JOOSTVANBELLEN

I have been a dj since 1985, always mad about music, starting my illegal clubnights in squats in Amsterdam with 60's psychedelic garagepunk. I switched to acid house late 1987, which made me one of the pioneers of electronic dance music in Europe, all at the legendary RoXY club, I have been the artistic director of that club from 91 to 96. I still love the acid, the raw and pure energy in music has always been very important to me. I have done a few lousy remixes in the 90's but started to make proper music with Richard Cameron under the name Cowgum in 2005, Filthy & Raw being a club hit in New York, Barcelona, L.A., Berlin, Amsterdam and some other funny places. We are working hard at our studio in Berlin and will most probably bring out an album later in 2007, Cowgum now with a new member, Mark Verbos, the techno and acid wizzard and man behind those great Tommie Sunshine productions. Cowgum has done a remix of the opening choir of J.S. Bach's Matthaus Passsion too, an art project I started with visual artist 00Kaap, cooperating with several other producers and video artists. It's a project which is not finished, it actually might never be, though we have performed the in between stages about 8 times now. The press hating us for actualizing the story about the last days of J.C. and touching one of the most respected art pieces ever made, but we could not care less, the result has been mind blowing to many. I'm one of the three owners of Veel Meubel Stukken BV, an instant party company which brought numerous great parties in the Netherlands and beyond. Club Filth, which we do together with the young creatives of gsus, the Amsterdam jeans brand, travels the world, we did Antwerp, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin and Toronto, though Amsterdam is our home base. The most regular club we do is RAUW, every second Friday of the month at 11 in Amsterdam, every second Saturday in Utrecht. http://rauw.meubelstukken.nl. We have introduced many great new artists in the Netherlands, many of them being very in demand dj's and bands at this moment. Rauw is a clubnight which is best described as Rock & Rave now, though we hate to be pinned down. Have a look at that website! We do some other yearly events too, all of them being sold out in hours: the insane Fucque Les Balles with star photographer Erwin Olaf, the beautiful Manifesto! party together with multi media company Wink! always on December 27, and last but not least the O.H.A.F. (Oud Hollandsch Acid Feest) and O.W.A.P. (Original Warehouse Acid Party), bringing back the acidic vibes of the summer and autumn of love 1988. As a dj I have been travelling the globe and still do, though I'm almost over a hundred years old. Apart from all the Dutch gigs I travel the world, from Canada to South Africa, from Germany to Egypt and the U.S.A.. I have a bi monthly residency at probably the most beautiful club in the world La Paloma in Barcelona, Spain, and will start another bi-monthly residency in my beloved city Prague, Czech Republic in February 2007. I am a member of De Nachtwacht, a group of 9 experts on culture and nightlife, from 2003 till 2006 we have been the first elected Night Mayors of Amsterdam, advising the city of Amsterdam and it's inhabitants on nightlife... We wrote a book about it all, luckily it has been a boost for nocturnal life in Amsterdam. A new Night Mayor is now in charge, which gives me time to be more creative again. Together with my lifetime companion Sanyi of the Disctwins I do the music for the international Diesel shows, about 6 a year, 2 of them during fashionweek in New York. Highlight of 2006 was doing the music for the show at the Lifeball in Vienna together with the likes of Nina Hagen, The Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Naomi Campbell and many more. I love to do soundscores for fashionshows, and have always been supporting the young Dutch designers, from the first Viktor&Rolf presentation in Paris beginning nineties to all the new ones: my favourite is Bas Kosters, check him out, he's going to be big.