About Me
London born Justin Berkmann turned DJ in New York in 1986. After two years studying the Art of House in the hallowed clubs of Manhattan, he returned home and founded Ministry of Sound where he was Artistic Director & Resident DJ from its inauguration in 1991 until late in 1994. Justin is now the Venues Development manager for Ministry of Sound International.Justin started DJing after being involved in the Family*Funktion & Shake’n’Fingerpop warehouse parties in London. Then after moving to New York City in 1986 he discovered Paradise Garage. There he found his true calling: to play House Music as loud as possible. Living in New York City for the next 2 years, Justin formed his style from the weekly radio shows on Kiss FM & WBLS. But what really inspired him was Larry manipulating the sound texture on the Richard Long System every week at the Garage. He started to buy his music from Vinyl Mania and got himself a residency Djing at A.D., an all-night lesbian dance-club on West 8th Street. Soon he had taken over the night, opening it up to Garage core members and renamed it The Closet. He formed a DJ group called Sensible House, which played around the house and club party circuits eventually becoming Residents with Hedonism in various locations such as Milk Bar and eventually they took over the console at Nell's on Tuesday nights. Justin also went on to become Resident at Home at Rutherford House (14th&2nd) and "Brutal" at The World (1st&1st) playing Acid House alongside the likes of Hip-Hop giants Afrika Bambaataa, Spoonie Gee and co-Resident the Duke of Denmark.Soon after the Paradise Garage had finally closed its doors in September 1987, Justin returned home to London and started to DJ at the Summer of Love Acid House raves, soon after creating a Friday night "Heaven Garage" but always with the intention of building his dream Paradise Garage type club in London. That happened after he met James Palumbo and Humphrey Waterhouse. After two years Ministry of Sound opened its doors in September of 1991. Being Artistic Director, Justin was responsible for the club's name, the logo, the site location and design concept. He unearthed the defunct sound company Richard Long & Assoc. in New York. Austen Derek installed one of his legendary systems with a sound so clear and powerful that it created transparent sound with a maximum undistorted volume of over 150 dB!With the pull of such an important and powerful sound system, Justin was able to tempt out of retirement legends like Larry Levan and Francois Kevorkian, pioneering the importing of foreign DJs on a weekly basis and was himself resident DJ. He was fortunate enough to share the console with most of the greats, also touring for over a year with co-residents Tony Humphries, CJ Mackintosh and Sasha. Larry Levan overstayed his visit by three months, spending time with Justin adjusting the sound system and teaching his invaluable knowledge on the texture of sound. Justin also pioneered Ministry's Sessions CDs with Jim Masters, sharing A&R duties on the first volume for Tony Humphries. Ministry of Sound instantly became one of the most respect clubs in the world. Justin has also travelled the globe, going to 26 countries in 5 continents, playing his rather intense style of Electronic House to established and virgin markets alike. His weird and wonderful experiences like most well travelled DJs are too many to mention here, but one extra special event was the honor of playing the e-Werk float at the, until then, exclusively-Techno Berlin Love Parade in 1996, where Justin played the entire route, covering over a million people in a 5 hour set and introducing them to the sound of House music. Outside clubs, Justin has made over 60 recordings, including two remixes, one for Arista (with Bert Bevans) another Milk & Sugar (with Torsten Stenzil & Dieter Sin Plomo); some co-productions,such as 'Addictions' with Peter Pritchard on Media UK & 'Fire' with Pufo on Plastic Fantastic, with another one on very limited (250 copies) edition white label, Coupe d'Etat 'How come you gone?' with Marino Cicero. More recently, in 2007 he released a 3 track digital EP with Christian Giordano on 9records, which can be found somewhere on Beatport.In 2005, Justin returned to club design when he assisted in the opening of Ministry of Sound in Singapore. This included the installation of the main RLA style sound system bringing together for an unprecedented collaboration Austen Derek of Aurateq and Steve Dash of Integral. As Venues Development Manager for Ministry of Sound International he created the club Euphoria in Kuala Lumpur, which opened June 2008. Justin now lives in London, and is collaborating with MoS as ever, is a partner in Rockin' Heads with among others Francesco Furriello of Angels of Love, is producing music with Simon Duffy and is a consultant to his family business, Berkmann Wine Cellars.
