Erol Alkan

Erol Alkan (born 30 May 1974) is a London-based electro DJ of Turkish Cypriot descent.

Career

DJ and club promoter

In 1993, Erol Alkan started DJing in various indie nightclubs in London.

In 1995, he was a resident DJ of club night 'Going Underground' co-founded by Glyn Peppiatt and James Dickie. It was held weekly on Mondays at the Plastic People venue which was situated at its original Oxford Street location in Central London.

In 1997, Erol re-launched the club under a new name: Trash. Over the next years, Trash became one of the most influential clubs of its time. Until its closure in 2007, Trash saw performances by Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, Klaxons, Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Electric Six and many more up and coming bands.

From 2001 onwards, Erol Alkan started to play regular DJ sets outside Trash, focusing on dance music, influenced by his sets at Bugged Out. Bugged Out are credited as launching Erol's dance music career after offering him a residency halfway through his debut set for them at Fabric, when Erol filled in for David Holmes who had missed a flight into London. His profile increased considerably during 2003 when he was voted 'Best Breakthrough DJ' by Muzik magazine, and in 2006, when he earned the Mixmag 2006 "DJ of the Year" award. Erol has also been voted Datatransmissions 'DJ Of The Year' in both 2008 and 2009, which is seen as an alternative to the DJ Mag Top 100 awards but consists only of British DJs.

Boys Noize

Alexander Ridha (born 22 August 1982), better known by his stage name Boys Noize, is a German electronic music producer and DJ. It is similar to the name of Ridha's label, Boysnoize Records, which he established in 2005. Ridha has remixed a number of other artist's work, including Snoop Dogg and Depeche Mode.

Biography

Ridha started producing and DJing from an early age, including a period in which he supported Felix Da Housecat and DJ Hell under the alias of Kid Alex. Today, Ridha himself is known as one of the most valuable electronic artists, awarded with the Independent Music Award in 2010 as well as 3 years in a row as Best Electronic Artist on Beatport. His music is known to merge various styles and has a unique and innovative sound, with influences of hip-hop and disco roots as well as heavy noise and electro house sounds. His DJ sets are equally praised and have gained worldwide recognition for the mixing and visuals.

Ridha released his early work on labels such as International Deejay Gigolos Records, Kitsuné Music and Turbo Recordings. In order to retain full artistic freedom however, he established his imprint Boysnoize Records in 2005. Both of his LPs "OI OI OI" and its successor "POWER" were recorded under this label, as well as the singles "Don't Believe The Hype", "&Down" and "Jeffer" as well as "Transmition".