Simon Apex

So I finally got around to updating my page and I promise to keep on top of it with updates and goodies!
To Kick things off I have encoded a bunch of my full length dj mix sets past and present...Enjoy!
Simon Apex - Live at Kandieland - Dec 2007
Simon Apex - Live at Luggers UK
Simon Apex - Breakin The Bass Barrier
Simon Apex - Live at the Nile, AZ 2003
Simon Apex - The Dawn of a New Era - 2002
Simon Apex - Live on Thump Radio - 2001
Simon Apex - Project Smile Case 2 - 1999
Simon Apex - The Breakbeat Projectz
And now for a load of bollocks written about me!
Simon Apex has been at the forefront of the United States, UK Hardcore movement for over a decade. He was first introduced to the intoxicating sound of Hardcore in 1991 at the ripe old age of sixteen through bootleg tapes supplied by his friends at school. Hooked on the high-octane break beats Simon started collecting tape packs and then just after his 18th birthday the legendary Rhythm Station opened just miles from his Bracknell home in the south of England where he became an immediate regular.
Over the next few years Simon attended some of the most memorable events in Hardcore history including the first ever Slammin Vinyl and almost every Fusion event. At the age of 18 Simon wanted to be more than just a clubber and sold everything he owned to scrape together the money to buy his first set of turntables. Just after buying his decks he met the person who was to become the gateway to everything he has achieved today and that person was his wife Angela.
Angela was visiting the UK from her homeland of California, USA. The couple instantly fell in love and married only 6 months after meeting. They remained in the UK for a year and then headed off to the USA to see what life would be on the other side of the pond!
When Simon arrived in the States he hooked up with a few Nor Cal jocks and busted them some of the freshest Hardcore belters! The response was not good to say the least! Turned out they did not know what Hardcore was and their scene revolved around Deep House music! Simon was shocked to say the least and was given some very inspiring words of advice “ No one will ever like this music! If you want to get dj bookings then start buying House music” (boy was that guy wrong!). Simon did agree with the geezer on one point though, no one is going to book Hardcore in a House dominated scene but what if he booked himself?
So Simon set out putting together his first of over 150 events. He photocopied a crude black and white flyer and hit the streets. The line up for the event featured House, Breaks and a slice of Hardcore. The night of the event came quick and with an attendance of over 400 people the Northern California Hardcore scene and the organization 'Subsonic Underground' was born.
Simon made a lot of connections in Northern California one of which was Jay Vigor from Fuzzy productions who at the time was the largest event promoter in the Sacramento area. Simon started taking regular slots with Jay and struck a deal that he would play for half his regular fee if Jay made him a resident. The combination was a huge success and lead to a year of legendary events that people still talk about today!
On December 26th 1997 history was made when Simon and the team set the stage for the first ever 100% Hardcore and Drum & Bass event in Northern California. Drum & Bass in Nor Cal at the time was surrounded with as much controversy as Hardcore was! The event was a huge success selling out in 30 minutes with over 700 people in attendance! From this point on SSU went from strength to strength organizing events consistently for the next five years, producing the stages that debuted some of the UK’s finest Hardcore DJ's including Robbie Long, Devastate, Scott Brown, Hixxy, Force, Styles, Sharkey, Energy, Jon Doe, Dair, Fade, Kaos, Ethos, Mc Storm, Mc Charlie B, DNA & Vinylgroover.
With the events growing and more and more people asking where they could lay there hands on this intoxicating high octane sound, Simon and Angela laid the ground foundations of the original online music store http://www.subsonicstore.com,(little did they know the scale of that can of worms!) Within 6 months of the online store launching, it was the go to place for Hard Dance choonage in the USA.
With the continuous success of the events and the online store, Simon and Angela began developing a physical store location based in Sacramento California. The store opened in March of 1999 and people would travel as far as 3000 miles just to shop!
With everything operating smoothly Simon then turned his attention towards producing. Thanks to Calvin at Alpha Magic Simon co wrote his first track in 1998 with Fade and Bananaman, titled Destiny. Within months of Destiny being finished it was being played on the world wide circuit and received a licensing for Hardcore Heaven Vol. 4 in early 1999. It was the inspiring time Simon spent in the studio with Fade & Bananaman that left him with the dream of one day building his own studio and that day had arrived!
Simon teamed up with production partner Ion and they set about building the basics of what was to become Stateside Studio’s. When the studio was finished the only thing they were lacking was an engineer. Simon had been talking a lot with an engineer from the UK called DNA. DNA wanted to head Stateside but did not know how to go about it. So Simon opened his arms and brought him on board with SSU. In return DNA would become the head engineer for the SSU studio and teach Simon the basics of engineering. Within 6 months of DNA arriving in the USA Simon had him DJing full time all over the country and they were working hard on projects in the studio.
By the end of the 1999 SSU 1 – Feel Good / Treble & Bass was released. The initial 500 copies flew off the shelves and SSU Recordings the first ever USA based UK Hardcore label was born. Not only was SSU Recordings the first but it went on to become one of the largest. With releases such as SSU 4 – Superman selling close to 1000 units on vinyl and received a licensing to the massive Japanese compilation album Dance Speed that sold close to 1/4 million!.
Over the next year the team kept on top of the release schedule and included two new labels, Mashed Up & Havinit Large. Around the same time the label launched Simon had become good friends with one of the key players in the Southern Californian Hardcore scene, DJ Lostboy. Simon immediately brought Lostboy on board with SSU as an artist that built a bond between the North and South completing an organization with connections into every corner of West Coast Electronica. Simon and Lostboy wrote many releases together including Rushing, Why Can’t We See, Reaching The Edge and the monster Drowning Remix.
DNA eventually went his own way and Simon stepped up into the lead engineer position. Simon went on to received many more licenses including Bonkers on React, Bonkers on Resist, Hec-Tech, The Ministry of Sound 'Decadance', Warner Bros 'Nation', Decadance 2, Cannes Film Festival and even a television documentary about the underground dance music scene. SSU Recordings was hitting hard, selling well and receiving regular coverage from mainstream press with a slue of articles in publications like URB, WAX, BPM, Insider, Fix, Massive, Lotus & Freebass.
The labels kept rolling like a freight train and Simon branched out to include other artists including, Robbie Long, Coyote, Ethos & Storm. SSU 8 – Falling saw Simon team back up with one of his mentors, Fade. Falling was an absolute stormer and was originally scheduled for release on Next Generation Records but Simon wanted to release the track as quickly as possible and decided to stamp it under SSU. Falling came out and sold over 750 copies and again received licensing to the monster Dance Speed compilation from Japan. Then in 2003 Simon was nominated for a Sammie award in Sacramento for most successful Electronic Musician.
On top of the events, Record Store and Labels Simon also had an insanely hectic DJ agenda that had him on the road every weekend and took him to almost every state in the USA, then to Canada, Mexico, The Drome in Sydney Australia and back to the UK to play events like Raindance, Future Dance and Adrenalin. Simon also held residences with the largest organizations in the USA including Feel Good, Insomniac and Skills, all averaging attendance of over 10 thousand people on a regular basis! It was not rare for some of the events to breach 30 thousand people with one Nocturnal Wonderland braking the 50 thousand mark!
The years had been very good to SSU but what goes up must come down! In 2002 the scene in the USA had reached a pinnacle and been thrusted into the public limelight and the general population did not like the distorted perception broadcast on news shows such as Dateline 20/20’s “under cover at raves”! The government came down hard on American dance culture and the repercussions were and still are harsh. Promoters were being prosecuted for the actions of their attendees and police were finding any reason to shut down legal events! This ever-increasing pressure took its toll heavily on the industry. Attendance was at an all time low, record sales had dropped dramatically and the once king pin organizations were falling like dominoes.
Then on February 8th 2003 Simon and Angela’s life took a new meaning in the form of little baby Zoë. Simon knew it was time to slow down and he had to prioritize his life. Simon and Angela sold the store in the summer of 2003 and Simon turned his attention to his family. Simon still writes music today and occasionally takes Dj bookings but he is just happy enjoying a slower pace of life with his family friends.
Subsonic Underground has been by far one of the most influential organizations in United States Hardcore. Over the past eight year’s SSU has played a major part in the introduction of the Hardcore sound, started the first USA based UK Hardcore studio & label, opened the first stateside store specializing in Hardcore, organized some of the first events and debuted the USA to some of the best UK Hardcore artists in the world.
Simon has dedicated his life to pushing the music he loves but most importantly he is just thrilled to be a part of the best music industry on the planet!
Discography
UK Hardcore
Fade & Simon Apex - Falling (Simon Apex & Weaver Remix)
Simon Apex & Weaver - Rockin All Da Clubs
Simon Apex vs Stormtrooper - The Light
Simon Apex vs Sharkey - Sensations
Simon Apex & Dair - Don't Stop Now
Simon Apex & Lostboy - Drowning
Fade, Bananaman & Simon Apex - Destiny (Original mix)
Fade, Bananaman & Simon Apex - Destiny (Simon Apex & DNA Remix)
Simon Apex & Dair - The Mincer
Simon Apex & Ion - Purgatory
Simon Apex & Lostboy - Rushin
Simon Apex & Lostboy - Why Can't We See
Simon Apex & Ion - Feel Good
Simon Apex, Haze & Hectic - Treble N Bass (Original Mix)
Simon Apex, Haze & Hectic - Roll Da Bass (Original Mix)
Simon Apex, Haze & Hectic - Roll Da Bass (DNA Remix)
DNA, Simon Apex & Lost boy - Reaching The Edge (Original Mix)
Simon Apex & Ion - Superman (Original Mix)
Simon Apex & Ion - Superman (DNA Remix)
Hopscotch - Steam Trainz (DNA & Simon Apex Remix)
Simon Apex - We Don't Play
Fade & Simon Apex - Falling
Simon Apex - Over Again
Robbie Long & Coyote - Big Up
Robbie Long & Coyote - Trauma
Simon Apex & Orion - Hardcore Frequency (Fade & Ethos Bonkerz Remix)
Simon Apex & Entrigue - Come On then
Mashed Up- Bit Of A Sweet Symphony
Mashed Up- Poison
mashed Up - Smoke
Mashed Up - U Belong
Simon Apex & Dr.Smile - The Journey
Simon Apex & Ion - Havinit Large
Simon Apex & Orion - Hardcore Frequency
Simon Apex & Charlie Jupiter - Taken Away
Jon Doe & Simon Apex - Feelings
Jon Doe & Simon Apex - Time For The Bass
Fade, Bananaman & Simon Apex - Unbelievable
Simon Apex & Ion - Sinister Asylum
Simon Apex & Lostboy - Take That Mutha Fookerz
DNA & Ion - Matrix
Storm - Breakin My Heart
Simon Apex & The Twilight - Back To Life
Breaks
Simon Apex - Keep Dancing
Simon Apex & Jay Vigor - Phsyco
Simon Apex & Jay Vigor - Rok Da Disko
Twisted Knowledge - Trip 2 Your Mind
Simon Apex& Dair - Beautiful Day
Simon Apex, Ion & Storm - Acid Roller (Feat. Mc L-Ski)
Simon Apex & Ion - Bass Quake
Simon Apex - Face Off
Simon Apex - Flashback
Simon Apex & Ion - Fuc dat (Feat. C Franklin on guitar)
Simon Apex & Ion - Illegal Substance
Simon Apex - Keep Dancing
Simon Apex - Knight Rider
Simon Apex & Jay Vigor - Siren
Simon Apex& The Twilight - Spy Hunter
Simon Apex - Truly One
Simon Apex & Ion - Higher
Simon Apex vs One N8 7even - Ready Da Mixx
Super Breaks
Simon Apex, Haze & Hectic - Treble N Bass (Simon Apex & Orion Remix)
Simon Apex & Dair - Sound System Rockin
Simon Apex, Ion & Chance - The Game
Simon Apex - Axl F
Mashed Up - Set me Free (Super Breaks Mix)
DNA, Simon Apex & Lost boy - Reaching The Edge (Super Breaks Remix)
Simon Apex & Anthonymad - Close Your Eyes
Simon Apex & Ion - Temple Of Dreams Remix
UK Hardcore House
Jay Vigor & The Ultimate - The Power Of The Darkside
Jay Vigor & The Ultimate - The Screamer
Jay Vigor & The Ultimate - Music Pumping
Jay Vigor & The Ultimate - Kickit Hard
Jay Vigor & The Ultimate - Matrix