DJ Xander has played over 1500 gigs across the UK & Europe since 1995, seducing dancefloors with his blend of pop & underground music which fuses cutting-edge & classic sounds

His striking mixing style, broad music policy (influenced by the 1970s/80s DJ pioneers) and cheeky re-edits have seen him perform alongside legends & heroes like Kenny Dope, Ca$h Money, Norman Jay, 2manydjs, Erol Alkan, Simian Mobile Disco, Craig Richards, DJ Rolando, Loco Dice, Mu-Ziq, Amon Tobin, Utah Saints, Princess Superstar, Joey Negro, Freestylers, DJ Craze

One half of DJ/production duo Planet X, Xander's also held residencies for Romp, Bugged Out, Metropolis, Phush, Sankeys, Terra Sound Kru, Proof, Beechwood Hotel, PoNaNa, Panacea, Flux Magazine and Love Decade, plus Secret Garden Party, Beat-Herder, Futuresonic, Dpercussion, Eurocultured, In The City, Inner City Acid, Stealth, Sequence, Divided By Dirt, Homoelectric, Manchester Cathedral and as tour DJ for Nelly Furtado

He also spent 10 years as Harvey Nichols' UK event DJ.

WRITER // DIRECTOR
POET // LIAR

I use SoundCloud to find collaborators.
Have a look at www.damnsung.com.
If you like what you see get in contact.

OKeh short history: 

OKeh was founded by Otto K. E. Heinemann when he set up his own recording studio and gramophone record pressing plant in New York City in September 1918. Heinemann formed the name of the record label "OKeh", from his initials.  OKeh began by issuing popular songs, dance numbers, and vaudeville skits similar to the fare of other labels, but Heineman also wished to experiment with music for audiences neglected by the larger record companies. OKeh produced lines of recordings in German, Czech, Polish, Swedish, and Yiddish for the USA's immigrant communities. In 1920, Ralph Peer's recordings by African-American blues singer Mamie Smith were a surprise smash hit for Okeh. The company perceived the significant, little-tapped market for blues and jazz by African American artists. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Bix Beiderbecke are only a few names of jazz greats that have recorded for the label. By 1926 Columbia Records bought the label and kept it running into the 60's with jazz and R&B recordings. 

In 1994, Sony Music reactivated the OKeh label as a new-age Blues label. Okeh's first new signings included Keb' Mo, Popa Chubby, and Little Axe. By 2000, the Okeh label was again retired, but in 2013 it will see its re-launch as a jazz label once again.

I started collecting records and subsequently trying to mix them in the early 90s; techno and electronica at first, but garage and house-music soon followed....

Gigs started to materialise in the mid 1990's, at first parties and pubs, but eventually night-clubs and free-parties.  Many a Saturday night was also spent hauling my record box down muddy tracks to woodland clearings around Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.  A nod and a wink go to the now long defunct Curfew Sound System for giving me many early breaks at the Broadfield Pub and The Arches night-club.

I enjoyed a spell of brief success from the late 90's through to mid 2000s, which saw regular bookings, residencies and numerous guest slots at legendary Sheffield club nights Remedy and Scuba, not to mention sets at Phonetics, Kabal and hard dance nights Headcharge and Planet Zogg.  Out of Sheffield, my record box accompanied me to the Glastonbury Festival, Sonar in Barcelona and numerous gigs in Copenhagen, thanks to my friends at Comfortable Records.

Not so much the jobbing DJ anymore, but still an avid collector of music, across all genres and formats, but still particularly vinyl - everything from Northern Soul classics to oddball electronica, retro techno cuts and anything with a heavy, hypnotic house groove.

Chris Smith, September 2013

The Strypes are 4-piece rhythm and blues band hailing from Cavan, Ireland, formed in 2011 by Ross Farrelly (lead vocals/harmonica), Josh McClorey (lead guitar/vocals), Pete O'Hanlon (bass guitar/harmonica) and Evan Walsh (drums).

The group has spent the past 18 months launching their explosive R&B assault on the clubs and festivals of Ireland, the UK and Europe, viciously hammering out a no-nonsense blues repertoire drawing from the songbooks of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Slim Harpo and more with the passion and venom of British blues groups such as Dr. Feelgood, The Yardbirds, The Rolling Stones and The Animals. 

Having already been met with critical acclaim from greats such as Jeff Beck and Paul Weller and been tipped by NME as the No. 1 new band to watch, it seems things can only get better for The Strypes.

Joe Horobin is following