Sometimes life moves in mysterious ways. Take, for instance, Barclay Crenshaw, aka super-producer and dirtybird/mothership boss Claude VonStroke. How could he, as a rap-obsessed 16 year old dreaming of an engineering job at Metroplex (Juan Atkins’ studio) in Detroit, expect that someday he’d end up headlining gigs alongside Atkins? The same could be said about his days as a frustrated creative working in post-production houses, when he began creating an electronic music documentary by interviewing internationally-renowned DJs. He never could’ve predicted that one day, rather ironically, he’d be in the opposite chair: the world-famous DJ being interviewed.

“Around 2001,…

From label boss, hit producer, World Champion DJ, trendsetter, genre-mangling party-starter, to blogger extraordinaire, Alain Macklovitch, best known as A-Trak, embodies the full scope of the 21st Century musician-entrepreneur model. At the mere age of 26, A-Trak has had two distinct phases to his winding 11 year career. Stage one: after winning the World DMCs at age 15 (in 1997), he spent years as one of hip hop’s most renowned selectors. After taking over tour DJ duties for Kanye West in 2004, just as he was beginning to combine a bigger variety of sounds into his sets, A-Trak launched into…

In the post-social-networking era, an artist like Omar-S is not just a rarity, he’s a treasure. The Detroit-based mastermind stands tall as a daring reminder of how things used to be, how things should be: authentic, exceptional music released on a carefully harvested grassroots label, with no attachment to hype or any incestuous ‘Top Friends’ circles. Distributed solely off his own back, and diligently monitoring every step (even hand-writing notes on his white labels), Omar-S’ FXHE imprint has become an underground cult of sorts, and his off-kilter productions bang as testament to his vibrant uniqueness. Bringing back the Detroit ethos…

Commix duo George Levings and Guy Brewer were famously raised in the historic English town of Cambridge. Of the Cambridge trinity – Nu:Tone, Logistics and Commix – it was Commix that were the last to take a firm grip on the D&B scene, yet when they did finally cement themselves it was in some style; their album ‘Call To Mind’ was the sound of 2007, and it’s tough to recall a drum & bass record that is quite so successful at marrying the beautifully listenable and the gloriously experimental.

It’s the experimentalism of the boys’ approach to production, and…

Rhythm has always been the string that holds together the vibrant, flowing fabric of John Tejada’s career – even from the age of 8, when he lost himself in a love affair with the drums, or from the age of 12, when he first started DJing. Far too young to DJ at clubs, John spent his youth DJing hip hop (“The stuff that struck me most was always sort of Arthur Baker sound – Planet Rock, Planet Pattrol, Egyptian Lover and the Kraftwerk influence”) at school dances and throughout the backyard party scene in sunny Los Angeles. It’s rather difficult…