Freestylers

Freestylers are an electronica group hailing from Coventry, England who formed in 1996. Since their debut in 1998 they have released five studio albums, six DJ mixes, and have become one of the premier breakbeat acts of modern times.

Stanton Warriors

"These two Bristol boys first charged, stormed and straight-up invaded the scene back in 2001 with a highly acclaimed debut compilation The Stanton Sessions and since then have continued to dominate and pillage every dance floor and pair of headphones..

MR Scruff

Once Mr Scruff was plain Andy Carthy. And then he wasn't... Sometime artist, DJ, Peak District wanderer, and Manchester’s very own very own, Mr Carthy started his musical career a mere six years ago.

Goldie

Krafty Kuts

WORLDWIDE BOOKINGS

abel@fingerlickin.co.uk

+44 (0) 20 7255 2660

Krafty Kuts, real name Martin Reeves, is the multi-award winning DJ/producer and the undisputed King of breaks. Acclaimed in the UK, adored in Australia, admired in North America, K..

Roni Size

big channel w over a million subs

DJ Hype

Essentially Hype is to drum and bass as Afrika Bambaata was to the development of hip-hop. He first became involved in music through the legendary Shut Up and Dance sound system, like many before him his interest growing from physically building the speakers that made up the rig to DJ'ing, spinning reggae, house and hip hop throughout the eighties. As time passed, his skills behind the turntable grew to the extent of winning the London heat of the 1989 DMC's and going on to represent Britain in the European championships." While continuing to play at high capacity events Hype also made the move into radio, becoming involved with influential pirate station Fantasy FM before taking up a position at Kiss FM - his Sunday night sessions some of the most popular and securing him Best Male DJ and Best Radio DJ at subsequent Hardcore Awards." His time in the studio began at Kickin', co-producing The Scientist's seminal 'Exorcist' and 'The Bee' before laying down tracks for a number of other labels - the most notable of which, Suburban Base, saw him compiling the still highly sought after 'Drum and Bass Selection' series in addition to notching up his own underground smashes in the form of 'Trooper' and 'Shot In The Dark' while touching upon the charts with 'Isotonic' on FFRR." With substantial success, it was only a matter of time before Hype established his own label, "Ganja", in 1993, working closely with fellow ex-Suburban Base artist and friend Pascal. 'Cops' opened up the play for his Ganja imprint which was later to feature 'Ganja Man' and Zinc's legendary 'Super Sharp Shooter,' before peaking with the 'Still Smokin' album, a collaborative effort with Pascal's Frontline Records. Perhaps surprisingly considering the subsequent runaway success of the label, the intention was never specific, as Hype explains." 'Ganja Records was never meant to be anything, I was never planning on building anything from it, and it was just a knock up as I wanted a label to put some tunes on. As the label built itself without me really having to do anything I realised that if I did choose to put some effort into something I could build something really strong. I'd been encouraging Zinc to do his own thing for some time, though since he didn't really want to be out on his own - myself, Zinc and Pascal decided to set up a label as a collective.' Having flirted with major's in the form of a deal with RCA/Parousia as Ganja Crew in 1997, the threesome backed out of renewing their options choosing instead to retain their independence through establishing their own True Playaz. Hype explains his Philosophy. 'There are two things which keep me going. Firstly, I haven't got anything else - this is it for me so I've got to keep it going - I look at what I have and music has got me everything in my life as well as enabling me to help my family. Secondly I see the enthusiasm for this music from people all over the world. This year alone we've dj'd all over the world; Spain, Canada, Switzerland, Estonia and we know that the whole planet wants it. When you've evolved with something and become part of it on a level where you know that there is such a love for it - it becomes something very special to you. To think five years ago no one could have ever have contemplated that this music would be where it is now. The day I'm playing out and the audience doesn't like it anymore I'll probably move onto something else.'

DJ Dee Kline

Gentlemans Dub Club

Dub Pistols

Dubs biog 2024 new

How many bands have the career longevity to release ten albums? They might have been perilously close to falling apart on various occasions in their history, but the Dub Pistols have rolled with the punches and are now gearing up to release their tenth album in early 2025.

It’s been a long road travelled, full of twists and turns, but with their legion of faithful fans and numerous collaborators and friends the Dubs are in a better place now than they’ve ever been with a new album, their own festival, a documentary, a book and more international tours on the horizon. These renegade Pistoleros are unstoppable.

The Dub Pistols grew out of the big beat explosion of the mid-1990s. Big beat was the anything-goes reaction to formulaic house music, where — thanks to the wonders of sampling technology — literally anything could be thrown into a dance tune. Taking a cue from the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, main man Barry Ashworth began making block rockin’ beats with pal Jason O’Bryan, and bombastic first offering ‘There’s Gonna Be A Riot’ was signed by Concrete Records, a subsidiary of DeConstruction. A string of missives followed in its wake — ‘Best Get Better’, the explosive ‘Westway EP’, and then a chipper ‘Cyclone’, which dented the UK national charts — and debut album ‘Point Blank’ was released in 1998.

The Dubs were on a roll when big-shot US record exec Jimmy Iovine heard the album. He immediately signed the Dubs to Interscope Geffen and put them on the road. They’d become a fully-fledged band. They played some huge shows with the likes of Blink 182, Korn and Limp Bizkit, and recorded their second album, ‘Six Million Ways To Live’. But just as their second long-player was about to drop, the 9/11 terrorist atrocity happened in New York. Given that various album tracks contained explosive references to geo-political events that had seemingly just played out on the international stage, the project was reluctantly shelved. They had to return to the UK to lick their wounds, and rebuild from the ground up.

The Dubs had remixed the likes of Moby and the Crystal Method by now, and Barry had become a fine party-rockin’ DJ. He started some club nights called The Truth in his native West London with pal Carl Loben, and was asked to mix the latest instalment of the acclaimed ‘Y4K’ series for Distinctive Records — blending a mixture of house and breaks tracks by Layo & Bushwacka, the Chemical Brothers, Adam Freeland, Soul Of Man and more. When he finally got the ‘Six Million Ways’ album back off Geffen, Distinctive signed it and led its release rollout with the ‘Problem Is’ single which featured Terry Hall, former singer of 2-Tone legends The Specials.

As the noughties unfolded, Terry Hall started doing shows with the Dubs and featuring on new tracks such as ‘Running From The Thoughts’, ‘Peaches’ and their cover of ‘Rapture’ by Blondie. The rapturous reception Terry received when he appeared with the Pistols alongside his other former Specials bandmate Lynval Golding at the Rise anti-racism festival in London in 2008 — performing The Specials’ first single ‘Gangsters’, amongst other tracks — was a major factor in The Specials reforming at Bestival later that year.

Now signed to Sunday Best Recordings, the Dub Pistols had become adept at co-opting people into their collective. For their next album ‘Rum & Coke’ they recruited former Freak Power man Ashley Slater, Lindy Layton from Beats International, DJ/producer Justin Robertson and UK hip-hop pioneer Rodney P. The album was part-recorded in Barbados, where — like their friends Happy Mondays before them — “the wheels fell off the band” while they were out there, according to Barry, due to a riot of hedonism on the island.

Next album ‘Worshipping The Dollar’ was more political in places, tracks with Akala and Red Star Lion demonstrating how the band still had a social conscience, while rowdy rabble-rouser ‘Mucky Weekend’ — a tale of living for a weekend of excess — was given a first airing. Long-term co-producer Jason O’Bryan left for pastures new as the second decade of the 21st century saw them consolidating their position as festival-rocking favourites, due to a lot of hard graft and touring virtually non-stop.

The next two albums, ‘The Return Of The Pistoleros’ and ‘Crazy Diamonds’, reflected their increasingly off-the-chain, exhilarating live shows, with much more jungle/drum & bass incorporated into their dubwise sound and the permanent recruitment of rapper Seanie T into the fold.

Ambitiously, the Dubs threw their first festival in 2019 — Mucky Weekender in the Sussex countryside. Featuring Leftfield, Stanton Warriors, Don Letts, Manasseh Soundsystem and many more, it caught the tail-end of the summer sun and was raved about by all attendees. The success of the first Mucky set it up nicely to become an annual event.

Barry has been very open about his addictions and mental health issues over the years, and in 2019 he did his first Wing Walk — strapped to the top of a bi-plane — to raise money for Tonic Music For Mental Health. This has evolved into an annual Flying Circus fundraiser, involving friends from the music world such as Bez from the Happy Mondays, and Barry has now become a patron of the Tonic organisation.

The Dubs had readied their next album, ‘Addict’, just as the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. The solidarity single ‘Stand Together’ — featuring 2-Tone legend Rhoda Dakar (ex-Bodysnatchers/Special AKA) — dropped just as the Black Lives Matter protests were commencing worldwide, while tracks with soundsystem stalwarts the Ragga Twins, newcomer Natty Campbell and more kept their pot on the boil. The album shot into the top three of the UK dance charts and the top ten of the UK indie charts.

As 2021 began and the pandemic saw little sign of waning, the Dub Pistols released their cover of New Order’s seminal ‘Blue Monday’ on the third Monday of January to raise funds for the Tonic Mental Health Trust. A couple of months later they released their ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ mix album on Jungle Cakes, featuring a whopping 50 tracks by various dubwise jungle associates as well as artists like Deekline, Ed Solo, King Yoof and the Beat Assassins remixing some choice Dub Pistols cuts. This release also shot to the upper reaches of the UK dance charts.

Once Covid restrictions were lifted in mid-2021 the Dubs were delighted to get out touring again. They rocked an assortment of festivals and also staged the second iteration of Mucky Weekender, this time on a new site in Winchester, Hampshire. Groove Armada, Leeroy Thornhill (ex-Prodigy), The Freestylers and the Ragga Twins were just a few of the acts to nice up the dance over the long weekend.

The Dubs released ‘Frontline’ in 2023 on their own Cyclone Records, the label named after one of their early singles 25 years previously. ‘Frontline’ — featuring the likes of Horseman, Natty Campbell, Cheshire Cat and the Ragga Twins — reached No.3 in the UK independent album charts, and singles received radio play from the likes of Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, Chris Hawkins, Craig Charles and Don Letts, plus numerous international spins.

They did some remixes from the album with long-term friends The Freestylers, and the partnership proved so fruitful that they have now recorded their next album with The Freestylers. Entitled ‘Enter The Sound’, it’s dropping in early 2025 and will see the Dubs embark on an international tour again, maintaining their position as one of the hardest-working bands in show business. The Dubs have already played Holland, France, Germany, Romania and Bulgaria in 2024, with many more international dates to follow over the next 12 months.

That’s after the fifth edition of their Mucky Weekender festival which features Dutty Moonshine, LTJ Bukem, General Levy, Dreadzone, Bez & Rowetta, Irvine Welsh, Marshall Jefferson, Krafty Kuts and many more. Of course, the Dubs take centre stage on the Saturday night in their traditional slot, joined by a heap of friends who they’ve collaborated with over the years.

They’re also sneaking out a live reggae album in 2025, and re-releasing their 1998 debut album ‘Point Blank’ on vinyl to cater for the collectors amongst their fans — new and old. With a documentary and a book to follow sooner rather than later, the stage is set for them to carry on uproariously for many more years. Like we said: unstoppable.

Aphrodite

DJ Aphrodite has been a mainstay of the Worldwide Rave Scene since the early nineties. For each country around the world with a Drum & Bass scenes, DJ Aphrodite has produced anthems. 'Ganja Man', 'King Of The Beats', 'Style From The Darkside', 'All Over Me', 'Summer Breeze', 'Dub Moods' and 'Stalker' from the infamous record shop scene in movie 'Human Traffic', ' Mash Up You Know', 'Booyaa' and 'We Enter', to name just a few solo compositions have all graced Junglist and DnB playlists everywhere.

Starting with Urban Shakedown and together producing the huge rave anthem 'Some Justice' Aphrodite became a prolific producer being an integral part of creating a string of Jungle and Drum & Bass Classics of which more than a dozen had UK and European mainstream chart success. Throughout the millennium Aphrodite's Artist and DJ Mix albums notched up half a million sales worldwide and his popularity as one of the world's Drum & Bass icons was forged with consistent performances and now delivering multiple 4-deck mixing to all crowds be them 30,000 or 300 strong. Aphrodite's travels as one of the world's favourite Jungle and DNB artists, playing a mix of exclusives, special versions, new releases, DJ promos and self-indulgent classics has seen him perform all over the United Kingdom, Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australasia.

From the mid-nineties, Aphrodite's use of stripped-back, high-energy bass and beats, well chosen hip-hop and reggae samples in all the productions he's part of has made him one of the founding fathers of jump-up Drum & Bass. Aphrodite Recordings and his partnered labels Urban Shakedown and Urban Takeover alongside his production partner, DJ legend Micky Finn, have helped plant the roots of a style which still dominates the landscape of Drum & Bass around the world. Aphrodite's irresistible blend of rolling beats and heavy danceable baselines, have made him a remixer of choice for artists of all stature and genres. NWA, A Tribe Called Quest, Beverley Knight, Freestylers, Afrika Bambaataa, Nine Inch Nails, East 17, Simon Bassline, Alibi, Smoke City, Moloko, Biga Ranx, Meredith Brooks, Mary J Blige, Jem, NG3, Vangelis, Congo Natty, Holly Valance have all benefited from a tear-out Aphrodite remixes.

Aphrodite co-production Urban Takeover and Shakedown tracks and remixes with Micky Finn have also become long standing DnB anthems. 'Bad Ass', 'Arsonist' and 'SomeJustice' are all in DJ Playlists today. Remixes for The Jungle Brothers, Black Street's “No Diggety”, Luniz' “I Got Five on It”, Moby, Yazz's "Abandon Me', Apollo Four Forty, Demolition Man's 'Fire', Barry Boom and Alabama 3's 'Woke Up This Morning' (theme tune for 'The Sopranos') are all classics in their own right. Aphrodite's name came from Acid House parties put on by himself and friends in the Midlands whilst at University. The brand became the DJ name then stuck as house became hardcore became jungle became drum & bass.

With so much influence on the whole DnB genre, Aphrodite's DJ and production career continues to take him global to all types of events. His multi-continental bookings diary, which includes some of the biggest events in the scene is constantly growing. DJ Aphrodite has played the likes of Glastonbury, 'Let it Roll', Boomtown, 'Pirate Station', 'Burning Man', 'Electric Daisyland', 'Love Parade', Creamfields, Bestival, Reading, Leeds, V-Festival, Lowlands, 'Amsterdam Dance Event'. 'Miami Conference', Pukkelpop and Imagination festivals.

Hitting the three decade mark in the game, with multiple artist albums, a bag full of exclusive dubs, and a mass of air miles, DJ Aphrodite knows rave music inside out. As one of the godfathers of drum 'n' bass, he's more than capable of making crowds go crazy of all ages which has cemented his reputation as being a legendary DJ within a worldwide rave-scene.

Dreadzone

Pop Will Eat Itself

Pop Will Eat Itself: Official Facebook Page

Utah Saints

Aries

RA: Resident Advisor

Plump DJs

The Plump Djs are internationally renowned DJ/Producer duo Andy Gardner and Lee Rous of London. Their unmistakable sound has won them remixes from the likes of Deadmou5, Mark Ronson, Moby and Orbital, whilst their four deck live show has led to countless international and national shows.

Their innovative production style and skillful delivery is consistently embraced on the world circuit. London's premier music lead venues XOYO and The Nest are the current platform on which the duo develop their sound. Self admitted suckers for bass and 'the groove', Gardner and Rous fuse Electro-house, Rave, Acid House, Breakbeat and Techno into their own style they call 'Plump music', the defining ethos for their recently formed Grand Hotel record label.

They have received worldwide acclaim and relentless cross-genre support for some 15 years now. A compelling history of success, cemented by their musical collaborations with legendary vocalists Gary Numan, Jermaine Jackson and Louise Rhodes of Lamb, a ten year residency at Fabric Nightclub and over 1200 international shows. They are true innovators of sound who proudly co-created the popular break-beat genres of the last decade with their initial releases on Fingerlickn’ Records. They are pioneers of production whose shared passion for electronic music and the art of making people dance has inspired a generation of dance floor destroying experiments. The ever-evolving sound of Plump DJs continues to be met with enthusiasm from discerning dance music fans worldwide.

The duo are booked throughout 2013 internationally, touring Canada, USA, Australia, Europe, Asia and their beloved UK. Prioritising regular shows at Londons XOYO and The Nest whilst maintaining a prolific release program on Grand Hotel records.

David Rodigan

CALL IT KETA-JAZZ, GABBER WAVE, NEURODANCE, NU-STEP, CALL IT HEARTCORE BUSINESS. FREE YOUR MIND, LET YOUR BODY GO!!

Ed Solo

For exclusive worldwide bookings: ben@hotcakes.info

Goldie Lookin Chain

Evil Nine

The Nextmen

RA: Resident Advisor

Slipmatt

Altern 8

Children of Zeus

DJ Rich Medina steps out from the behind the DJ Booth to deliver the most comprehensive progressive soul album of our generation. Literally Connecting the Dots between Hip Hop, Jazz, House, Spoken Word, Afro-beat, and Bass Heavy Future Soul. Enlisting a beautiful array of new talent including: Janeriro Jerel, Lady Alma, Siji, Sy Smith, Ivanna Santili, Maya Azucena, and others. For more informtion of Rich and his events please visit: www.richmedina.com