IKIN, MARTIN / ILLYUS & BARRIENTOS / SHARAM JEY / WEIIS - [V19] TOOLROOM SAMPLER VOL 19

DJ’ing since 1990 and Producing music since 1991, Martin Ikin previously known as; DJ Mayhem, Indigo, Soul Purpose, Migrant.. and loads more, has spent his life releasing records on many labels and under many aliases. Including, Defected, Nervous, OFF, Get Physical, Exploited, Zrecords, 3Beat, MOS, SwingCity, Hed Kandi, Soulfuric, Sony, Island, Atlantic..etc etc. Martin's remix credentials include names such as Mariah Carey, Jamiroquai, Joey Negro, MAW, Grant Nelson, Hardsoul and many more... Trained studio engineer and jazz pianist Martin stepped away from producing and engineering for others and launched his own label Soul Purpose Records in 2003, as a stable for his own productions. 2005 saw Martin adopted his label name "Soul Purpose" as his DJ & Production/Remix moniker, dropping the old school "Mayhem" tag from the early 1990's Now Djing & Producing using his real name for the first time ever! Martin kicks of with a Monster release on Andre Crom's OFF Recordings. Watch out for lots of brand new music coming from Martin on some of the biggest labels in the game including more on the mighty OFF Recordings. As a musician and producer Martin draws his musical influences from the likes of Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Azymuth, Donny Hathaway, Jeff Lorber, Roy Ayers and legendary house masters like Mr Fingers, Marshall Jefferson, Derek May & Kevin Saunderson. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

When it comes to dance music most people tend to automatically switch off and think of repetitive, unenlightened, brain-poaching drivel. However there are still a few DJs/producers out there who continue to burn the light bright and keep striving to push sound forward, onward and upward and find a way to take it and relate it to the masses and taking it to the masses is one thing Germany's Sharam Jey does best. After his early beginnings in a rock band, Sharam found himself start to get sucked into Germany's house & techno scene, where he discovered all the delights of the dancefloor. It was from this point on that Jey knew there was only one direction for him and picked up the headphones and never looked back. Since then Sharam rose high and went to the top of his class, keeping things fresh and exciting, refusing to relent to the genre-class threatening to box him in one stifling category. A hard task and one that wasn't lost on ex-Underworld star and Underwater Records label head Darren Emerson who wasted no time in inking Sharam's first deal. For the next few years Sharam released his highly acclaimed first artist album called “4 Da Loverz” and a few mix compilations and travelled the world, gaining fans and leading dancefloor infernos in the most unsuspecting places. As his star continued to rise as a DJ/producer, this wunderkind decided to take his opportunity while he could and started his own label, King Kong Records which recently celebrated its 7th birthday. To his remixing credit over the years, his reworking of Café del Mar's track “Energy 52” was voted BEST DANCE TRACK OF ALL TIME and everyone from Moby to Mylo to Faithless and Faith No More have sought his unrivalled ear to take their tracks to the dancefloor, front and centre. But it's his original material that really gets his heart racing and with his forthcoming second artist album “In My Blood”, he's really taken things to the next level. Not happy to settle on mediocre, he's worked hard and pushed things to unexpected heights, working with a host of amazing collaborators that really vary the sounds of the record and take you by surprise! “In My Blood” drops March 2010 - stay tuned for more! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.