PROPA: DAVE CLARKE (UK)

"Music has always brought me through, even in times when I've had nothing. Music has given me everything and I feel I have to give everything back. I don't know what I'd do without it, it's in my blood and bones, the only constant throughout the whole of my life." - Dave Clarke

In the 1990s he began producing and releasing music using the moniker "Hardcore", which, due to strange rules on duration for singles, became a UK number one dance album beating Whitney Houston and Enigma. This project was subsequently licensed to the Belgian label R&S, enabling Clarke to be one of the first UK-based artists to record in the R&S studio in Ghent and get signed by the label. After this he recorded under various guises, including Graphite and Fly by Wire, but in 1993 he dropped these names and recorded only under Dave Clarke. Recognition of his talent came in 1994 when a series of EPs with the collective name of Red and his debut album Archive One received rave reviews, as they were seen as being innovative and crossing genres, something not common in the Techno scene at the time. After the success of the Red series, John Peel gave Clarke his well known moniker "The Baron of Techno" (probably derived from The Red Baron), which stuck with him ever since.

His sense of rhythm and DJ skills have earned him more respect than most DJ–producers. He has a longstanding relationship with visceral, intense Techno, and is considered one of the innovators of the genre, even being used as a musical reference point in the German school syllabus. He's an especially big fan of the Detroit Techno / Electro sound, focusing on mechanical pulse and underlying funk. Clarke has continued to remain popular, due to his DJ style of endlessly cutting and scratching during his predominantly funky, dark, electro-inspired Techno sets (although he sometimes plays purely electro sets). Clarke's style is both sinister and energizing, and his live sets are rarely a disappointment.

Doors: 23.00

Fee: 200 EEK