Events

With today’s proliferation of mass media, pop culture icons have a tendency to seem overly ubiquitous. They stare at us from the covers of glossy magazines, talk to us from both the small and silver screen, interact with us through our laptops and hypnotize us with their inescapable hit singles. But too often these days, while our biggest stars may be omnipresent in our lives, we feel no genuine connection to them or their artistry.

Perhaps more than any other genre, electronic dance music spent the 20th century dominated by male DJs and producers, with only the occasional vocalist such as Björk or Tracey Thorn attaining any sort of notoriety. Consider Sandra Collins the first female DJ to reach superstar status in the late-'90s electronic dance music explosion. By being one of the first American DJs to champion the traditionally Eurocentric sound of trance, she quickly rose to stardom. Her beginnings on the West Coast at rave parties and at clubs led to her eventual entry into the popular Tranceport album series along with a March 2000 cover story for the important New York publication, Mixer.

It’s not like Dave had much of a choice really. That is if you believe in what Malcolm Gladwell says in Outliers, when he examines the success of a few key people in a generation; concluding that they were born at the right time, and in the right place. In the late 1970s something was happening to the profession of playing records for a living. A group of predominantly gay, black and Hispanic kids were subverting what was left of D.I.S.C.O’s freedom principle in Manhattan’s loft apartments.

Born in Providence, R.I., Paul “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio is recognized for his musical talent as well as his reality star status on MTV’s highest rated show, “Jersey Shore,” which premiered in December 2009.

Quickly a fan favorite, MTV announced Pauly as the first cast member to receive his own spinoff, which will chronicle his life as a celebrity DJ, set to air in 2012.

Deniz Koyu has without doubt proven to be one of the most promising talents to watch out for since 2011. His single releases "Tung" and "Hertz" on Flamingo Recordings, "Bong" on Refune, and his remixes for James Blunt‘s "Dangerous" and Kaskade‘s "Turn It Down" evolved into huge house anthems at clubs and festivals around the globe, being played over and over by Tiesto, Swedish House Mafia, Fedde Le Grand, Avicii, Alesso, Erick Morillo, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, you name it. Fedde Le Grand voted Deniz "Breakthrough DJ/Producer 2011", Sebastian Ingrosso called him "big time talent", and Axwell replied to the question of a Swedish journalist if he had personal favourites among young DJs: "Deniz Koyu. He makes damn cool music at the moment."

In 2004, with a personal vision for house music, Mark created his own workshop for 21st century dance musicians, Toolroom Records, and with it a new way of thinking.

Since its launch, the Toolroom imprint has developed into an uncontrollable beast, celebrating success as the biggest selling label on Beatport and reaching the milestone of 100 releases in 2009 courtesy of Faithless.