Quite an experience to play onboard the Arcadia Spider at the Carl Cox stage / Playground camp a few weeks ago at Burning Man. Here's the live recording of my set for your aural pleasure :)

Dee Montero - Live at Carl Cox Stage/Arcadia Afterburner @ Burning Man

DJ & producer Sturge, originally from Belfast, is now based in Ibiza after spending over a decade in London. He has been DJing and promoting electronic music parties across Europe and beyond for many years, from Belfast to Burning Man, from London to Berlin. As one of the curators for the Celtic Chaos stage at the Burn, he takes equal pride in his curation as much as in his DJ sets..

Sturge is an avid collector of all things electronic. From the early days of purist Techno in the late 90s and early 00s, his repertoire has evolved and he is adept at playing anything from downtempo to Techno, but these days the BPM is irrelevant. His eclectic sets usually tend towards emotive and driving melodic Techno- emotion is paramount in all his selections, and the perpetual intention is to take the listener along on the journey. This journey over the past three decades has led Sturge to develop his personal sound as he continues to hone his craft.

As much a regular in the underground scene as he is on some of main stages in London and at Burning Man, he has shared the bill with the likes of Gorgon City, Township Rebellion, Osunlade, Christopher Coe, Christian Loffler, Igor Marijuan, Seth Schwarz, Natascha Polke, Josh Butler, Roy Rosenfeld, Jim Rider, Jon Charnis, Guy J, Guy Mantzur, Mees Salome, John Daly, Moonwalk, YokoO, Be Svendsen, Jan Blomqvist, Chaim, Solvane, Prismode, The Scumfrog, Unders, Britta, Goldcap, Sabo, Rey&Kjavik, The Desert Hearts crew, and Aidan Doherty, to name just a few! 

Sturge’s first mainstream release, What Were The Skies LIke When You Were Young, was released on Musique De Lune Records in summer 2024. This stunning 5 track EP, featuring the lead track and four remixes, went straight into the Beatport top 10 and gained immediate support from industry heavy hitters Above and Beyond, Adriatique, Audiojack, Agoria, Armin Van Buren, Ame, Black Coffee, Blond:ish, Bedouin, Christian Varela, Jim Rider, John Digweed, Joris Vorn, Joseph Capriati, Marcelo Vasami, Mariano Mellino, Nick Warren, Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Loco Dice, Mind Against, Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong, and Solomun. 

Exciting developments are on the horizon for the next chapter of Sturge’s career, as highlighted by recent standout sets at Akasha in Ibiza and a move to a hybrid live set. New releases will be coming shortly on some standout labels- with sets lined up across the globe, the sky’s the limit and the future is bright. 

Bookings -  beatsandseats@gmail.com

Dee Montero is a lifer. He’s the former Mambo Ibiza resident who at the end of 2017 received Pete Tong’s Essential Tune Of The Year on BBC Radio One for the string-fuelled, epic end-of-nighter ‘Halcyon’, originally released on Solomun’s acclaimed Diynamic imprint. And he’s been busy ever since with various eps including ‘Pangaea’ on Knee Deep In Sound, ‘Shadows’ on All Day I Dream and also the scintillating ‘In The Wild’ and ‘Headspace’ featuring Meliha on Anjunadeep.

From Asia to America and everywhere in between it’s all been about the music for Dee. Performances in Australia, India and Dubai have been interspersed with US tours and appearances at Burning Man on the Robot Heart and Carl Cox Playground stages as well as summer shows in Ibiza including Hï with Joris Voorn and Nic Fanciulli.

In 2020 Dee launched his own imprint Futurescope bringing in fellow musical alchemists Patrice Baumel, Fort Romeau and Lauer for remix duties. He unleashed his diverse 12 track artist album ‘Artifacts’ to the world in 2022 playing to those deft melodic touches, twinkling synths and positive peaks. ‘Maya’, the standout track from the LP and a homage to Future Sound Of London’s ‘Papua New Guinea’ got a special rework from mastermind Rodriguez Jr. pushing the release to even bigger, higher heights. 

As well as forthcoming eps on Nora En Pure’s Purified label later this year Dee’s next single ‘Freedom’ on Hot Since 82’s Knee Deep In Sound will continue the upward electronic pressure into summer 2023. These are exciting times for an artist with Dee’s attention to detail and there are so many sonic terrains still left to discover…