Adulture | Alona | Bit Funk | Ghosts of Venice
Laberge | Meroz | Mix Chopin | Mykill | White Girl Lust
Adulture
19 year old Garrett Shrigley known as Adulture, formerly of the Le Principle duo, is on the forefront of the Chicago house revival. With his recent releases on Solid Bump Records and Dust Traxx Chicago, Adulture’s reputation as a producer has taken off due to his modern sound reminiscent of Chicago’s best. Keep your eyes open in 2011 as Adulture has exciting features, remixes, and most notably a full length album in the works.
Alona
Alona Esposito first cut her musical teeth with a unique combination of the Italian rave scene (at the infamous Angels of Love events) and the booming Northern California house scene (Wicked and Full Moon parties). Her taste in classic house and disco obscurities were formed by the tastemakers of San Francisco such as Garth, Jeno, and Dubtribe Soundsystem. This obsession was enabled by her first job at the local Haight Street record store, Housewares. As would be expected, this obsession could only stay private for so long and by 2002 she had began DJing professionally. She was first coaxed into the vocal booth by the 40 Thieves (Permanent Vacation, Smash Hit Music, Rong) and later by White Girl Lust. Alona’s trilingual upbringing often finds it’s way on to her songs with elements of French and Italian slipping into her lyrics. Look for her regular appearances on Permanent Vacation, Dust Traxx, and of course, Solid Bump Records.
Bit Funk
Bit Funk is a Chicago based producer known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime producers and served as prime remixer many times. A noted statesman and orator, Bit Funk was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, writer, and impressionist painter. To date, he is the only producer to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the first person to be recognized as an honorary citizen of the United Kingdom.
During his army career, Bit Funk saw military action in India, the Sudan and the Second Disco War. He gained fame and notoriety as a war correspondent and through contemporary books he wrote describing the campaigns. At the forefront of the political scene for almost fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before his military career, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary and First Lord of the Admiralty as part of the Asquith Liberal government. Maybe…
Ghosts of Venice
“Ghosts of Venice is the solo brainchild of Leeds producer Lee Dunn, and under the moniker he’s been nothing short of awesome, remixing and re-editing some unexpected tunes (Janet Jackson and Shakira to name a couple) into nu-disco bangers that rip right through any dance floor.” – Chicagoist
Laberge
At 22 years old Justin Laberge is barely old enough to be allowed entrance into the nightclubs he crafts his sound to please – let alone to have experienced the original wave of the “French Touch” first hand. However, his early discovery of Crydamore’s Waves compilations led to the teenager spending less time in Vancouver’s skate parks and more time in it’s dingy thrift stores unearthing disco gems.
Defying the trend of younger producers who browse blogs for low quality sample material, Laberge prefers to stay true to his inspiration. “I like to think of my sound as warm and mellow. I like to remind people where the sound comes from, vinyl.” He continued to describe his organic approach to songwriting by saying, “There isn’t so much a process as a happening, my songs usually come together over time rather than in a processed form.
His approach is working. After Laberge debut on Solid Bump Record’s Pleasure & Pressure compilation he quickly became one of the most acclaimed artist on the burgeoning label. Additionally his “unofficial” tracks that leaked to blogs have gained international notoriety proving that the term “blog house” is not exclusively reserved for ear bleeding bangers. Perhaps 1’s and 0’s can be sexy after all?
Meroz
“The Mighty Meroz” is 1 part funk with 2 parts soul bringing much needed emotion to the table in the house/dance music resurgence. This midwest disco maven has been producing “French Touch” style house music for the past few years, being compaired to the likes of Thomas Bangalter, Lifelike, Sebastien Leger, as well as the cut up sounds of Todd Edwards. ”Meroz is one of the finest purveyors of French House”
With his back to back releases in 2008 on Beatism out of Chicago gaining some attention from the likes of Jaymo of BBC Radio1, Damian Wilson, Erick Morrillo, Alex Gopher, and Ian Pooley he met soon to be label mates and owners of Solid Bump Records. Soon after they chose to release the “Trump Ep” gaining even further attention from DJ’s and producers alike. Being featured on the mix CD “Es Vive: Sands Ibiza 2010″ on Cr2 out of the UK, Various remixes and releases on Labels such as , Bid Musik, Mile End Records, French Express, and a new Joint effort with label mate Mykill for Solid Bump have been keeping him busy for the last few months.
“Many have claimed artists like Justice are heirs to the throne of the french touch sound, When producers like Meroz are hooking us with tracks, its hard to take such claimes seriously” – blogger
Mix Chopin
Meet Mix Chopin, a 19-year old producer/DJ from Toronto. He is an innovative house producer with bass lines to die for. Formed in early 2010, Mix Chopin’s nouveau approach to production has been singled out as highly innovative, stellar and very fresh by his use of analog synths, funky micro-samples, heavy composition, filters, and lots of groovy bass lines.
Mix Chopin started off at an early age, spending all his time in record shops crate diggin’ and immersing himself in the most amazing records he could find. He also plays an array of instruments including bass, guitar, drums, synthesizers, vocals and the triangle!
Mix Chopin has been gaining recognition and love from various places around the world. He’s played with such acts as Azari & III, Grum, Ghosts of Venice, Glitch mob and Boy 8-Bit. He’s also been featured on many great music blogs such as Too Many Sebastians + Chemical Jump + Solid Bump + Aerial Noise + Forever Disco. Said to be a revivalist of French Filter house, Mix Chopin is sure to be an exciting act to watch for! Mix Chopin is also said to cure cancer and save the ozone.
Mykill
Mykill takes his passion for music and love of entertaining to different audiences every weekend, playing a wide variety of sounds: from new electro to classic house, hip-hop, and club music, all seamlessly mixed together with his own signature style. He has held residencies at Trigger, Pink (Som), 1015 Folsom, Paradise Lounge, and the Beauty Bar as well as playing premiere party nights such as Blow Up, Bootie, Electro Pop Rocks, Glam SF and Nightlife at the Academy of Sciences. He produces music for the SF label, Solid Bump Records featuring a focused “French style” of funky and filtered house music. His first release “Love Story” is available on the Pleasure & Pressure Vol 2 compilation as well as a free track “Flashback” available online. Currently MyKill is collaborating with Meroz on new material. Their remix of Ghosts of Venice “Her” is set for release in October and their new single “In These Arms” comes out in early 2011.
White Girl Lust
White Girl Lust founded Solid Bump Records, with a mission to reinvigorate the stale state of the modern dancefloors that drown in blog induced mediocrity. It seems the duo is meeting their high standard as the label was recently called “the go-to label for bangin’ disco house” by Turntable Lab.
