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Benoît Franquet, better known as Pole Folder, is a Belgian electronic musician and live club performer, based in Brussels. [1]
A former protégée of British DJ John Digweed, Pole Folder entered the limelight in 2001 as a DJ and producer at the forefront of the European progressive house movement, and has since evolved into a multi-instrumentalist and live performer of melodic-driven techno, tech house and deep house.
Pole Folder rose to prominence when his track "Apollo Vibes" was featured on John Digweed's Los Angeles retrospective in the Global Underground series on Boxed Records. This was followed over the course of the following year by the AA single Enter the Rhythm/Waxxx and a third single, "Dust" (which was again championed by Digweed).
From there, EPs and single projects followed on such labels as Sunkissed Records and Mo-Do Records, whilst Pole Folder spent much of the next two years focusing on an artist album he had been commissioned to do by John Digweed, making him the first artist to produce an artist album for Bedrock Records. The album, Zero Gold, featured collaborations with Brooklyn singer and songwriter Shelley Harland, fellow Belgian Sandra Ferretti and Kirsty Hawkshaw. Several Zero Gold tracks such as "Faith on Me" and "Salvation on Slavery Sins" were featured on hit US TV shows, including Nip/Tuck and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation . Pole Folder and CP's "Apollo Vibes" cut was featured in the movie Stark Raving Mad .
In 2006, Pole Folder produced a series of projects and EPs for Mashtronic Records and Proton Music. Pole Folder has also performed as a DJ and live artist internationally. He also ran a digital record label called Reworck since 2010. The label is supported by the likes of John Digweed, Hernán Cattáneo, and Laurent Garnier.
Thomas John Digweed is a British DJ and record producer. DJ Magazine voted him the World No. 1 DJ in 2001. As well as achieving success as a solo act, he has collaborated with Sasha as Sasha & John Digweed, and with Nick Muir as Bedrock.
Andre Williams, better known as Shy FX, is a British DJ and producer from London. He specialises in drum and bass and jungle music.
Sasha & John Digweed are a British DJ duo comprising Sasha and John Digweed. Digweed had been DJing for ten years before getting a gig at Renaissance where he met Sasha, who had been working the past few years in various acid house music clubs and raves. Together, they honed their DJ skills, focusing on track selection and technical mixing abilities. In 1994, they released the triple CD mix album Renaissance: The Mix Collection on Renaissance Records. It contained many popular dance hits of the time from artists such as Leftfield, Fluke, and 2 Bad Mice as well as original productions and remixes from themselves. Two years later, the duo became "true superstars" (AllMusic) with the release of their double CD Northern Exposure on mega-label Ministry of Sound. This release was brought to the United States the next year in a single CD package on Ultra Records. 1997 saw the release of the Northern Exposure 2 double CD mix album, again on Ministry of Sound. Sasha and Digweed toured internationally, helping define the sound of progressive house & trance music in the late 1990s. In 1998, both John Digweed and Sasha released separate mix albums on Boxed as part of the Global Underground series with Digweed's GU 006: Sydney and Sasha's GU 009: San Francisco release.
Alexander Paul Coe, known professionally as Sasha, is a Welsh DJ and record producer. He is best known for his live events and electronic music as a solo artist, as well as his collaborations with British DJ John Digweed as Sasha & John Digweed. He was voted as World No. 1 DJ in 2000 in a poll conducted by DJ Magazine. He is a four-time International Dance Music Awards winner, four-time DJ Awards winner and Grammy Award nominee.
Tijs Michiel Verwest, known professionally as Tiësto, is a Dutch DJ and music producer. He was voted "The Greatest DJ of All Time" by Mix magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, he was voted by DJ Mag readers as the "best DJ of the last 20 years". He is also regarded as the "Godfather of EDM" by many sources.
Bad Company, Bad Company UK or simply BC is the stage name of the English drum and bass record producers Jason Maldini (Maldini), Michael Wojcicki (Vegas), Dan Stein and Darren White (dBridge).
Thomas Bangalter is a French musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, DJ and composer. He is best known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, alongside Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. He has recorded and released music as a member of the trio Stardust, the duo Together, as well as a solo artist. Bangalter's work has influenced a wide range of artists in various genres.
David Maurice Clarke is an English electronic music DJ, producer and radio presenter. BBC radio presenter John Peel named Clarke "The Baron of Techno".
Global Underground 019: John Digweed, Los Angeles is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by John Digweed. The mix is a retrospective look at a set in Los Angeles, United States during Halloween night.
Deepsky is an electronic music act based in Los Angeles. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Deepsky was formed in 1995 by J. Scott G. and Jason Blum after the dissolution of their first band Q, active from 1992-1995. Its two founding members met originally at the University of New Mexico. Between 1995 and 1996 they concurrently comprised the Dayspring Collective with Shawn Parker, whom together released a CD on the Fragrant Music label titled Spark in 1997. Giaquinta left the band in November 2006 to focus on solo projects as well as start the group Summer Channel; Blum continues to produce and perform under the Deepsky name.
Danny Howells is an English producer and DJ. His music is often described as progressive house, though he prefers to associate more with tech house and is sometimes described simply as "deepsexyfuturistictechfunkouse". At performances, he is well known to interact personally with the audience. Howells has mixed several albums for Global Underground in addition to his Nocturnal Frequencies series. Howells is also a member of the duo Science Department with Dick Trevor, which has produced the singles "Breathe" and "Persuasion"/"Repercussion" as well as remixes for artists such as BT. From 2008 he has run his own record label, Dig Deeper - named after his long running club night.
Renaissance is a British electronic dance music club brand and record label. Renaissance was started by Geoff Oakes at Venue 44 in Mansfield, England in March 1992. Renaissance was Geoff Oakes' antidote to the sci-fi imagery and dressed down clubbers of the 'rave' scene. Early resident DJs at Renaissance were Ian Ossia, Sasha, John Digweed and Nigel Dawson; other DJs with long-time attachments include Dave Seaman, Nick Warren, David Morales, Anthony Pappa and Hernán Cattáneo.
The Goa Mix is a two-hour DJ mix by British musician and DJ Paul Oakenfold. It was originally broadcast on BBC Radio 1 as an Essential Mix on 18 December 1994 after the producer of the show, Eddie Gordon, chose Oakenfold to produce an eclectic DJ mix for the show which featured a burgeoning variation of electronic styles, having begun the previous year. Oakenfold had, at this point, developed his own unique Goa trance sound, influenced by his time at hippy gatherings on beaches in Goa, and employed it heavily into the mix, which also made pioneering use of film score samples. Oakenfold used the mix as an experiment in which he tried to fuse electronic music, especially trance music, with film score music, and then to overlay the result with vocal parts, samples and additional production. The mix was split into two parts, later referred to as the Silver Mix and the Gold Mix respectively. Reflecting the Goa influence, the album title did not evolve beyond its simplistic working name.
Northern Exposure is the second mix album by British DJ duo Sasha & John Digweed. Released on 27 September 1996, it is the first in their Northern Exposure series, followed by Northern Exposure 2 in 1997 and Northern Exposure: Expeditions in 1999. There is both a British edition released by Ministry of Sound and an American edition released by Ultra Records in 1997. The British package contains both CDs, whereas the American only has the first disc. In 2013, the album was certified silver in the UK.
Nick Muir is a British musician, songwriter and electronic music producer. He is best known as one half of the electronic music duo Bedrock, which consists of himself and DJ John Digweed, although he also found success as a solo artist.
Reggae is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Australia has several bands and sound systems that play reggae music in a style faithful to its expression in Jamaica. Australia has a relatively small Jamaican community, but reggae penetrated local consciousness via the popularity of reggae among the non-Jamaican population of England in the 1960s and 1970s. Many indigenous musicians have embraced reggae, both for its musical qualities and its ethos of resistance. Examples include Mantaka, No Fixed Address, Zennith and Coloured Stone.
Dustin Fuselier, known in his stage name D:Fuse, is an American producer, remixer and DJ based out of Los Angeles, California.
Robbert van de Corput, known professionally as Hardwell, is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted the world's number one DJ by DJ Mag in 2013 and again in 2014. In 2022, he was ranked at number 43 in the top 100 DJs poll by DJ Mag. He is best known for his sets at music festivals, including Ultra Music Festival, Sunburn and Tomorrowland.
Darin Epsilon is a music producer, DJ, radio personality, record label owner, and music critic from Chicago, which is widely considered the birthplace of House music. He lived in Los Angeles from 2008 to 2016 and currently resides in Berlin as of 2017.
Guy Judah, known by his stage name Guy J, is an Israeli progressive house, techno and electro music producer and DJ who has released three albums and over 15 EPs since 2008. His recordings are noted for their diverse and wide range of musical styles, while his DJ work is known for creating immersive "journey-like" live shows.