C. J. Bolland

C. J. Bolland (born Christian Jay Bolland, 18 June 1971, Stockton-on-Tees, England) is a Belgian electronic music producer and remixer with British roots.

Born in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, Bolland's family moved to Antwerp in Flanders, Belgium when he was three years old. As a teenager he was strongly influenced by the Belgian underground scene of new wave, electro and EBM embodied by artists such as Front 242, Neon Judgement and The Klinik.

Producing and R&S Records

His first productions were aired on Belgium's 'Liaisons Dangereuses' radio show, and Bolland was one of the first record producers to be signed to the fledgling Belgian techno record label R&S. His first release, "Do That Dance" in 1989, was followed by several more under different aliases such as 'Space Opera', 'The Project', 'Cee-Jay' and 'Pulse'. Bolland's first major success with the track "Horsepower" on 1991s Ravesignal III EP earned him industry attention and respect with wide airplay amongst European techno DJs, and 1993s 4th Sign album, including the singles "Camargue" and "Nightbreed" saw him garner further acclaim and commercial success. Bolland's second album for R&S, Electronic Highway, was released in 1995.

Luke Slater

Luke Slater (born 12 June 1968, Reading, Berkshire, England) is an English electronic musician, DJ and record producer, who has concentrated on techno since the beginning of the 1990s.

Early life

Born in Reading and raised in Horley, Slater's early sound dalliances with his father's reel to reel tape recorder and his drumming stints led to work in local record shops, including Jelly Jam in Brighton. By 1988, Slater was immersed in the embryonic acid house scene, DJing in London's Heaven nightclub.

Music

Slater began releasing original tracks under various monikers, and his single debut came in 1989 with "Momentary Vision". Releases followed on DJax as Clementine, on General Production Recordings as 7th Plain, and as Morganistic (with Alan Sage), and especially on Peacefrog Records, with nearly a dozen of releases as The X-Tront and as Planetary Assault Systems.

After releasing four albums on Peacefrog, he issued 1997's Freek Funk and Wireless two years later. His tracks "All Exhale" (2000) and "Nothing At All" (2002) reached #74 and #70 respectively in the UK Singles Chart. His first volume of the mix series Fear and Loathing appeared in 2001, on the React label. Alright on Top (2002) was an "album of songs" with vocals from Ricky Barrows and others featured on every track. The second volume of Fear and Loathing appeared in late 2004.

Joey Beltram

Joey Beltram (born September 2, 1971 in Queens, New York City, United States) is an American DJ and record producer, best known for the pioneering recordings "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm".

Rave recordings

Mentasm, co-produced with Mundo Muzique and released under the artist name Second Phase in 1991, became iconic within rave culture, as it was the track that gave birth to the "mentasm riff" (also known as the "Hoover sound"): a churning, dirgelike synth pattern that wormed into techno's communal genome and has since been mutated and reused in literally thousands of records. Beltram and the "mentasm riff" are strongly associated with drum and bass, the Belgian techno scene, and the R&S record label, as well as hardcore/hard house in their various permutations since 1994. Beltram was referenced as a pioneer in the late 1990s house music scene by Daft Punk, in their song "Teachers" off their 1997 debut album, Homework and author, Simon Reynolds, credited Beltram with having "revolutionized techno twice before the age of 21," when describing both "Energy Flash" and "Mentasm" in his book Generation Ecstasy.