Mark Farina is a self-proclaimed minstrel. Since his early days of DJing the Chicago and San Francisco underground, Farina always aimed to put his own spin on the not-so-mainstream sound he had come to embrace. Turning audiences on to obscure records became the beat he stepped to best, even when his organic groove downshifted in the early 1990s with a compilation...

Twelve years of late nights and early mornings have served Charlie Joecks well. The creator and host of the "Streamline" radio show on 91.7 WMSE has garnered an EDM audience that has stretched as far as Iceland, thanks to the station's Internet broadcast signal. On early Saturday mornings, from 3 to 6 a.m., Joecks-better known as Jayx to some-plugs Milwaukee audiences in to a diverse catalog of tracks that run the gamut of genres. Club Noise recently caught up with the radio mainstay, as...

As a two-time DMC champion, DJ Klever has grown accustomed to putting his own clever spin on the beat. Rowdy and rail-thin, the ATL native has merged his love for hip-hop and classic drum 'n' bass with a neon cache of electro, dance-rock, B-more and more. As a result, Klever has emerged as one of the most technically skilled DJs in the lacquered, indie-dance scene, where gloss often overshadows...

Ah, Valentine’s Day: I can almost taste the excitement bursting in my mouth like a cherry cordial. Across the city, bars pour pink martinis and scatter heart-shaped lollipops on tabletops, all while commanding partygoers to “feel the love!” beneath a sea of naked Cupid cutouts. Well, I’m certainly in heaven. Thankfully, two local club promoters are offering up a few sweet and scary alternatives to the usual saccharine soirees. Anyone who can’t decide whether to laugh or cry on Valentine’s Day now has plenty of options to do both...

As one of only a few underground dance music promoters in Milwaukee, Jessica Fenner (aka Fortune) has kept a visible presence on the city's scene at one of its most visible venues. What started as a bi-monthly, Saturday-night residency in October of 2002 evolved into an ongoing relationship that would eventually see Fenner booking all of the Wednesday and Saturday talent at Milwaukee Street's first nightclub. But after six years...

More than a decade after his jockeying days at the debauched Disco 2000 parties of New York City's Limelight, DJ Keoki is pretending like everyone still cares. Word is the former club kid poster boy is trying to resurrect his career and make good with all the "negatives," as indicated by one Milwaukee party...

Chicago's Nate Manic has made a habit of giving bad advice to dance music producers across the Midwest and beyond. Since launching the Bad Advice Music imprint in 2007, the DJ/producer/label head has managed to coax top-notch producers into spiraling down toward the dark, dirty trenches of his tech-influenced label. Some of his most recent converts include Derrick Carter, Cheap as Chimps and HeavyFeet, to name a few. Since July 2007, Bad Advice has built its reputation as both a digital and vinyl label with an open-door policy that welcomes a range of...

Parisian DJ/producer Don Rimini is serious when he calls his latest release "a goddamn wedding." Between the filth and froth of his track list, the Kick'n Run EP (Mental Groove/Delicious Gutter) features everything from the chaotic fuzz of "Rave On" to the naughty O-la-la of "Oh Ow." Rimini even followed up the EP with a steroid-induced remix of Young M.C.'s "Bust a Move." During his live sets, Rimini may pull out the predictable card of fidget twitch 'n' glitch, but he still mixes it up with enough ease to create electro pop swells of saw tooth synths...

KiNK's (aka Strahil Velchev) innovation and natural production ability have made him a magnetic force in almost all of dance music's divided factions. Full-on underground house music people, techno heads, hipster blog-housers, fidget bandwagon riders, huge-name disc-jockeying institutions, deep house nerds and jocky douche bags who just came to the party to get drunk and dance with a few girls have all emerged as fans of his music. The Bulgarian-born DJ/live performer has emerged as one of the most...

Ken Christensen keeps his musical secrets closely guarded. Since moving to Chicago from Washington, D.C., in early 2008, the producer and DJ has balanced his time crafting beats, running a record label and opening for high-profile artists like Chicago rapper Common. "Chicago seems to churn out talent in all realms," Christensen said during an interview earlier this year. "[That is] something I have always admired about this city and I am happy to be a part of it now." Not that Christensen needed much of a boost. He began...

The promoters behind the successful Projekt events at Six Degrees (518 N. Water St.) say they didn't spook themselves into shutting down their night too soon. The move to pull the plug on their EDM monthly this coming Halloween weekend simply presented a prime opportunity for the three-man collective to bow out while the monthly still attracts solid attendance. "As Projekt promoters, we don't do shows just to do them-we're too old and not interested in that these days," says co-promoter Brad Valerine, who organized the night with Justin Grall and Nate York...

The last time I heard Donald Glaude I was at Mighty, a San Francisco venue tucked away in the shaded alleys of the Mission District. The year was 2006; it was late September and I had traveled to the Bay Area alone to dance away the weekend at the U.S. version of The Love Parade.

Midwest Dance label Communiqué Records has come a long way since the early 90's. Founded by the Midwest's own DJ legend ESP Woody McBride, the label has been home to underground dance giants including Josh Wink, Derrick Carter, Mystic Bill and DJ Hyperactive. More than 15 years later, the imprint has evolved with the times, launching its new Communiquemusic.com site that incorporates a fresh interface with direct sales links. Today, the label that built its reputation on...

Before he was a DJ, Bad Boy Bill was another just Windy City house fan, mixing records in his bedroom at 4 a.m. and priming for a shot on the decks. Like many players of the day, Bill let his beats speak for themselves-until they piqued the legendary ear of Farley "Jackmaster" Funk of WBMX's Hot Mix Five team. While Funk gave him his first radio broadcast, the rest of Chicago would soon go on to embrace big room sound with every nasty rub of vinyl. From his rise as a turntablist in the late 1980s to the launch of his own . . .

Cuban producer Maetrik will be passing around plenty of "Space Chronic" this coming weekend. The latest EP on Claude VonStroke's new Mothership Music label has the backing of one of the Bay area's most exciting techno and tech-house producers. Maetrik's Aug. 22 Space Chronic record release party at San Francisco's seminal party palace, The Endup, solidified his dark, seductive sound as a primal force on one of electronic music's hottest scenes. Now a resident of Dallas, Texas . . .

In a dance-music age when how much an artist tours is almost always synonymous with how many records they've produced, there are a rare (and lucky) few who are busy trotting the globe based purely on their merits as disc jockeys. Mark Farina is one such anomaly, as is his female counterpart, the legendary dance floor damager DJ Heather. It may be her incredibly humble and inviting demeanor when interacting with fans, or her no-nonsense-no-frills personality behind the decks that keeps the punters coming back again and again, but more likely than anything, it's the fact that everyone who catches a set from Heather live-from the uninitiated dabbler to the seasoned house music vet-can always agree that "she destroyed it . . .

One of Milwaukee’s most esteemed dance venues is dimming its lights for the final time Aug. 4. Mike Eitel, co-owner of Diablos Rojos Restaurant Group and the company behind Red Light (1758 N. Water St.), announced last week that the lofted lounge will hold its last regular show next weekend. A growing demand for banquets, private parties and special events at the Trocadero restaurant downstairs has forced the company to close Red Light, he says. The company indicated that the closure of the lounge was “temporary.” Eitel and business partner Eric Wagner are reportedly

Techno keeps twisting its way toward the top of Milwaukee’s underground dance music scene. This week, it’s Detroit/Berlin’s Lee Curtiss who bridges the gap between house and techno with dark and minimal tenacity. The Spectral Sound artist says he took cues from Chicago’s Derrick Carter and melded them with the reverb of producers such as Ricardo Villalobos, Zip (aka Dimbiman), Matthew Dear, Peter Ford and Richie Hawtin. In 2007, Curtiss headlined Spectral Sound’s sixth “Death Is Nothing to Fear” tour across North America, garnering critical success from the underground dance music masses. Dark, deep and uncompromising in his mix, the DJ/producer has performed live sets with the likes of Samim and Alex Smoke for the Kontrol crew in San Francisco, as well as a play date for Bill Patrick’s acclaimed Robots bash in New York City. An alumnus . . .

Bryan Lam, aka DJ ShortRound, Shepherd Express readers vote for best Club DJ in the 2007 Best of Milwaukee is featured in the Cobalt Garage this month. In a colorful spread, Cobalt Garage features DJ ShortRound, the Shepherd Express, and Milwaukee in a very positive light in front of a national readership.

The perpetual flux of underground dance music has caused the party to continually change. The scene finds a way to reinvent itself every couple of years, proving to the veterans and uninitiated alike that this so-called simple music might not be so simple after all. Who better represents such a free-form, sample-heavy state of mind than U.K. electronic music phenom Dave Taylor? More commonly known as the driving force behind the genre-defying production hype machine Switch, Taylor has redefined the rules for producers who once abided by the conventionalities of the game . . .

John Larner earned his reputation in the 1990s under the guise of Cyberjive. More than a decade later, the multifaceted house DJ/producer says he still can’t shake his past. “Nearly every show, someone wants to hear tracks from the rave days,” says Larner, who now sets up shop in Indianapolis. “Back in the day I played a lot of Chicago house mixed with some techno and acid. It’s pretty much the same thing now . . .

Chuck Love’s musical diversity may have landed him a spot with crossover label giant Om Records, but it’s his musical understanding that has kept him on the radar of the underground electronic audiences for more than three years. The Minneapolis musician didn’t start impacting the house scene until early 2005, when his breakthrough Frozen in Minneapolis EP debuted on Miguel Migs’ Salted Music impact. Backed by the commercially savvy appeal of an artist such as Migs, Love’s multi-tasking music style became a hot commodity at clubs across the country.

The soulful roots of Chicago house dug deep into the artistic mind-set of Andrew Emil, who channeled their influences into sound, art and audio experimentation. The accomplished result melds the smooth vibe of neo-jazz with the funkier influences of underground house. Emil’s recent venture, Four Play Music, is an attempt to expand his musical reach through a self-helmed record label. Four Play marks a home base for his own work— alongside several artists from Chicago and his native Kansas City, who he features on the imprint’s latest compilation, Andrew Emil Presents Four Play Music.

When Jamanta Crew’s Eduardo Marote (aka Prztz) wrapped up a three-day gig in Barcelona in 2004, he returned to his native Brazil with several tracks for the seminal Chicago house imprint, Classic. “It was a Monday morning, my last day there and I called Classic to have them listen,” Prztz said via his cell phone from Sao Paulo. It turns out the Classic label heads had been the ones looking for him. Months prior, several unlabeled tracks crafted by the burgeoning Brazilian P.A. act fell into the hands of Luke Solomon, who played them without knowing who made them. Solomon saw first-hand how crowds went off.

Since 2003, Danny White and his crew have been slumming it. With a few lessons in debauchery from creative cohorts Eddie Leader and Rucky (Dan Rucker), the U.K.-based trio Slum Science has been crafting a catalog of funky house tracks that reek of smoke, booze and ingenuity. Could the underground heads demand much more? Labels such as Deep Future, Icon, Jackin Tracks and Black Cherry certainly got buzzed on the smooth sound of their work. The trio’s string of successful drops led the production team to branch out on their own . . .