KUTSKI
Dj Kutski has DJ skills to scream from the rooftops about. His scratching is up there with a DMC champion, his beat mixing outshines any ordinary DJ and his cutting puts Toni and Guy in the shade. He is a true battle DJ, a turntablist who brings his talents to hard-edged house music. It is not, however, all about the scratching…. Where tricks can lift and inspire a crowd, DJ’ing is essentially all about the vinyl… If you cut Dj Kutski he does not bleed blood – he bleeds vinyl. An obsessive collector of the latest and oldest vinyl Dj Kutski has a pretty basic philosophy on the music he plays…if it rocks, play it. He is not constrained by hypothetical labels, although always playing on the harder edges of underground dance; he pulls in tracks from all over the spectrum – hard trance, hard house, hardstyle… Tracks from all over the world – He has even been known to drop some fat breaks / hip-hop tracks half way through his set.
Not only is Kutski starting to dominate the club scene but also the airwaves. He now hosts a show on the world famous Radio 1. His ‘In new DJs we trust’ show goes out every second Friday of the month and showcases the very finest in Hard Dance.
IAN M
Ian M is the original hard house DJ and still the best.
For eight years in the ‘90s, the Leicester prodigy played a central role in the success of the most important after-hours club in British dance music history, Trade, the most influential club in the annals of hardness. Having cut his teeth in his hometown for several years towards the end of the 80s, the DJ world’s God of thunder got his first big break when Trade offered him a slot on a tour date in Birmingham. The rewarding residency which followed at the London club’s homebase in London gave Ian the challenging task of playing after the lord of the dance Tony de Vit, one which he pulled off successfully week after week. The fruitful relationship with Trade afforded the Godfather of hard house a number of memorable career highlights. These include playing to an audience of 250,000 at the Love Parade in Leeds, teaming up with Danny Tenaglia at Twilo in New York and headlining Dance Valley in Amsterdam alongside Carl Cox.
The punisher’s more recent successes at the epicentre of the hard universe are as notable and widespread, as his much-admired residencies at Sundissential, Insomniacz, Storm, Twist, Sinergy, Fuel, Insekt and A+E testify. Worldwide demand for his dynamic DJ sets has taken Ian to France, Hong Kong, Ibiza, South Africa, Washington, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
As a creator of top quality tunes with high production values, Ian has never been described as prolific, but when he does deliver a new tune it tends to be an event rather than just a record coming out. Who can forget the phenomenal global hysteria surrounding his timeless masterpiece ‘Crazy Pills’ when it first appeared? Prior to that landmark outing, a string of unforgettable classics had cemented his reputation as a most outstanding music maker. These include two remixes of Dyewitness for Tidy Trax, his famed ‘Black Is Black’ remake for the same label, the storming singles ‘Annihilation’ and ‘The Dreamer’ along with hard-as-nails treatments for top labels such as React, Tripoli Trax, Elasticman, OVD, Kaktai and Mohawk. Ian compiled and mixed the biggest-selling volume of the Trade album series, and has also released a host of superb compilation mixes for Tidy Trax, Fevah and Torture Garden.
Ask any hard house DJ to cite their influences and you can bet that Ian M is near the top of their list, and his pervasive influence shows no sign of waning.
Daley
With a coveted “best resident” hard dance award under his belt, and the longest serving residency at the biggest and best monthly hard house event in the country, Daley has firmly established himself amongst the hard house elite.
Daley started mixing at the age of 13. At such an early age all he could do was practice and perfect his technique. After 4 years of dedication and an ever-developing desire to put himself to the test - Daley felt he was ready to show everyone what he could do. Legendary Mansfield based nightspot Ten gave Daley his first taste of action. Management were impressed with the standard of his demo and after a few months of playing one-off sets upstairs in the Hard House room - Daley was offered residency. He took up residency playing Hard House at the infamous midlands nightspot in April 2000, playing predominantly the infamous Progress Tour nights that attracted sell-out crowds.
In 2002, after playing for several local nights such as Hotdog and Fixation on a regular basis, Daley was given the chance to show what he could do at Storm @ the Emporium in Coalville. By January 2003 he was awarded residency, sharing the honours with then promoter - Nick Lunn and later on in the year - Amber D. A hugely successful residency at Storm has continued for over 5 years, allowing Daley to play alongside the world's top hard house DJ's and live acts. The last two years, sharing residency with co-promoter Garbo has propelled Storm to the very top of the hard house premier league, culminating in the award of "Best Large Club" for an unprecedented two years in a row at the Hard Dance Awards.
On the production side of things, Daleys first track “Deformed” was released in December 2003 on Flashpoint Records with a remix from filthmeister Casper and was caned by the likes of BK and Justin Bourne. A collaboration with Alex Calver entitled “Go Bezerk” (Short Circuit) also won widespread acclaim from some of the countrys top joxx and has appeared on 3 Lisa Lashes compilation albums. “More Drugs” (Deprivation) was one of the anthems of 2004, championed by Lisa Lashes on exclusive dub-plate and featured on the Lashed in Australia album and her Mixmag cover CD. Another collaboration with Alex Calver Trance off was released on legendary label Nukleuz in 2005 as part of a hardbeat E.P.
2006 saw the launch of Generation-X recordings, the brainchild of Daley. The first two releases set the hard dance world alight, with "Caveman" getting widespread play and chartings from the likes of Lisa Lashes, and Andy Farley pioneering release 2 - "Hit 'em with this", which also appeared on Lisa Pin Up's Tidy Weekender 9 compilation. Release 3, Shawn Cartwright's "Trigger Finger" also made Amber D's TW11 mix - completing a hattrick of compilation successes for Daley's first 3 label releases.
In February 2006, with regular bookings at the world's finest hard dance nights, such as Tidy Weekenders (9 in total), Frantic and Sundissential - Daley was formally recognised as a hard house big hitter, being awarded the coveted 'BEST RESIDENT' golden glowstick at the Hard Dance Awards.
2007 carried on this ever-growing momentum, featuring Daley's first tour of Ibiza in July (taking in Tidy @ Es Paradis amongst others) and scores of weekly bookings across the UK's best hard dance nights.
This year, Daley has been propelled to even greater heights with another weekender appearance under his belt, an appearance with Garbo to look forward to at Gatecrasher Summer Sound system and the now annual tour of Ibiza coming in June.
Robbie Muir
Robbie started DJ'ing back in 1996 after he found his real love for house and trance. His love for hard house came around 98/99 and has followed the scene through to today. He started producing his own tracks back in 2001 while completing a HND in music production. Having played at