Shepherd launched Floating Points in 2008 by releasing some white-label singles plus a bootleg remix of Sun Ra's "I'll Wait for You." BBC DJ Gilles Peterson picked up on both and featured the two tracks on his Worldwide radio program. Even though Shepherd was finishing his PhD in neuroscience, he found time in 2009 to partner with Rinse FM left-field DJ Alexander Nut and form Eglo, a label that became revered for releases from the likes of FunkinEven and frequent Shepherd collaborator Fatima. Among Shepherd's own early highlights for the label were cuts like "Vacuum Boogie" and "Peoples Potential."
The producer's output became increasingly spacious and musical, as heard in the progression traced through cuts such as "Sais," "King Bromeliad," and "Nuits Sonores." Additionally, Shepherd led the 16-member Floating Points Ensemble for a Ninja Tune single and BBC Maida Vale session that bridged 4hero's chamber soul and the work of contemporary West Coast arranger/composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. In 2015, after over a dozen releases and roughly as many remixes, Shepherd released the debut Floating Points album, Elaenia, through his Pluto label in the U.K. and David Byrne's Luaka Bop in the U.S. It was celebrated by almost every outlet that covered it, including Resident Advisor, whose staff declared the album the best of the year. In 2016, after Katy B's Honey sported a track produced by Shepherd and Kieran Hebden, Floating Points returned with Kuiper, an expansive two-track EP. That August, just prior to a U.S. tour, Shepherd and his band rehearsed, recorded, and were filmed in the Mojave Desert. The visit was documented with Reflections: Mojave Desert, a heavier affair released the following June. In 2019, Shepherd participated in the ongoing Late Night Tales series, creating a DJ mix that included work of his own as well as deep-cut ambient, jazz, and global soul selections. Later that year he released Crush, his second studio album, on Ninja Tune. A raw and uncompromising blast of experimental -- yet accessible -- electronica, it was inspired by his solo live experiments on Buchla modular synth while opening for the xx. ~ David Jeffries & Andy Kellman