Check out Jay Kaufman's Official Website for more info, DJ sets and a downloadable press pack!
I'm a professional/DJ producer (AKA really poor struggling artiste) who makes and plays electronic music. I aspire to be on a box of Wheaties at some point in my lifetime. I freely admit I'm totally addicted to MySpace and all that it entails!
Jay originally started out as a club DJ playing abrasive and beat-heavy hip-hop such as Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest. Eventually, his 1980s synth pop influences caught up with him and Jay slowly began to play house and early techno at clubs and raves in his hometown area of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada (which is an hour west of Toronto) from 1990 onwards.
Known for his eclectic tastes, Jay has gained the most notoriety with the progressive house genre; yet he'll play funky techno, deep house, breakbeat and tech-house seamlessly all in the same set.
After his original involvement in DJing under the name Loop Dokter, Jay shifted gears into more serious projects. Since then, he has refocused his energy on recording and DJing under his birth name. In the process, he has sought an outlet with the development of his forthcoming label, Tortoise Shell Recordings which is set to release its first releases in the very near future.
Tortoise Shell has already achieved some success even before its launch. Jay licensed the first scheduled release on TSR, Daniel Gregorys Deep Cover (Kaufman & Streetdegrees Fully Covered remix), to the Slinky Trans:Atlantik mix CD compilation in October of 2004 although the track was improperly credited as being by Jay. Tortoise Shell is set to launch in 2005 with artists such as the aforementioned Todd Sargent and Daniel Gregory, Mick Blue Haze Burns recording as Cardboard, Kevin Sunray and of course Jay himself.
In 2001, Jay signed to UK-based progressive house label, Sonambulist Recordings (formerly Little Fluffy Records).
His first release came out early October of 2001 entitled The Fear. The Fear came with remixes from Katakana as well as Lushreed and saw play from top DJs Anthony Pappa, Danny Howells, Pete Heller, Rowan Breeder Blades, Nick Warren, Graham Gold, DJ duo Parks and Wilson and many other Alist DJs. Graham Gold was even kind enough to play it several times on his legendary KISS FM radio show in London, UK. The Fear was selected to be on the Slinky UK World Class CD, but sadly was one of two tracks that were cut from the track listing just before the CDs release. Furthermore, the track spent 6 weeks on the Balance Promote Group Record Pool 4 of those weeks in the top 25. Jay has also released 'Fade To Black' on Canadian label Fullbodysoundsystem and has forthcoming tracks and remixes for English labels, Sequential and Innovate. Jays other tracks have drawn praise from many of the worlds better-known underground DJs such as Danny Teneglia, BT, the Guvernments (Toronto) Mark Oliver, Luke Fair, Armin Van Burren, Ian Ossia and so on.
Jays accolades not only extend into music. He has performed on international TV as a guest DJ for the Canadian MTV-equivalent Much Music-based show Electric Circus several times over. The long-running, but sadly now-defunct dance show went out to viewers in much of Europe, Canada, the United States and even South America. The first show he appeared on also featured Britney Spears and was one of the most replayed Electric Circus ever. As a result the show went into heavy syndication to a world-wide audience of over 500,000 people.
As a writer, Jay has also written for Thousand Words Magazine of Chicago and several other publications. His writing has included interviews with top names in the business such as his feature article with the Platipus Sound System, BT, Australias Steve Smart and many more.
Somehow, Jay Kaufman still finds time to fit other things into his hectic schedule Formerly the host of TECHNOcracy on CFBU 103.7FM Niagara; Jay formed the first and longest running electronic music radio show the station had on offer since its inception in 1995. He has also been a guest on various other radio shows on the FM dial in Canada - including plays in Panama, Peru, Northern Ireland, and Internet stations Eccentricbeats.com and U4EA in Belgium.
Jay has also been involved in promoting parties and club nights in the St. Catharines and Kitchener areas, co-founding respected club nights (through his production company Slamwerks) in Ontario, Canada. His night Disco3000 ran for four years and was committed to bringing the best international DJ and live talent to the greater Niagara Region of Ontario.
Jays past gigs schedule reads like a map of North America. He has played as far West as Missoula, Montana; as far East as Ottawa, Canada and as far South as Miami, Florida, USA. Jay was even asked to play the Alive Outdoor Festival 2001 in Belgium with people like Iggy Pop and Front 242. More recently Jay played the Ultra 2004 Festival in Miami. Recently, further interest has come from as far abroad as Central America and it appears as though Jay will be touring Europe, Asia and Oceana in the near future.