This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(November 2021) |
The Murkage Cartel was an arts organisation based in Manchester, England, founded by musician Murkage Dave. The Cartel was made up of the band Murkage, and a culturally diverse assortment of DJs, musicians, photographers, film makers, designers and bloggers. They were best known for the work of the band, the weekly club night - 'The Murkage Club'- their DJ performances and the online presence of the collective as a whole. They made a distinctive and sometimes controversial [1] contribution to the region's underground music scene.
The Murkage Cartel were among the most prominent and in demand underground DJs in Manchester with many of them holding residences on local and national radio stations as well as regional events. They played together on rotation at The Murkage Club every week. Both independently and as a group they developed a strong following especially amongst the large student population in northwest of the United Kingdom.
The Murkage Cartel's Vol. 1 mixtape was chosen as being the mixtape of the month, in Mixmag magazine (September 2009). They also later featured in Mixmag for the Boxfresh advertisement campaign. The Murkage Cartel's Vol. 2 mixtape was also met with critical acclaim. The Murkage Cartel were known for having presence on Twitter, Facebook, and they also contributed to the MURKAGE website blog.
Documenting the success of the Murkage club night, Murkage TV was created. The episodes feature interviews from the Cartel and from other artists that have performed with the Cartel, such as David Rodigan, AC Slater, Example, Seb Chew, Jack Beats and Mark Ronson.
After the Murkage Club came to an end in 2015 after 8 years in Manchester, the founder of Murkage, Murkage Dave collaborated with Mike Skinner on a new London event. The club night gained extremely quick recognition within London with guests such as Giggs, Kano, Big Narstie and Fekky all making surprise appearances at their events. Within their first year, they announced that they would be working on a 'Tonga Balloon Gang' EP with Jammer and Big Narstie featuring, which was due for release on November 14, which coincided with their first birthday party.
Outside of the monthly clubnight, Tonga also quickly gained recognition across Europe as being one of the most exciting DJ acts, incorporating Murkage Cartel members Klepto and Smith as well as Oscar Worldpeace, who was managed by Mike Skinner. In 2015 Tonga played Glastonbury and Bestival in the summer and also toured the UK and Europe throughout 2015. The group is currently on hiatus.
Julius O'Riordan, better known by his stage name Judge Jules, is a British dance music DJ, record producer and entertainment lawyer. He is known for his DJ activities, music production and long-running radio show which achieved global success. He was voted best DJ in the world by DJ Mag in 1995.
Antony de Vit was an English DJ and music producer. He is considered one of the most influential of his generation. He was credited with helping to take the "hard house" and fast "hard NRG" sounds out of the London and Birmingham gay scene into mainstream clubs. His single "Burning Up" reached number 25 on the UK Singles Chart in March 1995, with "To the Limit" making number 44 in September 1995. During that year, he won BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix of the Year Award, as voted by listeners of the show, and Music Week's re-mix of Year Award for Louise's "Naked". He remixed several UK top 40 hits during his career with artists such as Taylor Dayne and East 17. Between 1994 and 1998 his popularity with the clubbing public was rivaled by only Paul Oakenfold and Carl Cox. In September 2010, Mixmag UK announced the nominations of 35 DJs chosen by other big names in the world of dance music as those they considered the best DJs ever. A subsequent 15-month survey, which polled hundreds of thousands of global votes, asked who was the "greatest DJ of all time" and when the result was announced in January 2011, de Vit was ranked number 9.
David Patrick Griffin, known professionally as Dave Lee Travis, is an English former disc jockey, and former television presenter.
Dave Seaman is a British DJ and record producer. He was formerly a member of the DMC Publishing, and editor of music magazine Mixmag.
David Maurice Clarke is an English electronic music DJ, producer and radio presenter. BBC radio presenter John Peel named Clarke "The Baron of Techno".
Plump DJs are an English dance music duo consisting of Lee Rous and Andy Gardner, considered to be early pioneers of the breakbeat genre in the late 1990s. Throughout the 2000s, they have been very prolific creatively, releasing many celebrated underground singles, albums compilations. Also remixing the records of well-known dance music mega stars such as deadmau5, Mark Ronson, Fatboy Slim, Orbital and the Stanton Warriors. They cemented their international status through their 10-year residency at London's famous superclub Fabric, in a career that has taken the duo to the largest stages on all four corners of this earth to perform.
Darren Paul Emerson is an English musician, DJ and producer best known as a former member of the British electronic music group Underworld.
Robert Ferguson, known professionally as Fergie, is a Northern Irish DJ and electronic music artist from Larne. He has been an internationally touring DJ and a music producer for over 20 years. He presented a radio show on BBC Radio 1 for over four years while recording 13 Essential Mixes for the station. He was featured in the DJ Mag Top 100 DJs poll seven consecutive years and currently holds the record for the highest new entry since the poll began, achieved when he was voted 8th in 2000.
Tribal Gathering is the original British electronic dance music festival that between 1993 and 2004 catered for different types of dance music cultures such as techno, house and drum & bass. After 18 years, Tribal Gathering returns in 2023 for a two-day event to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
QBoy is a UK-based rapper, producer, DJ, writer and presenter. He is one of the original few out rappers in hip hop circa 2001 that became pioneers of the new subgenre colloquially known as "homo hop". QBoy is currently a DJ and promoter of popular LGBTQ club night and party 'R & She: The Queens of Hip-Hop & R&B' which hosts events in London, Berlin and New York City.
Michael Geoffrey Skinner is an English rapper, singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. Best known for the music project the Streets, Skinner has also released music as a solo artist, as part of the D.O.T. with frequent collaborator Rob Harvey, and under the pseudonym The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light.
Club Filter, based upstairs at the Lounge bar and nightclub at 243 Swanston Street in the heart of Melbourne, holds the record as the city's longest-running techno music night, having run every Wednesday night from 1992 to 2003.
The DMC World DJ Championships is an annual DJ competition founded by the Disco Mix Club (DMC) which began in 1985. It has been described as a "pre-eminent competitive DJ event".
Gareth Daley, known mononymously as Daley, is a British singer-songwriter and creative artist from Manchester, known for his collaborations with Gorillaz, Jill Scott, Pharrell Williams, Marsha Ambrosius and Jessie J.
David Michael Beer is an English music mogul who came to notice in the 1990s as the promoter of the UK's longest running club night Back To Basics. In the early days, his passport occupation read "purveyor of good times" and he went on to be nicknamed by music Mixmag as the "King of Clubs". With his Leeds based club night Back To Basics, Beer features as one of the youngest men in Leeds City Museum's exhibition chronicling the popular culture of Leeds.
Shanti Celeste is a Chilean DJ, electronic music producer, singer, record label owner, event promoter, radio host and illustrator now based in London, having previously been based in Berlin, Bristol and Cumbria. Her music style is associated with House, Techno, Electro, and Ambient.
Alice Moxom in London, England, known professionally as Moxie, is a London based DJ, music publisher and event promoter.
Shoom was a weekly all-nighter dance music event in London, England, between September 1987 and early 1990. It is widely credited with initiating the acid house movement in the UK. Shoom was founded by Danny Rampling, then an unknown DJ and record producer, and managed by his wife Jenni. The club began at a 300-capacity basement gym on Southwark Street in South London. By May 1988, its growing popularity necessitated a move to the larger Raw venue on Tottenham Court Road, Central London, and a switch from Saturday to Thursday nights. Later relocations were to The Park Nightclub, Kensington and Busby's venue on Charing Cross Road.
Murkage Dave is a singer and songwriter from Leytonstone, East London.