Brodinski is the most exciting dj and producer to explode onto the scene in recent years. Yes, he may hail from France (Reims, Lille) but he is quite unlike any of his Parisian peers. His taste in music is broad and this is reflected in his own productions and dj sets which may encompass noisy techno, bass heavy house through to more melodic minimal.

His programming is impeccable and he plays with such spirit that his 6’2” frame jerks and bounces when he gets excited by a track (yet he is never fuelled with anything more than Fanta Lemon!).

The hot fuss started with his debut track Bad Runner which leaked onto blog sites months before it’s release on Mental Groove in October 2007. Supported by everyone from Soulwax, Tiga, Chloe, Erol Alkan, A Trak, Busy P, Switch and Laurent Garnier the track – peak time techno with Martian’s yakking through it – was one of the sleeper hits of the year.

When it was eventually released the subject ‘Bad Runner’ had garnered over 3500 views on Erol Alkan’s forum, people couldn’t wait to get their hands on it. The flipside Solaris was a more subtle and seductive slice of techno. At the time Brodinski told FACT magazine that he would like to record for both Erol Alkan and Damian Lazarus’ labels and this record seemed to sum up that ambition.

Since Bad Runner Brodinski has remixed Bonde de Role, Klaxons, Das Pop, Shoes, D.I.M, Heart Revolutions and Adam Sky. Each remix has had a different approach, from the acidic (D.I.M), to vocal techno (Das Pop) to melancholic end-of-nighters (Klaxons).

Brodinski has already been championed by Radio Soulwax, Tiga’s Turbo and Bugged Out who have already offered him multiple gigs and festival slots for 2008. This May he has two releases readied to rock the summer. Goldfinger, a primitive house groove with ululating sirens and vocal grunts followed by an as yet untitled techno bomb.

Genre-bending electronica outfit Pink Skull are primarily the brainchild of DJ and producer Julian Grefe, a longtime fixture of Philadelphia's punk and dance music scenes, along with a host of friends and collaborators, most notably Justin "JG" Geller, and, eventually, a full-fledged band. Through the late '90s and early 2000s, Grefe was a member of emo-punkers the Trans Megetti and the arty S PRCSS (a band whose name he also took as his DJ alias surname), while also working as a DJ and producing downtempo and drum'n'bass tracks, sometimes under the moniker EDK. As electroclash and dance-punk emerged in the early 2000s, helping to integrate the two previously emphatically disparate worlds of indie/punk and electronic dance music, Grefe was in the forefront of the revolution, helping to jump-start indie dance culture in Philadelphia and curating the first two volumes of the RVNG INTL mix series. He formed Pink Skull, together with fellow DJs Ian Kelly (DJ Diabolic) and Geller (who was half of drum'n'bass duo GFS, and later a third of Moqita), in 2003; their first release, the house-based Blast Yr AKK EP (featuring a Roxy Music cover), appeared in 2004 on Grefe's Tone Arm label.

The next several years saw a flurry of DJ activity from all involved; production work for fellow Philadelphians Yah Mos Def, Amanda Blank, and V.I.P.; remixes for the likes of HEALTH, Architecture in Helsinki, and David Gilmour Girls; and, in 2007, several single releases including an EP of reworked Chicago house classics. Over that time, Pink Skull morphed into a fully functional live band including the two originals JGs plus a third (Jeremy Gewertz) on drums, Mike Hammel on bass, and Sam Murphy on guitar. They released their full-length debut in April of 2008, an edgy, psychedelic, and intermittently danceable collection cheekily titled Zeppelin 3, which blended live instrumentation with electronic studio work, including remixes of Icy Demons and Plastic Little and contributions from Mirah and White Whale's John Anderson. The non-album single "Drugs Will Keep Us Together," a relatively straight-ahead house track, also arrived in spring 2008.

Rumors of NYC nightlife’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. While the ever-pervasive rumors of “no dancing allowed” and draconian cabaret laws continue to reverberate around the world’s cities, the state of underground dance music in the big apple is indeed much stronger. This is thanks, in no small part, to the efforts of Dave Pianka and Josh Houtkin (DJing as Dave P and JDH, respectively). The two have been responsible for bringing over some of the most credible DJs and live bands and giving them a proper venue and environment in which to play. In addition, they have honed their DJ and production skills over the years, and are increasingly breaking new records and sounds with their back-to-back sets. Dave has also recently kicked into gear with production duties, contributing remixes of established acts like the Klaxons and Bloc Party.

The two first met through Josh’s affiliation with Flyer, a now-defunct cultural magazine. They were frequently booked separately to DJ at the same parties in NYC, often in the same rooms.

“We both came from very similar musical backgrounds growing up in the punk/hardcore scene,” says Dave. “We both basically progressed in the same direction from there, into indie rock and into the more electronic sounds where we find ourselves now.”

Says Josh, “Our influences come from a pretty wide variety of places. We both were heavily into the early-90's punk/ indie scene. Fugazi, Dischord Records, Bikini Kill, that sort of stuff.”

The two quickly teamed up, expanding their horizons into techno, electro and other permutations of dance music. In early 2004, they started a party called Fixed at the Tribeca Grand hotel, where they quickly established a forward-thinking booking policy that found heavyweight, Berlin-based techno jocks like Ewan Pearson playing one week, with on-the-rise indie acts such as the Long Blondes the next. To date, blue-chip artists like Erol Alkan, Soulwax, Whitey, Justice, Digitalism, the Klaxons, Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, Mylo, Vitalic, Simian Mobile Disco, The Rapture, Art Brut, Tim Sweeney, and many more have all made appearances.

In a city full of nights with style over substance, Fixed is now known as a party with an eclectic crowd of sincere music lovers, where all sorts of interesting styles and genres find a place to come together.

“Aside from our musical upbringing, we are both influenced by nights such as Optimo, Trash, and Bugged Out!, says Josh. “These are great parties that don't necessarily have a musical "policy" or "style." For us, every style of music is good and merits attention.”

In terms of their DJing, the two have forged a defined musical understanding over the years. They often play back-to-back, each pushing one and other to find the perfect record to follow another with. “There are times when Josh and I are djing and one of us will put on a record and we'll both reach for a track to play out of it and then realize that we both grabbed the same one,” says Dave. “We’re both very conscious of flow.”

Their Go Commando! Mix features many artists the two have brought over to perform, and also represents a broad cross-section of the styles and genres they play in a night. Joakim’s pop-funk kicks off the mix representing the more melodic side of their collective taste, later panning through avant-disco Stylings of Prins Thomas and In Flagranti, the deep, brooding techno of Swedish performers The Knife, into an electro barnstormer from Vitalic and finally touching down on a beautiful note with the panning synth swells of Superpitcher and Michael Mayer’s remix of Gui Borratto’s “Like You.”

Going forward, JDH and Dave P look forward to continuing helping interesting acts around the world establish a beachhead on US shores, as well as continuing to bring their act on the road. With recent DJ tours in Canada, Spain, the UK and Germany, they’re finding wider acclaim on a global stage while keeping up the ravenous appetite for breaking new sounds.
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