CONNECTIONist profile picture

CONNECTIONist

17 YEARS OF JUNGLE and still STEPPIN strong!

About Me


**************** NEXT GIG ****************
I am a self-exiled Greek. After 4.5 years in MAD-chester and 9 years in Germany (Berlin, Erlangen and a bit of Düsseldorf), I moved back to Manchester in April 2005 to start a new job.
Having spent a fortune on records, tapes and going to live gigs in Greece; a year of learning how to be a B-girl when I was 15; 9 months of being a night-time radio presenter on Greek Radio for a Cretan folk music programme (well, I was my dad's slave); a 2-year speck as the singer of two University bands in Manchester ("None of the Above" who are still going!! and "Blue 2"); very random attempts to learn the bass guitar (I always end up composing Joy Division's "Transmission" all over again); and 10 years of drug-free clubbing all over Europe, I finally accepted my teenage fantasy to DJ and did a workshop with Donna Maya from "Die Patinnen" in Hamburg in 2001 at the tender age of 32, and was wondering why I hadn't done it earlier! I started teaching myself on the decks of three generous, kind and wonderful mates: DJ Ainge who had even given me the keys to her flat to go and practise while she was at work!!!!, DJ Stef the Cat who gave me my first ever gig at the Schnabelbar and lots of encouragement, and Thomas, an avid techno DJ himself, who gave me his whole gear while he was abroad - ein massives Dankeschön geht an Euch alle! I was lucky to get my first gigs already in late 2002 and 2003 at the Schnabelbar in Berlin. These were followed by others in 2004 at the "Übernachtslounge" club in Dresden and at the "Köpi", an alternative cultural centre and squat in Berlin.
Once back in Manchester in 2005, I got my own Technics and my basic Stanton mixer and I also started a course in Studio Engineering, Music Production and ProTools at the School of Sound Recording (SSR). In early 2006 I got to play a couple of times at a Manchester internet radio station, Unity Radio , and later in the year I did a course in MIDI and Music Synthesis using Cubase SX and Reason again at the SSR. In May 2007 I got to play at my favourite club in Manchester, the "Attic", at Caro Snatch 's "Rare As a Green Dog" night which got awarded funding from Futuresonic Festival , followed by another RaGD gig, a gig at Hit&Run Manchester at the "Attic" again and a couple of private parties at the "Saki" bar. 2008 has brought several gigs both in the UK (Pangaea Festival, Open Plan, Fluff, RaGD) and elsewhere in Europe, so no doubt I will have to quit my day job soon ;)
I mix mainly oldskool upbeat and bouncy Jungle and dark, speed, hardcore Drum’n’Bass (Check and download my "Rumble in the Jungle" mix on DUBEARTH). In 2008 I started playing out Dubstep and minimal techno too (Check my "Trip into Dubstep" mix on DUBEARTH); whereas my goal for this year is to play out Schranz and hard techno too :)
In 2006 I started producing my own Dubstep-tech tunes at home (check out my music profile ) and given that I also still do the good old drug-free clubbing pretty much every weekend, 24 hours in a day are just not enough!!!!!! ...
Since January 2008, I've been doing a monthly podcast on Dubearth called "Genre Salad", where I introduce and play my favourite tracks of the day, year or life, usually brand-new dubplates and unreleased material straight from the budding producers coming from all corners of the Earth but also older tracks from bigger names that don't get played out enough. The tracks span many different music genres from dubstep to hiphop to jungle to raggacore to Schranz. To have a listen to and download the Genre Salads for free just click on the fruit below!If you want to send me your tracks for the upcoming Genre Salads, message me for the email and / or postal address.
P.S. If you're into non-electronic music, make sure you check out the rest of my family, Zero Fractal , the next Smiths, trust!
Try the BEST MySpace Editor and MySpace Backgrounds at MySpace Toolbox !

My Interests

DJing / mixing (VINYL ONLY!), studio engineering , electronic music production, clubbing (always drug-free), dance, bass guitar, snowboarding, skateboarding (passive!), windsurfing, gym, Artificial Intelligence, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Speech Processing, Astronomy, Foreign Languages, recycling, energy conservation, freecycling

I'd like to meet:



most of these people here but ... IF YOU AIN'T GOT A SICK BASSLINE, YOU AIN'T COMING IN! :p

Music:

(Check the links on each word ;) ) dark JUNGLE , RAGGA JUNGLE , DUBSTEP! , Schranz , Schranz and erm more SC H R A N Z or that's what I call it anyway ;) Tribal Techno , Minimal Techno , Minimal Electro , DnB / Drum and Bass / Drum 'n' Bass , Breakbeat , Raggacore , Ragga / Dancehall , Soca!!, Speedcore , Oldskool Techno & Hardcore (think Altern 8 and Prodigy baby!), Detroit Techno , Hardhouse / Techhouse, underground Hip Hop , Garage Grunge, Skate Punk, Speed Metal. Well, just ANYTHING WITH A WICKED BASSLINE!!!Older influences include My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies, The Fall, Dead Kennedys, Violent Femmes, US Garage and Grunge (Sonic Youth, Wipers, Fuzztones), Heavy and Speed Metal (esp. very old Metallica, Slayer), Opera, Classical Music (Check out Holst's The Planets - Mars for the primeval dark sound!)

Movies:

A beautiful mind, Gattaca, The 5th Element, Charlie's Angels, Kill Bill, Jackie Brown, Lord of the Rings, Something about Mary, Men in Black, all Hitchcock films, Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei.... Actually far too many to mention

Television:

I dont do drugs :) Dont have a TV but have my favourite series from older times: Red Dwarf and Blackadder, and of course the greatest classic of all times, the Simpsons!

Books:

The Tipping Point / Blink (Malcolm Gladwell), What Should I do with my Life (Po Bronson), An Intimate History of Mankind (Theodore Zeldin)

Heroes:

all the unsung ones

BIG UP TO MY CREWS!

My Blog

"Genre Salad" (Sept 2008) - Dubearth Podcast

Greetings!After a summer break in August when I did a lot of travelling, here comes finally the September "Genre Salad" podcast. I've got a cold and the lead to my proper mike decided to stop working ...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 01:49:00 PST

MARKUS ZOEMERs "Genre Salad" theme :D

Check ZOEMER MARKUS' imaginative and bouncy "Genre Salad" theme that he did to tease me  Markus aka SpeedyRepeater is a member of the Dubearth family and always surprises with his musical and word exp...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:12:00 PST

"Genre Salad" (July 2008) - Dubearth Podcast

It's the middle of the summer but you're going to be treated to more darkness and definitely more than 26 basslines once again. You may detect streaks of melancholy amidst the roughness, which probabl...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:35:00 PST

Trip into Dubstep (vinyl-only mix)

Well I thought I'd do a mix with my dubstep vinyl, not much compared to my mp3 exclusive dubplate collection  but still sufficient for a trip to the dark side, I hope! No mp3s, no CDs and no FXs ...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Thu, 17 Jul 2008 03:54:00 PST

QUANTIZEs "Blood Clot" featuring .. a cheeky me ;)

Check QUANTIZE's new track "Blood Clot" featuring a cheeky sample of - err - me attempting to sound like a rudegal in the June "Genre Salad"   Priceless! And while you're at it, check the re...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:34:00 PST

CLONE-A-SIDEs "Lifting the Nation" featuring Yours Truly on Vocals!

Clone-A-Side - an avid Dubstep producer from Portsmouth - was kind enough to take my innocent voice as I was reciting some raps I had written for his L.O.K.Z. dubstep crew and turn it into a monster a...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 01:10:00 PST

How to make dubstep wobble! : D

OK come again? Many thanks to ItalDubz / Ital-lion for the pointer to that sick video!!...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:55:00 PST

"Genre Salad" (June 2008) - Dubearth Podcast

The new "Genre Salad" podcast is up on Dubearth!June has been a Dubstep month for me and you can see that in this month's track selection. The keywords are "dark", "heavy" and occasionally "brutal". I...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:36:00 PST

"Genre Salad" (May 2008) - Dubearth Podcast

The May "Genre Salad" podcast has got plenty of dark basslines as part of your 5-a-day and various ranges of BPMs to cater for all tastes and moods. Enjoy!You can listen to it directly on Dubearth and...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Fri, 30 May 2008 12:50:00 PST

BITMAPPING: an experiment in democratic art

Last year, I proudly and curiously participated in a unique, weird and fun "experiment in democratic art", BITMAPPING. Bitmapping is an unusual photographic exhibition with no curator but with thousan...
Posted by CONNECTIONist on Wed, 21 May 2008 03:19:00 PST