IHF
Imagined Herbal Flows, also known as IHF, is a solo electronic act consisting of Ben Gorvine, who hails from Washington DC. IHF released his Floating EP in 2014, which gained the attention of the underground electronic music community. His latest EP Departure was released in December of last year, and it is a flowy down-tempo album that just makes you want to explore for away exotic places.
Ill.Gates
ill.Gates is a DJ, producer and teacher that has a career spanning over 16 years. In all of his time touring all over the globe, he has amassed quite the following. While on tour, he teaches workshops on music production, and he also shares his insight on what you need in order to make it in the industry.
He’s also garnered support from other heavyweight artists like Datsik, Bassnectar, Ana Sia, Opiuo, T.O.B., Vibesquad, Mimosa and more. In 2008, he had put out his first full-length release Autopirate, which charted almost instantly and is still sitting strong to this day. Most recently, he was featured as one of the ‘Next 100’ by Urb Magazine.
Illenium
Nick Miller, aka. Illenium, has seen a lot of success in the last few years, thanks to the unique brand of music he produces. Few melodic bass producers have seen the kind of success he’s seen. With his debut album Ashes rising to the top of the #1 spot quickly after being released in early 2016, to his remix of the Chainsmoker’s Don’t Let Me Down racking up over ten millions plays in it’s first month, it’s not surprising that he sold out his debut headlining tour. Illenium’s revolutionary way of producing melodic bass music will have audiences all around the globe captivated.
Ivy Lab
The label Critical Music served as the iconic meeting place of this trio. One of the players, Stray received a lot of acclaim for his first release Timbre and began to work on other projects for the label. This eventually led to him collaborating with Sabre himself. They were both collaborating with another artist Halogenix independently of one another and no one knew that was happening. Collaborating as separate duos soon turned into collaborating as a trio. Brought together by their desire for experimenting with drum and bass music, Ivy Lab saw success from the get go.
The release of their single Oblique brought a lot of critical acclaim and mixmag named them as one of the top ten DJs in 2015. Mixmag had the pleasure of giving us a preview of Thirsty, a track off of their Peninsula EP. They described the Thirsty track as “a swaggering monster with skittering beats underpinned by a heaving kick and sprinkled with a sultry vocal.”
J.Phlip
Photo Credit: Vitali Gelwich Photography
Jessica Phillippe born with true grit and skills to pay the bills. Despite her success with the Dirtybird gang, she’s still out there in record stores on the regular… digging, uncovering precious gems and weaving them into her dynamic sets with panache. She’s a hard-working, dedicated lady who refuses to compromise and aims to rock the dance floor without relying on the most obvious tracks.
Production-wise she’s just as fearsome, lacing her tracks with a tough yet bouncy flavor. Her prowess in both disciplines combined with her infectious sense of fun and mind-boggling depth of knowledge make her one of the most revered DJs on the global circuit today.
Jai Wolf
Photo Credit: Scotch Photos
Sajeeb Saha started to learn the violin at the age of five. When he attained a place in the New York All State Orchestra, he realized that he did all he wanted to with the violin and decided to branch out musically. His parents were nervous about him losing his roots, but by the time he was a teenager they became more accepting of ‘American music’ and that was when he started exploring.
Under the name of No Pets Allowed, he started garnering support in the industry. It was at this time that he decided a name change was in order. In his words: “I didn’t want to leave my legacy with a name like No Pets Allowed”. And so the Jai Wolf project was born.
In 2014, Skrillex gave him his first big break by putting the stamp of approval on one of Jai Wolf’s bootlegs. Through ODESZA’s label Foreign Family Collective, he released his debut single Indian Summer. This single has gone on to gain the #1 spot on the Spotify’s US Viral Chart and #2 on iTunes’ Electronic Chart. His follow-up Drive gained over one million views on Soundcloud and Spotify.
Jauz
Photo Credit: OHDAGYO Photography
Jauz is Icon Collective graduate, Sam Vogel. Jauz has always had quite the thing for genre-blending and he believes that “music has no boundaries”. In what some would call one of the quickest rises in electronic history, Jauz went from being a festival attendee to headliner in only a year. He’s gained support from some big names in the industry like Zedd, Skrillex, Diplo, Borgore, Destructo, Arty and more. Staying true to his guiding principal of music without boundaries, he continues to release viral hits that captivate audiences worldwide.
JFB
A scratch DJ whose skills have won him the UK DMC Championship in 2007, 2011 and 2015, and in 2016 took him to the world finals of the Red Bull Thre3style championships. His mind-blowing entry video has had over 1.3 million views and his qualifying routine won him the respect of the world’s biggest DJs as well as an army of new fans all across the globe.
Many of the tunes you’ll hear him spin will be his own special edits and remixes. This is an artist who’s fully immersed in bass culture, and is just as happy spinning hip-hop and drum & bass as he is breaks and dubstep. Not content with simply being a world respected DJ, JFB’s production skills have seen him release on such legendary labels as Hospital Records, Ministry Of Sound, Rat Records, Skint Records, Ghetto Funk & many more.
Jimmy Edgar
Edgar was playing drums, keyboards, and saxophone, as well as experimenting with sound manipulation by the time he was an adolescent. To complement to his technical prowess, Edgar learned to play piano and “feel the music” in Detroit’s Baptist churches. By the time he was 15, with help from a promoter friend, Edgar was spinning alongside hometown legends Atkins, May, and Saunderson in local events at when he turned 18, he signed with Warp Records. He collaborated with other artists and then made a return to solo work with his album XXX in 2010 on !K7 records.
Hot, Raw, Sex and Turn You Inside Out have become dance staples. In 2012, he released Majenta on the Hotfish label. The following year, Edgar and Machinedrum co-founded Ultramajic, a label and collective for their projects. The first release on the label was Edgar’s Hot Inside.
Jpod
Photo Credit: Can Photo
JPOD’s life has always been rooted in music. Raised on piano lessons, jazz and worship music, he made the move to producing at the age of 15. A few years later he started DJing and his career took off. JPOD is a staple at Shambhala Music Festival and for a few years was involved in a duo with Stickybuds called The StickyPod Connection. He’s released music on his own label Swing Set Sounds and has had appearances on other labels like Addictech, Omelette, ESL, Fort Knox Recordings and much more.
In 2012, he released his debut album Halfsteppin and has also released a lot of EPs and bootleg remixes. His bootleg mixes are always free downloads via his website, you can find them here. He’s toured all over the globe and brought with him his unique style of incorporating such classic sounds as funk, world, reggae, swing, blues, folk, bluegrass, Latin, mo-town and many more.
Justin Martin
Justin Martin
Justin Martin caught the attention of the electronic community when he released his debut record The Sad Piano on the Buzzin’ Fly label. Alongside mentor and fellow producer Claude Vonstroke, Martin was involved with Dirty Bird records from the beginning due to his appearances on their first four releases.
Justin Martin on his process for music: “I’m always trying to find music for my DJ sets that rattles sound systems, but still has enough melody and interesting texture to expand your mind even if you’re sitting at home on a snowy or rainy day.” Recently, Justin Martin was lauded by Rolling Stone as one of “15 Best Things We Saw at Coachella’s Weekend Two”.
K+lab
K+lab live is comprised of a keytar, MPD drum machine and loads of funk. He manipulates his original songs and remixes so that you can have a 100% unique experience every time. Due in part to this uniqueness, he’s been seen performing non-stop around the globe, making stops at festivals like Shambhala, Northern Bass, Earth Frequency and many more.
With over 60 tracks featuring releases on Gramatik’s Lowtemp, The Funk Hunters’ Westwood Recordings, Opiuo’s Slurp Music, and his own imprint Junkfood, it’s easy to see he’s at the top of his game. Following his NZ Music Awards nominated album Spacedirt, it’s time to get ready for the return of the funk with his album The Worldly’s released in the fall of 2016.
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