Since his debut at Manchester’s Hacienda in 1987, the beginning of the Acid House explosion, Laurent Garnier has played a key role in the development of the electronic music scene. Over the last ten years he has built up his international reputation by playing at all the major clubs and festivals worldwide. During this time he has been voted best international DJ by the music press and has built up a very special relationship with his public. Laurent Garnier is very different from your average DJ. You only have to witness the queues of enthousiasts in front of the Rex Club in Paris or L’Anfer in Dijon where he held long-term residencies.

Laurent Garnier is respected by both the godfathers of techno in Detroit, with whom he has built close links, as well as by the younger generation of producers and DJs to whom he has given a taste for electronic music through his DJ sets and radio shows...

Aside from his successful DJ career, Laurent Garnier has always produced his own music. In 1991, he released a series of Eps on the Fnac Dance Division label. This work continued with the creation of his own record label F Communications in 1994, with Eric Morand. The release of tracks such as ‘Acid Eiffel’ and ‘Wake Up’ on FNAC Dance Division served as a springboard for a new French electronic scene. Rarely before had French music been so easy to export.

In effect, Laurent Garnier became the first ambassador for French house and techno abroad. In October 1994, he released his first album ‘Shot in the Dark’ and subsequently became one of the first French artists to be invited to perform on the prestigious ‘Peel Sessions’, broadcast on BBC Radio 1.

The release of his second album ‘30’ was another turning point in Laurent Garnier’s career. From here on, Garnier decided to slow down his hectic DJ schedule in order to concentrate on producing more of his own music. However, this did not prevent him Djing on the main stage at the first Techno Parade in Paris in September 1998, in front of an audience of 100,000 people. That same year he won the ‘Victoire De La Musique’ award for his album ‘30’ ;a great honour as this was the first year that there was a category for Dance music. During the award ceremony at the Olympia in Paris, he performed ‘Acid Eiffel’ live, accompanied by violin and percussion. As a result of this performance being broadcast live on French national prime-time TV techno, which had previously been misunderstood finally began to gain recognition from a wider French public.

He fine-tuned his live show whilst performing at several of the major European festivals (Sonar, Borealis, T in The Park, Creamfields…) before returning that same year to the stage of the Olympia accompanied by 14 musicians and dancers. The experience of this performance and the full European tour that followed , including the Montreux Jazz Festival, proved to be a very important influence for what was to follow.

With the release of “Unreasonable Behaviour” in 2000 Laurent Garnier produced his most accomplished and personal album to date. This surprising record does not shy away from exploring more diverse and tormented sounds than we have previously been accustomed to in his work, resulting in praise from the press as well as the public with over 250,000 copies sold and one undeniable hit “The Man With The Red Face”

This album also enabled Laurent to continue to explore his fascination with the visual element and young directors. Following the succes of videos such as “Flashback” directed by Quentin Dupieux, Laurent called on Vito Rocco, Siraj Jhaveri and César Vayssié to create videos for several tracks on the album keeping true to the same off beat humour and mixed up emotions.

When “Unreasonable Behaviour” had been completed Laurent Garnier embarked on a tour of over 60 dates across Europe and USA. Whether playing sold out gigs at the Elysée Montmartre in Paris or headlining at the Werchter festival in Belgium in front of over 70,000 people, Laurent’s charisma and the generosity of his music seduced a large public.

The best is yet to come... Following a tour of Asia in winter 2001, Laurent Garnier will start work on a new album

The production team which brought house music back from the brink of commercial mediocrity, Leftfield made it safe for artistic producers to begin working in a new vein termed progressive house.

Paul Daley (a former member of A Man Called Adam and the Brand New Heavies) and programmer Neil Barnes combined the classic soul of early Chicago and New York house with the growing Artificial Intelligence school of album-oriented techno to create classic, intelligent dance music.

When legal hassles over ownership of the Leftfield name prevented the pair from recording their own music after the release of their debut "Not Forgotten," they turned to remixing, establishing their early reputation for reworking tracks by artists ranging from Stereo MC's and David Bowie to Yothu Yindhi and Renegade Soundwave.

Finally, with their courtroom battles successfully behind them, they formed their own Hard Hands label in late 1992 and issued the single "Release the Pressure," featuring reggae vocalist Earl Sixteen; "Song of Life" followed, and in 1993 Leftfield scored their first major hit with "Open Up," recorded with John Lydon. Their debut LP Leftism was released in 1995; the long-awaited Rhythm and Stealth followed four years later. With only two albums under their belt, Leftfield decided to split in early 2002 to focus on solo projects

Rewind back to the start of the last decade when a teenage Loco Dice was a rapper and a Hip Hop Dj, playing support slots to Usher, Ice Cube, Jamiroquai, Snoop Dog and R. Kelly. The Tunisian Born Loco Dice soon became a very well known figure in his native German Hip Hop scene and as the scene exploded (becoming Germany's biggest musical genre, as it did right across the world) he did what any self respecting underground artist would: He switched to house music. But not any old house music: very sexy and very crowd pleasing House Music.

Loco Dice is now signed to 420 Recordings in the UK, Superstar Records in Germany. His tribal, sweetly funky, bassline driven, dance floor friendly skills have given him a residency at last year's coolest club DC-10 and Germany's favourite venue, Dusseldorf's Tribehouse. He regularly tours America, both North and South, having played all the Spundaes, all the Crobars,Creamfields and Pacha.His first release on 420 "Phat Dope Shit" has gone stellar, his remixes of Timo Maas's "Help Me" had a worldwide release.

2003 saw Dice release two new tracks released on Four:twenty 'City lights' and 'Dynamite Love' and also had remixes of both Phat dope shit (saeed) and City lights (martin buttrich) released all of which received fervent support from the underground dance press and radio.

Louie Vega is the Miles Davis of dance music. impossible to categorise, Vega is constantly reinventing himself; and revolutionising the musical landscape in the process. During his nearly two-decade long career, Vega has crafted some of the most groundbreaking singles in dance music history, kick started genres like soulful house, and revitalised the careers of legends like Roy Ayers, George Benson and Tito Puente.

Born in the Bronx in 1965, Vega grew up in an environment rich with Latin music. In the mid-eighties, Vega began to make a name for himself as an up-and-coming DJ, playing at many celebrated clubs such as Studio 54 and the Palladium. He played with a raw energy and enthusiasm that reflected his passion for the music, and his sets were refreshingly diverse, encompassing everything from Latin-Jazz and hip-hop to British new wave.

Aside from his production work for Masters At Work productions, Vega dedicates two-thirds of every year to a rigorous DJ schedule, which finds him playing to thousands of people around the globe; in clubs from Mykonos to Johannesburg. He still plays with an unrivalled energy and exuberance, and his innate desire to make people dance dominates every one of his sets, inspiring him to thrill and excite every crowd that comes to hear him play.