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House Music magazine in Chicago publishing since 2005. Deep House, Soulful House, Techno, Disco, Funk and all flavors of underground dance music. This sh*t saved our lives.

In a musical world where technology has made it possible to become a “credible” DJ in nanoseconds, it is good to know there are still DJ’s out there keeping it real.  Enter Marc Buxton.  Here’s a guy who believes that DJing is an outpouring of human emotion and that the best way to express that emotion is through playing actual records “in the moment”.  Marc does not use digital software to pick out the next song or to mix them together.  He does not pre-plan his sets and has very little time to dance around.  “I love to play all night so I can build a proper set - starting with foreplay and moving through two or three peaks throughout the night.”  Marc's style defies categorization, but includes elements of wave, house, electro, funk, disco, acid and industrial.  According to Buxton, "DJing is like cooking... just a dash of the right ingredients makes the recipe special".  The listener can expect a seamless mix of tasty morsels that touch on many of today’s sub-genres.  “I started playing in clubs in 1978…the word genre didn’t apply.  I still follow the same template.  I don’t favor specific record labels or producers.  I listen to hundreds of new releases across multiple genres every month and I buy a lot of records.”
  
Marc’s great journey into The Dance began on the radio in 1975.  As a young teen Marc became entranced with a fairly new medium called FM radio.  For the next three years, Marc worked as an overnight DJ broadcasting to the invisible masses.  As fate would have it, this was the exact time the Disco Era exploded onto the scene and Marc found himself moving out of the lonely radio station booth and into an environment filled with excitement.  “I actually fell asleep at the switch while on the radio.  I think it was an Air Supply song that knocked me out.  The owner called the studio hotline and woke me up.  He wasn’t very happy!  Two weeks later I started my first club gig.  Funny thing is that’s only job I’ve ever been fired from, but it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.” 

Marc’s first big break came two years later.  The Midwest’s first mega-club, “OZ” was getting ready to open.  A then 19-year-old Marc was tapped as resident DJ even though he wasn’t old enough to drink.  “OZ provided a wonderful laboratory to grow as an artist.  As an afterhours club, I could really push the limits musically.  It was a game every night to see how late we could keep ‘em going.  On a cold winter night, we’d go til’ 7 or 8 in the morning.  I played an 8 hour set five nights a week during my 10 years as resident at OZ.”  In other words, 2,500 gigs!  With security like that, why would a DJ ever leave?  To open a club to call their own, of course!   

The year was 1990.  The Summer of Love.  The Rave movement was exploding all over Europe and Marc seized the opportunity to open his own club, Metropol, based on the lifestyle that was emerging.  “We were playing everything from Madchester stuff to Ministry, along with the amazing new sounds coming from Europe such as Guru Josh, 808 State and the whole Belgian New Beat movement.  Chicago House was also a staple.”  The club was a smashing success.  So much so, that Metropol couldn’t handle the demand, with long lines spilling out into the street.  Within a year it was clear that a bigger more advanced club was need.  That club, Evolution, opened in 1992 and was truly a game changer.  “The concept was to make the place look different every week.  Bars were moveable to create differing layouts.  All the walls were painted with white screen paint.  Every square inch was hit with some kind of projection; 32 slide projectors on an Apple II controller, four first generation LCD video projectors which showed music videos and fractal images, oldskool film loops and 3-D foam core cut outs.  The place was a total sensory overload with 8 EV 18” subs rocking the block.”

After a successful three-year-run, Evolution closed its doors and Marc Buxton changed his focus.  His next business would not play music, it would sell it.  “After putting my heart and soul into two nightclubs, I felt drained.  I realized that typical club shelf life of two years would make it necessary to be a perpetual club developer.  I was looking for something more stable.”  That stability was achieved with the opening of Marc’s DJ focused record store, Deep Grooves.  Deep Grooves was a DJ’s wet dream, offering a one stop shopping experience and providing a centralized meeting point which helped the entire scene grow and mature.

After a nearly one-year hiatus, Marc was itching to get back into the booth.  Unfortunately, the few clubs operating were less than desirable.  Marc approached the owners of an existing club, Sanctuary, with a complete redevelopment plan for turning the space into a major nightclub called Velvet.  “It was great.  They followed my plan verbatim, and I didn’t have to risk a dime of my own money.  I felt vindicated.  Of course, Velvet broke all the paradigms and lasted almost 10 years…”  But, Marc would only make it through half of that period.  The Windy City was calling and Marc was ready to make the jump.  Marc had already been playing as a guest at Shelter in Chicago on a regular basis before the move.  Shelter was being forced out of its space and owner Barry Paddor was making plans for a brand new club called Transit.  Paddor chose Marc to be Saturday night resident alongside Chicago legend John Curley. From there, additional residencies at Crobar, Soundbar, Y, Rednofive w/Pure and Zentra cemented Marc's Chicago presence. 

“My love of playing records is what does it for me”, according to Buxton.  “The other aspects of the business are satisfying, but nothing comes close to spinning”.  Buxton summed it up, “sophisticated concepts deserve sophisticated music.”


Established in the 90s, Misstress Barbara (word play between Miss and Stress) is a pioneering DJ/Producer and one of the first female superstar DJs who helped inspire future generations with her explosive Techno sets. Whilst headlining major festivals and events globally, there was a period in the ’00s when she was consistently voted inside of DJ Mag’s Top 100 DJs.

Born in Italy, she moved to Canada at age 8. Curious and passionate by nature, she loves exploring new fields and reaching new goals. To name a few, she is a drummer, she has a glider and private pilot license, she graduated University in Communications/Cinema, she is a boat captain and sailing instructor, and she also launched her own bean-to-bar chocolate brand Barbon Chocolate, crafting everything by hand herself. A woman of many talents indeed.

But among all of her passions, music was always her main focus since the start of her remarkable career, which has earned her multiple accolades (2001 Best Montreal International Music Initiative Award / 2002 UK Underground Music Awards’ Best Breakthrough DJ / 2009 GAMIQ’s Best Electronic Album of the Year Awards and 2010 Canada’s JUNO Awards’ Best Dance Album of the Year nomination for “I’m No Human” / 2014 MTL Awards’ Best Montreal DJ, to name a few). Her extensive discography is found among the world’s best Techno labels, including her own, launched in 1999 under the name Relentless, which became Iturnem in 2003. Barbara Brown used to be her alter-ego used for her softer productions, but she now releases all her music under her main name, regardless of the style, as she did for her albums I’m No Human and Many Shades of Grey. This might confuse her most loyal techno fans, although they should rest assured that she will never stray away from her first true love: Techno.

For any DJ and bedroom producer, the ability to “hustle” is often the most underestimated, yet most important factor in determining whether they will fade out or successfully make their mark on the industry. Good hustle is the epitome of both the man and monumental career of international DJ, Roger Sanchez. From humble beginnings in New York City, diggin’ in dusty crates of old vinyl and spinning at house parties in Corona, Queens, to dominating huge dance floors and headlining festival main-stages in every corner of the globe, Roger is truly a self-made man and a house music legend.

The crafting of Roger Sanchez, the DJ, started in the late 80s, where as a young man he was enticed by the explosion of hip-hop that was taking over the city. Embracing the culture as a b-boy and graffiti artist, he would hit parties on the Bronx River and before long, his friends had him trying his hand on the wheels of steel. In a time and place where hip hop, house music, and “turntablism” all collided in a perfect storm of creativity, opportunity, and sick beats, Roger seized his moment and began to build his empire on vinyl and slip mats, starting with a few singles and expanding into a massive collection of over two thousand original productions and remixes.
Releasing music under a multitude of monikers, including the S-Man, Roger S., The Nu- Solution, Underground Solution, DV8, Ego Trip, El Mariachi, The Funkjunkeez, Tribal Infusion, Twilight, and Transatlantic Soul, just to name a few, Roger has been able to maintain the essence of his sound, his flavor, his “sabor”, if you will, while still using each alter ego as a tool to expand on various fresh and experimental sounds. Each one of his multiple music personas have allowed him the opportunity to defy the mainstream and travel out to the far reaches of the musical galaxy, collecting depth, wisdom, and perspective along the way and applying them to his future endeavors in innovative dance music sounds, allowing him to remain fluid and cutting edge across decades.

So many successful endeavors would have never been possible without a rock solid work ethic, something that Roger prides himself on. From the very beginning, he was a dedicated crate digger, searching for obscure samples and break beats in influential NYC record stores like Rock & Soul and Vinylmania. His infallible work ethic, paired with the strong foundation of art and culture that he gained from the Pratt Institute’s School of Architecture took control of the wheel as his passion for music expanded, driving him to start hustling mixtapes on the sidewalks of Broadway in order to finance his earliest gigs. With the encouragement of his father, an engineer, Roger abandoned his plans for a career in architecture and decided to devote all his efforts to his music.
Continue reading... www.facebook.com/pg/rogersanchezfanpage/about

The Original Architect of House Music, often called the "Godfather of House Music". Created the first ever House records "It's House" and "Time to Jack"
Also produced Frankie Knuckles' first record, "You Can't Hide"

T. Mixwell offers her dance floors unconventional concoctions of Afro, House, Techno, and Minimal; all stirred into one big melting pot of edgy banging fun.

Influenced by the sounds of Berlin, Detroit, and Chicago, Kiddo's style is a melding of numerous genres of current and classic techno and house music. Her sets may range anywhere from deep house to more dark and sinister techno. Lately she's been moving the dance floors with seamless techno mixes and the occasional jackin' house cut thrown in for good measure. She is known for her enthusiasm behind the turntables, connecting with the dance floor through the combination of a charismatic smile and energetic mixing.

In 2006, Kiddo held a monthly residency at Chicago's Smart Bar, where she produced showcases to introduce internationally respected techno artists to the city's dance music devotees. In addition to her regular appearances around Chicago, she has performed in Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Buffalo, Miami, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Northern California. In 2008, Kiddo contributed vocals to Decimal's Technicolor Lover EP on Soma Quality Recordings and hopes to revisit music production in the near future. In 2009, she traveled to Spain to perform at the world famous club Mogambo in Valencia and more recently has enjoyed DJing in Playa Del Carmen, and Cozumel. 

As a vocalist trained in classical and jazz performance, Kiddo has sung with several Chicago choral groups when she's not behind the turntables or dancing her heart out at late-night gatherings in support of her city's vibrant electronic music scene. In her spare time, Kiddo has also acted as a contributing writer for Newcity magazine,  Resident Advisor, and Little White Earbuds. In 2017, Kiddo co-founded the Walking and Falling mentoring and workshop program for woman-identifying and nonbinary music enthusiasts.

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