VAN HELDEN, ARMAND / KNIGHT, MARK / D RAMIREZ - YOU/ THE MUSIC BEGAN TO PLAY

Armand Van Helden is a house music artist and music remixer whose biggest commercial successes came from his remixes of the 1996 Tori Amos song "Professional Widow", which reached the top of the UK singles chart, and his own track "You Don't Know Me" which was Number 1 in the UK in January 1999. Van Helden was born in Boston on February 17, 1970 to a Dutch-Indonesian father and a French-Lebanese mother, but travelled around the world as a child spending time in the Netherlands, Turkey and Italy, as his father was a member of the US Air Force. At the age of thirteen, he bought a drum machine and started DJing two years later. He returned to Boston in 1988 but also moonlighted as a DJ in Boston clubs. He attended Boston University. He quit his legal review job in 1989 to work as a remixer/producer for Mega-Mixx Productions DJ Remix Service (co-founded by his long time manager, Neil Petricone) where he reworked and re-edited a number of club records for the DJ-only service, including Shawn Christopher's "Another Sleepless Night." He also took up an occupancy at 'The Loft', Boston's leading nightclub. Mega-Mixx's success was short lived. Mismanagement brought the company to a halt in early 1991. Later that year, he and Petricone, along with founding A&R coordinator, Tony Zeoli, launched X-Mix Productions, a similar DJ Remix service, which still exists today (http://www.xmix.com). Catching the attention of legendary Strictly Rhythm and Nervous Records A&R guru, Glady Pizarro, in 1992 Van Helden released his first official single "Stay On My Mind" under the psuedonym Deep Creed, through Nervous Records. He released "Move It To the Left" (credited to Sultans of Swing) in 1992 on the Strictly Rhythm label, which became a moderate club hit. His first track to make the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart was "Witch Doktor" which made the top 5 in 1994. The success of "Witch Doktor" led to opportunities to remix acts such as The Real McCoy ("Another Night", New Order ("Bizarre Love Triangle"), Blondie ("Atomic), Capella ("U Got To Know"), Lightning Seeds ("Jackie Lucky"), Deep Forest ("Marta's Song"), Jimmy Somerville ("Heartbeat"), Deee-Lite ("Dewdrops In The Garden") and Faithless ("Insomnia"). However, it was the "Professional Widow" remix that established him and became a dance hit around the world as well as a number one hit in the UK. Unfortunately, Van Helden did not receive a penny for this mix as he presented it uncommissioned, and thus was not entitled to compensation. However, it led to work remixing The Rolling Stones, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Puff Daddy as well as Daft Punk and the Sneaker Pimps, and adding to his reputation as one of the world's top house musicians. Within dance music circles, Van Helden is widely credited for the introduction of the U.K. bred Speed Garage sound to the U.S. club scene with incredible set of remixes. The sound, identifiable by its deep bass subtones, long melodic breaks, and devestatingly hard hitting beats are exemplified in the following remixes beginning in 1995 with Jimmy Somerville "Heartbeat"; CJ Bolland's "Sugar Is Sweeter"; Faithless "Insomnia"; Tori Amos "Professional Widow"; Apollo 440 "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub"; and Sneaker Pimps "Spin, Spin, Sugar." "Cha Cha" was another top ten dance hit from his first album Old School Junkies released in 1996, along with "The Funk Phenomena". A greatest hits album appeared the next year followed by a breakbeat album later in 1997. "U Don't Know Me," a collaboration with vocalist Duane Harden from the album, "2 Futur 4 U," was a number two hit on the Billboard dance chart, a Number one in the UK and a top 20 single on the pop charts in Australia and Canada. In 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Armand Van Helden explained, "You Don't Know Me was a perfect example of putting 2 simple things together, the beats from Jaydee's Plastic Dreams and a disco loop from Carrie Lucas." Van Helden released the Killing Puritans album in 2000 which contained the dance hit "Koochy". His single "Why Can't You Spend Some Time" made the number 34 in the UK in 2001. His New York: A Mix Odyssey album released in 2004 produced two hits: * "Hear my Name" reached number 7 on the Billboard dance chart, was top 30 on world and internet charts, made number 34 in the UK, and reached the top 40 in Australia; and * "My My My" reached number 4 on the world internet charts, number 5 in the Belgian and Dutch charts, number 6 in Australia, number 15 in the UK and top 30 in the world dance charts. In 2010 Van Helden teamed with A-Trak to form the duo Duck Sauce. They had an international smash hit with "Barbra Streisand," which used an ingenious sample from Boney M. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Not to be confused with, the similarly named, video games and Chiptune composer - Mark 'TDK' Knight. 1) Mark Knight is head of Toolroom Records & a UK DJ / producer. He has stamped his impression on the scene of electronic dance music - through a string of releases & parties - highlighting his label. Often collaborating with fellow British DJ Funkagenda, Mark has been at the forefront of commercial house, techno & tech house. Some of his most successful releases are Man With The Red Face (with Funkagenda), Downpipe (with Underworld & D. Ramirez) & an Underworld rework - Beautiful Burnout (Mark Knight Remix). 2) LA Guitarist Mark Knight's first band was this band called Krude Witch and at sixteen or seventeen played The Troubadour and all the major clubs in Hollywood. Opened up for W.A.S.P. and Ratt. Then that band disbanded, and he put this band together Mickey Knight. It was right around ’84-’85 and the scene was pulsing, all the hair bands. So, Poison, Ratt, all those bands were selling out and the whole scene was starting — and really the Sunset Strip scene was starting to happen. Mickey Knight never got a record deal, but he went on to do City Slick, and then eventually Bang Tango. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Name: D Ramirez Music Style: House D Ramirez Intro: In the last fifteen years, if you haven’t heard of at least one of Dean Marriott’s production aliases, then you haven’t really been listening to house music. A bold statement, but one qualified by the fact that during his career Dean has had his records firmly placed in the boxes of the good and the great, whatever the genre and whatever the trend at the time. Dean’s first production, Cordial’s “Candlelight” began life as most early UK house tracks, a handful of white labels and a lot of hope. Not misplaced hope however, as instantly the track triggered a bidding war between FFRR (Tong was a huge supporter), Deconstruction and Liverpool’s 3 Beat Records. A gentleman’s agreement meant 3Beat was the choice, and Dean continued this relationship with seven releases under his “Masters of the Monotonal Groove” moniker. A major milestone in Dean’s career came when his now legendary Lisa Marie Experience Project struck gold with the underground/overground hit, “Keep on Jumpin”. Following this UK Chart number 5 track and a Top Of The Pops appearance, Dean went on to become the UK’s most bankable remixer and one of the disco/funky house scene’s biggest crowd pulling DJs throughout the 1990’s (playing the world over). The biggest development in Dean’s career came when he felt he had done all he could with funky/disco house (i.e. pioneering it!), and became enthused with the New York tribal sound that was re-emerging in the late nineties. The D Ramirez moniker was born, and his initial outings for Alistair Whitehead’s Sporting label were huge for the likes of Xpress 2, Tom Stephan and Pete Tong, His friendship with the Choo Choo stable also led to some of the biggest underground hits to date. His collaboration with label boss Barry Gilbey under the Fingerfest Inc moniker forged the production of a track entitled "Auto Porno", no doubt one of the biggest underground tracks of that time which was quickly snapped up by Yoshitoshi, striaght off the back of the first ever CD being given to Ali from Deep Dish at his gig in Renaissance. Burning Up and Bounce Your DJ were other early D Ramirez Productions on the Choo Choo label back in 2001 which proved integral to the rapid rise of the D Ramirez sound. Never one to rest on his laurels, Dean has built the D Ramirez name to the point where it is synonymous with funked-up, twisted tribal and electro house. His remixes of Max Linen “The Soulshaker” have earned him “Essential New Tune” and countless buzz/hype/coolcuts number ones while also being an underground anthem. His own track Venus and Mars was a massive Seb Fontaine favourite and became his VIP tune of the week as well as his remix of Spoiled's "All I Know" for Intra records. This is a pattern that has continued, and flourished, with labels such as Yoshitoshi, Choo Choo, Phonetic, Thrust, Junior, Whoop!, Lot 49, Four:Twenty and Toolroom clambering for D Ramirez material and producers such as Tom Stephan (Superchumbo), Deepgroove, Mark Knight, Max Linen and Meat Katie all lining up to work with him while clubs also attempt to book him for his D Ramirez DJ sets. Dean has owned and successfully run two labels, the first being the prolific underground label Vudu which ran for seven releases between 2002 and 2003. It was collaborations with artists such as Tom Stephan (Superchumbo), Deepgroove and Mike Monday (as well as his own productions) which placed many Vudu records firmly in the boxes of DJ's such as Deep Dish, Eddie Amador, Pete Tong, Seb Fontaine and Erick Morrillo. Early in 2004 due to a split with his then partner in Vudu, Dean started his very own project Slave Recordings carrying on where Vudu left off. It was the first release; D Ramirez feat. Pete Simpson- "Freaque On" which launched Slave into the stratosphere, quickly followed by Bobby Lorenz "1995" which gained no fewer than five consecutive Pete Tong plays on his Essential selection. Now up to the ninth release and with countless radio plays and DJ support, Slave has established itself as one of the most respected, Underground labels around. With tracks due from Tom Stephan and D Ramirez ("Shake It Baby") another, big room floor shaker from Deepgroove and another electro tinged Freeze Frame production, this pattern is set to continue for many years to come.. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.