TRANSCANADARADIO is proud to celebrate Canada’s Current Cultural artists and their locations! Traveling across Canada’s vast surface and finding the best of the under and above-ground artists who are rooted in, Soul, Funk, Reggae, Beats, House, Breaks and all that afro-Jazz… and where to check them out in your favorite Canadian city! Pack your bags! We’re going on a road trip!
Hatiras clearly loves to DJ. I would say he’s definitely one of the planet’s top electronic music DJs & producers. He’s produced loads of mind-bending and butt-wiggling music — over 100 releases! He’s won two Juno Awards, a Socan Award for most radio play in Canada and multiple nominations. He owns and operates two record labels (Hatrax and Blow Media ). This man has sold over half million records worldwide. Continue reading ‘Haitras in profile: Mind-bender’
Max Graham is a house music producer and remixer from Canada. He was born in the United Kingdom and lived in Spain and the USA before settling in Canada in 1989. In 1994 Max discovered house music, which soon led to his contribution to the Canadian dance music scene. He started his professional production career in 2000, having played house music for ten years previously in Ottawa, Canada at the well-known Atomic night club. His first two releases, “Airtight” and “Tell You” helped him become well-known around the world, and led to him being asked to mix the popular Transport series in 2001. A world tour followed, which furthered his popularity across the globe. Continue reading ‘Max Graham in profile: Owner of a Lonely Heart’
Bombay Records is the latest visionary label to emerge from Montreal, a city that is seemingly soaked in up-and-coming talent. In a relatively short space of time, Bombay has established itself as one of the premier labels on the world house circuit with timeless releases from the likes of Miguel Graca , Derrick Carter and Chris Nazuka , and Roy Davis Jr. Bombay is using these much-lauded single releases as a platform for the production of a mix CD series, put together in conjunction with the legendary Montreal-based venue Stereo. The first DJ to grace this series is the man who custom-designed the sound system at Stereo, Angel Moraes. Bombay also has plans to release mix CDs from the likes of Hector Romero and Mr. Gabrielle himself - Roy Davis Jr. The label also has a healthy artist-development plan in progress for Miguel Graca, as you will see with the video for “Speak My Mind.”
While the label saw its star rise, the CD industry as a whole, and electronic dance in particular, have taken a beating. Patrick Dream (co-founder with Nav Bhinder) may be older and wiser, but looking back over the stacks of Bombay wax, a spread of high-quality, richly organic grooves, he’s hard-pressed for regrets.
From the desert heat of his country of origin to the winter rigours of Canada, Sultan has travelled a road quite out of the ordinary. In the past four years Sultan has established himself as one of the most innovative and respectable djs and producers in the electronic dance scene. Sultan has had releases on various labels including Deep Dish’s Yoshitoshi label and John Digweed’s Bedrock Breaks Label, as well as several compilations appearances including Global Underground 25: Toronto mixed by Deep Dish, Tiesto’s In Search of Sunrise 4, Dave Seaman’s Renaissance Masters, Deep Dish’s George Is On which features Deep Dish vs Dire Straits – Flashing for Money(Sultan Club/Radio Mix), hailed as being the worlds first ever legally cleared mash up/remix garnering praise from the electronic dance scene as well as rock legends Dire Straits. Continue reading ‘Sultan in profile: Connected’
Tony Almonte is known, in particular, for his involvement in pieces written by the American Roy Davis Jr., Kemetic Just from San Francisco, Miguel Graça from Portugal, Canadian house sensation Fred Everything, Rise Ashen, and the master of groove Trevor Walker. His performances have lead him to collaborate on records and compilations unde
r several labels, notably: EMI Boston, Bombay Records (Vancouver), Pronto Musique, Guidance Records, Nordic Trax, Kinkysweet, Fossilfuel Records and more…
Over the years Tony has shared the bill with some of music’s most cutting edge acts and globally renowned names in the electro scene, namely: Joe Claussel, Peven Everet, Roy Davis jr., Tokyo’s UFO, Jazzanova, Rainer Truby, Talvin Singh, Llorca, St-Germain, Louis Vega, Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak, King Britt, Andrea Parker, Banco de Gaïa, dj Heather, Jojoflores, Nav Bhinder and Patrick Dream and many more…
Tony’s biggest accomplishment would clearly be his involvement with CBC Radio One. Working two years, mixing and featuring globally renowned electro-jazz artist on the international circuit and featuring Indie label acts, “Le Mélange des Genres” had two successful seasons, broadcasting to 500 000 listeners weekly. In this context, Tony Almonte remains the first ever DJ to hold a residency on the CBC roster, also first allowed to merge other artist’s work live on air. He is known to be a risk taker, yet acclaimed for getting the job done properly and with respect to the integrity of the original tracks produced.
Based in Montreal, Almonte is now a proud member of The VooDooMonx — so go check him out at one of their shows!
Bambi Blue
DJ Sneak began listening to house music soon after he and his family arrived from Puerto Rico in the early 1980s. Because he could not speak English, Sneak gravitated to instrumental music (as well as graffiti art), and became inspired by Chicago legends such as Marshall Jefferson and DJ Pierre.
Many of those early innovators had left Chicago for the East Coast by the late 80s, when Sneak was ready to start in the business; by 1992, however, Cajmere had begun a resurgence in the city’s classic sound by starting up Cajual Records. Sneak aided in the revolution with a series of singles on Cajual’s sister label, the harder-oriented Relief Records, as well as putting out singles on the renowned Cajual imprint, setting the stage for a filtered disco house movement to come in the latter half of the 90s with singles such as “The Moondoggy Ep” and “Sneak Essentials.”
Besides other productions for Strictly Rhythm, Henry St., ZYX, 83 West and Feverpitch (several of which feature Armand Van Helden on co-production, building on the Latin vibes of their heritage), DJ Sneak has also released mix compilations including 1996’s Kinky Trax Collection and the following year’s Buggin’ Da Beats. He continued to release tracks through the 90s and into the 2000s, scoring a worldwide smash with the single “Fix My Sink” produced with DJ Bear Who.He eventually started his own label, Magnetic Recordings, and moved to Toronto, Canada, where he operated a DJ booking agency called All World Entertainment. He continues to travel all over the planet as an in demand DJ and is considered one of the top producers and remixers in dance music today.
Lyrics by DJ Sneak are featured in the Daft Punk song “Digital Love” from their 2001 album Discovery.
Gotsoul is a two-fold company founded by a hip and talented team of musicians, DJ’s and producers, along with specialists in PR and Marketing. As a record label Gotsoul specializes in soulful music and eclectic music. According to them, anything that embodies true soul music can be seen and heard from Gotsoul. As a production company, Gotsoul houses an experienced and serious team in image-making, branding, and event planning.The label has included such awesome artists as Jojoflores, Mike Fresco, Osunlade, Trevor Walker, Rise Ashen, Santos, Jaffa, Miguel Graca, Soulcreation, Kenny Bobien, Fred Everything, Bodhi Satva, Nick Holder, Esperanza, and many more.
Gotsoul will, of course, be attending WMC 2008 and we’ll be right there with them!
Check in next week when TCR reports straight from the Winter Music Conference in Miami!
