What the FK?

Compakt are delighted to welcome Joey Beltram into Edinburgh for a rare Scottish date.

Its quite hard to sum up the impact Joey Beltram has had on the house and techno scene, he has consistently been releasing fantastic club music since 1990. From the genre defining “Energy Flash” right through to last years “The Scorpion ep” on drumcode. Joey is one of the few artists in our mind who was not only and integral part of the dance scene in the beggining, but finds himself still innovating and creating quality underground music to this day.

Joey Beltram will be supported by Compakt residents Paul Nisbet, Bruno FK and new recruit DD.

Room 2 will host djs in the shape of Brad Charters (Kapital), Chris Meja & Jakal (Fixate/Touch) and The Physicist (Synthetic).

Early bird tickets are available from http://www.wegottickets.com/event/76116 at £8 with it being £10 on the door.

JOEY BELTRAM – BIOGRAPHY

Joey Beltram is a techno pioneer, heralded as one of the scene’s biggest stars.

In 2009 alone Beltram had a Beatport top 10 with his remix of Oliver
Huntemann’s Shanghai Spinner. Then there was his huge vinyl releases
like the Scorpion on Drumcode, Shaking Trees on Harthouse (a Raveline
track of the month), and a killer remix of Abe Duque’s Let’s Take It Back
that had rave reactions across the board including MANDY, Dave
Clarke and Hell.

There was also his run of headline slots at festivals, which in 08/09 has
included Coachella, both of Italy’s Play the Music Festivals, BLOC in the
UK, Hungary’s Bonusz, Awakenings, Planetlove Ireland and Rockit Open
Air in the Netherlands, plus club gigs from Berghain to the 10,000
capacity Fabrik in Madrid to Fabric UK’s sister club matter, Ministry of
Sound and numerous appearances in Germany, the US, Spain, Holland,
Canada, Malta and more. Check out the videos of huge festival
crowds on YouTube.

What’s his secret? Continued experimentation and an unparalleled run
of influential tracks. Beltram grew up in Queens, one of the toughest
boroughs of New York – the equal to Detroit for rough times but very
different in its musical roots. At 12 years old Beltram was DJing hip hop
and electro, playing roller rinks and block parties to buy records, studio
gear and decks. He released his first tracks before age 18 on New York
labels Nu Groove and Easy Street, and by 20 he caught the ear of
Belgium’s now pivotal R&S label with his track Let It Ride.
R&S invited Beltram to Europe and techno history was made. Beltram
arrived with a new track he’d completed a week before travelling.
Energy Flash, released on R&S in Europe and Derrick May’s Transmat in
the US, is still one of techno’s pivotal classics – Muzik Magazine’s Track of
the Decade, and a track whose title has named any number of record
stores and books on dance culture. Energy Flash and its follow up
Mentasm with Mundo Muzique made Beltram’s name and took the 21-
year-old right round the world, playing major events in the UK,
Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Germany and holding down a
residency at the notorious Limelight in New York.
Not content to rest, Beltram has continually toured at the major festivals
around the globe treating the crowds to the full force of his inspiring
sets. He’s also continued releasing seminal tracks, his ’93 and ’94 tracks
Aonox on Visible and “the Beltram re-releases” on Trax, the Caliber EP
on the UK’s legendary Warp (home of Aphex Twin and Squarepusher),
and his ’95 LP Places and ’96 single Ball Park on Tresor were huge hits -
each being one of the biggest techno records of that year, along with
the LP following, Close Grind on Novamute, with the pivotal releases
Believer and Forklift.

In ’99, he launched his own label STX with Arena, while he continued to
release under Code 6 and JB³, as well as headlining events like
Awakenings, Coachella, Nature One, Mayday and Dance Valley.
Returning to Tresor in ’04, his album Rising Sun included several of that
year’s biggest techno releases. And he has kept the innovative tracks
coming since on Womb, Harthouse, Drumcode, MB Electroniks, and
Bush.

Which brings us to 2010, this is the year STX will return, both as a label
and a touring show, with Beltram having put the call out to the cream
of European and US techno producers to join him. Beltram will continue
with the festival headline slots, but an intimate club tour is planned for
venues with the right soundsystems…

http://www.myspace.com/jbeltram
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joey-Beltram/201850585956
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Joey+Beltram