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Some people crave the public adulation and trappings of stardom that a successful career in the electronic music industry can bring. Some people are too busy being creative to worry about these things. With some people, when you scratch beneath the surface, unfortunately there is little substance to talk about. Then there are some people who have come in under the radar, conscientiously building great things in their own quiet way. These are the true masters, people who, when you dig deeper, you find famous productions, genius collaborations, exciting record labels and legendary club nights. Germany’s Alex Flatner is such a person, he may not yet be a household name but his career achievements so far are way beyond impressive.

Anyone seeking a role model for how to operate successfully and with longevity in the electronic dance music industry today, should study Alex Flatner, the art of multi-tasking across disciplines has been honed to perfection by this congenial, self-effacing man from Munich. He runs his highly successful underground labels, Gedankensport and Circle Music; works as an A&R manager for labels including Harthouse and Plastic City; is a producer of immense talent and a highly regarded DJ who travels all over the globe at weekends.

Having started to produce music in 1992 for his own enjoyment, a chance meeting with Corvin Dalek, A&R for the Berlin based MFS label, resulted in his first big hit, “Pounds & Penz”. The record sold more then 50K copies (on vinyl) and was licensed to many compilations. Such huge success led to many remix and production opportunities, a personal highlight for Alex being his highly creative reworking of “Crystal” by New Order, a version much loved by Bernard Sumner.

An introduction to the world of DJing came about by accident in 1995, when a new club opened (Electric Delicate) in his hometown of Munich. The DJ didn’t turn up one Saturday night, so Alex ended up spinning some records to keep the crowd entertained, the night becoming one of the most popular in the city at that time. Crucially, this new creative outlet led to Alex Flatner’s name becoming known outside Germany. These days he can regularly be found behind the decks in Istanbul, Rome, Berlin (Watergate), Paris, Madrid (Fabrik), Bloemendaal (Woodstock 69), Rotterdam and many other major clubbing cities around the globe.

Always wanting to learn and develop his skills further, Alex took on the role of A&R in 2002 for a variety of labels. Up to now, he has signed more then 3000 releases for Harthouse, Plastic City, Fine Audio, Monoid, Mole Listening Pearls, Circle Music, Gedankensport, Galvanic, Compressed and for many other imprints. 

In 2006 Alex Flatner moved from Munich to Mannheim, where he has continued to be based to this day, working across his many disciplines. A steady flow of highly charged, intensely creative productions on Toni Rios’ Soap Records (“Oriental Dreams”, 2008), Sven Väth’s Cocoon (“Make Up Your Mind” 2009), Steve Bug’s Poker Flat Recordings (“Dinosaurs”, 2010 and “This” 2011) and Daniel Schlender’s Result Recordings (“Blossom”, 2011), have marked him as a producer of immense talent. The licensing and inclusion of his tracks on mix compilations by Locodice (“In The Lab”) and Sven Väth (“Ninth Season”), and may more, have steadily built respect and profile around the world.

When you dig a little deeper and discover a stunning array of recent remixes, including: Gui Boratto “Atol” (Harthouse), Terry Lee Brown Junior “Pulsar” (Plastic City), Steve Lawler “Almerina” (Harthouse), Mike Vamp “High On Heels” (Top Model), Alejandro Vivanco “Vita Jo” (Eukatech), David Keno “Stars Above” (Keno), amongst many, you realise Alex Flatner has his finger firmly on the pulse of electronic dance music. Additional studio and collaborations with the likes of Lopazz, Reboot, Santos, Simon Baker, Oliver Klein, Ken Ishii, Joey Beltram, Anderson Noise, Einzelkind and Martin Eyerer show that here is a producer who thrives on creative relationships, always seeking to experiment and develop as an artist.

Since starting his own Circle Music imprint in 2004, Alex has worked hard to release amazing music from an astonishing array of international artists, including Gui Boratto, Sébastien Léger, Valentino Kanzyani, Umek, Anderson Noise, Robert Babicz, Leandro Gamez, Michel de Hey, Santos, Joey Beltram, Bryan Zentz, and may more, alongside his own productions and those with studio collaborator Lopazz. In 2007 he released a fabulous label compilation mix CD (“World Of Circle”) linked with touring through France, India, Spain, Croatia, Germany, Poland and Russia. A further “Best Of Circle” label compilation appeared in 2009 and 2012 will see Alex Flatner release a new Circle compilation in the emerging nu-disco style. Also, look out for exciting Circle releases from Daniel Bortz and Slok feat. My Favourite Robot with remixes by Subb-an and Lopazz

Whilst establishing Circle Music, Alex also realised that he also needed an outlet to explore possibilities with more pure house orientated music. Launched in 2006, Gedankensport has overseen the emergence of superb releases from Vox Sola, Evil Hinko, Piemont, Pelle Buys, Christopher Rau, Daniel Bortz, Matiss. Having two distinct platforms to release a wide variety of great music has given both labels the creative freedom to thrive and develop over the years.

In early 2012, Alex Flatner and Lopazz (best known for the quality, avant-garde club music he’s released on labels like Get Physical, Cocoon, Pokerflat) have been locked in the studio at every available opportunity creating their debut artist album, a project that will feature some surprising collaborators. Their track “Perfect Circles” (Circle Music, 2008), featuring the voice of Lopazz, received much big name DJ support, including Sven Väth, who played it for a whole summer season in Ibiza and licensed it to his yearly Cocoon mix compilation. This huge success resulted in further work together for Cocoon (“Make Up Your Mind”, 2009) and then “Dinosaurs” (2010) for Steve Bug’s Poker Flat Recordings. Their next single release is scheduled for release on Get Physical at the end of April 2012. After such illustrious beginnings, the debut album by Alex Flatner and Lopazz is sure to be one of the musical highlights of the year. 


Perpetual Sound is a new recording label headed by New York deep house legend Fred P. The imprint will focus on a wide variety of electronic genres for both on and off the dance floor.

Jay Denham is the second generation Detroit techno pioneer - musician, dj artist and producer from Kalamazoo, Michigan - city right in the middle between Chicago and Detroit. His style is a unique blend of these two worlds - Chicago house and Detroit techno, with a Kalamazoo touch. He stays true to the underground, makes the music for the art of it and always remembers where he comes from.

Denham's solid musical background takes its roots in 70s, when little Jay opted for a four-string bass guitar over a six-string electric. By age 17, Jay has been playing high school party gigs with his rock band. During these teenage years, he developed a taste for punk and New Wave, though still influenced by funk acts like Rick James, Parliament, Cameo, Zapp, and later Prince and The Time, as well as by electronic music of Kraftwerk.

With the arrival of the 80s, Jay Denham moved on to the early detroit techno and further on to the chicago house, when he came across "Chicago Hot Mix" tapes and the revolutionary Farley Jackmaster Funk and the deep Frankie Knuckles. Immediately blown away by these new sounds, Jay started his pilgrimages to the Cradle of House music in search of records, religiously tape-recording the local radio shows he couldn't receive in his home town, Kalamazoo. A chance encounter with the legendary early House producer, Chip E inspired Jay to try to make this new music himself, and eventually to create his own sound.

The next significant encounter marked another step in Jay's career. At the Western Michigan University he befriended a certain Anthony Shakir, aka DJ Shake, who now runs Frictional records. Shake had a keyboard, Jay had a drum machine and it wasn't long before they were jamming together. Finally a breakthrough - full dedication, hard working and sacrifices paid off - Denham's early works captured the attention of Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson who released Jay's first EPs on Transmat off shoot label, Fragile and KMS label. The track "Rituals" which Jay released as Vice on the Techno 2 Next Generation album was quickly followed by the classic track, "Insync" released as Fade II Black.

The fruitful collaboration came to an end when growing stack of tracks eventually hit against the labels' limitations on releasing and Jay decided to go back home to his roots in Kalamazoo, where he worked with local producers and DJs, and continued to develop his unique sound.

In 1992, Jay Denham struck out on his own. He founded Black Nation Records and launched it with his seminal "Birth of a Nation" E.P. (allusion to the infamous and subversive Ku Klux Klan propaganda film of the same title), featuring tracks by Denham himself and as well as his colleagues - Fanon Flowers, Tony Ollie, Brett Dancer, and Chance McDermott. Black Nation's philosophy: driving underground grooves for the funk-conscious record buyer.

With the success of Black Nation relentless releases of pure Detroit techno, Jay was able to refine his sound to what he describes as the funky techno sound.

After a while Jay decided to set up shop in Munich, Germany, where he worked with a local label Disko B. The label gave him carte blanche to express his creativity beyond the sound he was know for at the time, which gave the world the classic album "Synthesized Society", #2 album of the year 2000 according to the Groove Magazine.

Moving on to the European scene Jay expanded his style (instead of "continued to develop his sound") as a DJ. With more than 35 years of career, Jay is also well known for his dj skills, rocking 3 decks back in the day, performing at the Movement Detroit, Awakenings NL, Time Wrap music festivals, as well as at Tresor Berlin, Rote Sonne Munich, Lost London, Sonar, Time warp, Nature one, and many other clubs around the world with his brand of hot mixing.



no elitism, no prejudices, no genre, hypnotic, tense, comprehensible, a state of mind

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