True Blue / Eleventeen

True Blue

Electronic dance music DJ and producer. Too many aliases. Too many releases. Releasing music since 1992.

I'm a Dutch producer with a passion and love for all music. 
Love to try making new styles of music and to find and listen to new music.
For more info: liebrand1985scott@gmail.com

Niko Marks is a dynamic artist of the Detroit house/techno movement. He began recording in the early part of the nineties, releasing innovative and soulful house, techno, plus a mixture of other music genres. The wide variety of genres he takes on, only testifies to his adaptability and talent in being able to engage a multitude of different sounds and in the process create futuristic music.

It would later be the fortunate acquisition of a Fender Rhodes electric piano, EMU SP-1200, Korg DDD5 drum machine and a Fostex 4-track recorder, which marked the beginning of the rise of one of today’s most innovative artists. Niko is what you might label as a triple threat as his talent can be found in the roles he smoothly balances as a vocalist, musician, producer and songwriter.

One of the many forward moving phases in his musical career included teaming up with Submerge Records founder, Michael Banks to formulate a vocal house production crew called “Members of the House”. Niko also collaborated with Raphael Merriweathers under alias group band names, Unit 2 and 365 Black. This particular mission stemmed forth the high-spirited grooves, "Sunshine" - released on Happy Records, "Homeland" and "Keep Your Head Up" written by Niko and Merriweathers - released on 430 West Records.

In the infamous year of 1999, he produced a project called "Niko Marks & The City Boy Players" which featured Eddie Fowlkes and included several artists and musicians from Detroit. The project moved from techno/house to soul, R&B, Disco to hard electronic - resulting in much fun, lots of grooves, and a profusion of great vocals and classic songs.

As an artist, his releases have been signed by some of the world’s most established recording labels: Characters, Ideal, EMI, New Religion, R&S, Crammed Discs, React, Delsin, Yore Records, Planet E, Submerge and Puzzlebox. Niko has also lent his skills to remixes for artists such as Tom Tom Club, Andy Vaz, Herschel Boone, Aux 88, Helder Russo, Universal Principles, Amp Fiddler, Eric D. Clark and many more.

His music has been featured by DJ’s such as Dave Clarke, Giles Peterson, JaBig, DJ Fingers, Carl Craig, and Andrew Duke, to name a few.

His collaborations are with producers and artists: Eddie Fowlkes, Amp Fiddler, Kevin Saunderson, Ripperton, Tom Tom Club, Kid Ginseng, Andy Vaz,Trevor Deep Jr and L.A. Williams.

Amongst the latest album projects are: “Day of Knowing”, “Dark Ages”, “Love You Forever”, “Voice Box Detroit Vol. 2”, “Various Characters EP”, “Soul Meter”, “Disclosure” and “Love of My Life”.

An artist who defies generic boundaries, Niko continues to write, produce and release cutting-edge music primarily for Planet e and U2XProductions. If you like what Niko Marks has been creating so far…you’re in for a revolutionary ride…

Born in 1980 under the name KRT, the band began its journey in the raw energy of live shows — in Spain, including a memorable concert in Burgos, and in Brussels at the Teatro. Those early years, intense and furious, were wiped away overnight: all archives, tapes, posters, and memories stolen in a single car theft, as if someone had tried to erase history itself.

By the late ’80s and early ’90s, the group found shelter in the former RKM studio on Avenue Molière in Brussels, under the demanding ear of artistic producer Jean-Claude Maury. From those sessions emerged Fast Beat and The Ballad of the Mouse and the Bird, defining tracks that carved NUR’s sound into stone — dark, restless, untamed.

After a split and years of silence, the band resurfaced under the name NUR, carried this time by the new promise of the digital age. The music could no longer be erased; it was destined to survive.

But fate struck again: the passing of one of the founding members closed the collective chapter. Today, NUR rises once more, as a solo incarnation. More than a project: a resurrection. A flame still burning, more than forty years after its first spark.

True Blue

Tony Thomas