Music Review - New Muzix

1. Never known as one to play safe Cosmo's DJ sets and productions reflect her expansive musical tastes and heritage that started her days as a teen radio DJ in the early 1980's. While living in New York City Cosmo was one of the leading underground dance radio DJs for nearly a decade and was a regular both of the floor and behind the decks at New York's hottest clubs. She formed a great friendship with mentor David Mancuso who asked her to guest at his party 'The Loft' on numerous occasions. Together they co-produced 'The Loft' series on Nuphonic and Cosmo is a founder of Lucky Cloud - The sound system that hosts David's current parties in London. Her move to London in '99 took Cosmo to another level as she began to play on a truly international level. She also stepped up her musical productions with releases on Playhouse, Disorient, and finally her own label, Bitches Brew. Like the Miles Davis Album Bitches Brew is a fusion of musical styles and is an outlet for many of Cosmo's productions including Bambu, Jinadau, Ch'i and her latest project Wild Rumpus with guitarist Gary Lucas (Captain Beefheart). She is also busy on the remix front with new reinterpretations of Desmond Dekker, Spektrum and more. 'Cosmodelica' is Cosmo's new monthly at Plastic People - The coolest club in London. Via PP's superb sound system, Cosmo showcases a deep assorted brew of Cosmic disco, dub, soul, funk, psychedelic rock, balearic, indie, acid house, deep techno and whatever else strikes her 'Cosmodelic' fancy. Each month Cosmo will deliver a new Cosmodelica mix to give samurai listeners a taste.

2. An inimitable character, Osunlade is a talented and progressive producer and a one time teenage composer for Sesame Street. He can often be seen with an elegant piece of bone jewellery adorning his nose. He travels the globe as an international DJ performing to huge crowds of dedicated fans who have grown to love his unique soulful and deep house sets. Elements Beyond is his superb and sublime album, totally creative and ambient, in parts hypnotic, conjuring up a feeling of tranquillity while at the same time making you want dance. He is a talented musician playing the piano, guitar, drums, bass and of course he has developed his own singing voice. After producing many projects (he has credits on over 20 albums) he constantly explores new ideas in music and is not opposed to expressing himself with the way that he looks and taking inspiration from everywhere he goes.

It is no surprise that he decided to move away from the commercialism and corporate ideals and demands of Western life and decided to spend time in Africa embracing the culture of the Yoruba tribes. It was this experience that inspired Osunlade to establish his own record label Yoruba Records, respected by underground dance heads the world over. His spiritual inclinations may be responsible for a very important part of his artistic approach: Osunlade became a priest in the traditional African religion of Ifa, a belief system and culture based on the relation of nature to God, and all that inhabit this earth. "Ifa has changed my life, music and spirit. It allows me constant connection with the source and balance within myself..." Perhaps it can justify the use of his complex tribal percussion, soulful atmospheres and deep house elements that are all apparent in this album. When asked where he is from originally, his playful response is "Earth". A more accurate account is that Osunlade was born in St Louis, Missouri, USA, but never really felt he fitted in completely. Ultimately he has settled in Santorini, Greece. "I have settled there because of the peace and the energy of the island, this coupled with the fact that I've never been what you would call an American, even though my mother gave birth there".

3. Born in a small village in the heart of Switzerland, during the summer of 1988 Luciano aka Lucien-N-Luciano departs to Chile to follow his mothers' roots. The productions under his own name Luciano are aimed towards pleasure on the dancefloor, while his project name Lucien-N-Luciano is used to portray the slower downbeat productions. Not only the distance in miles, but the distance in music cultures between these two continents, in fact, soon intrigues and seduces him. He then started to play the spanish guitar, but also if surrounded by latin rhythms and rich melodies, he developed a strong curiosity for a diversity of music styles, and soon after, in one of his trips back to Europe, experienced the machine sounds of techno [as it made waves across Europe during the early years of rave culture and acid house]. Soon enough, he began to fuse both worlds and incorporate the sound into his own style. When a small electronic scene began to rise in Chile in 1994, 16 years old Luciano and other Chilean friends, among which Ricardo Villalobos, started organizing and promoting several events there, while producing their first tracks, all based on infused latin beats, percussion and grooves with minimalist electronic sounds. But the scene there couldn't avoid suffering some limits, and a year later Luciano began to travel widely playing live and DJing in clubs throughout the world. He has then released on world esteemed labels such as Perlon, Klang, Transmat, Mental Groove, Max Ernst, Bruchstuecke and Peacefrog - not to forget Cadenza, his own label. Founder of tyrant and resident at the club since day one Craig Richards' DJing soundtracks Fabric's Saturday nights every week. Blending dubby, breaky, house music with fragile, ever-funky techno, his sets have continually explored new and emerging genres. Craig is also Fabric's Musical Director. This is a special live recording of Luciano and Craig Richards playing together at one of the club earlier this year.

4. Mike Vamp left his home city of Frankfurt in 1980 to seek out a life in music in the cultural hub of Berlin. He soon picked up DJ gigs at emerging hip discotheques in West Berlin such as the Music Hall. In 1984 he started his production career creating multiple instrument compositions at home on a tape machine, his underground, industrial sound adopted by the hedonistic party scene in Berlin. A stint at a major from 86-89 was followed by a brief stint as a guitarist in the Rough Trade signed band The Space Cowboys before in 1994 he founded the Ocean Club with Gudrun Gut and Thomas Fehlmann. In 1997 while reworking the music of the opera Don Giovanni by Mozart into an electrical form he met new partner and the other half of his soon to be prodution outfit Martini Bros - DJ Cle. Their first release on Steve Bug's label Raw Elements was followed by more tracks and remixes for artists such as Louie Austin, The Scissor Sisters, 2-Raumwohnung, Tocotronic and many more. The duo still produce and play on the international circuit as well as of course their home city of Berlin. From October 2007 on Mike will start a new club line in his new resident club Watergate in Berlin. Together with his partner Cle from Martini Bros they will melt their experiences into a "dj-live-session" night.