Sultan [Yoshitoshi, Harem Records]

&

Ben Brown [Global Underground, Black Hole, Audio Logic]

Friday, May 1, 2009

Spybar Nightclub – 646 N Franklin Chicago IL 60607

I am playing Spybar on Friday May 1st. Headlining the night is DJ and recording artist Sultan (bio/info below). I’m on the decks for the 1st half the night. Should be proper.

Ben Brown friends/fans: email “info at djbenbrown dot com” to  to be put on the guestlist.

Sultan featured Ben Brown “Nova” in his DJ charts last year, so I’m very excited to join him at Spy, which is always rocking on Friday nights.

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From the desert heat of his country of origin to the winter rigours of Canada, Sultan has travelled a road quite out of the ordinary. After living in Kuwait, Cyprus and Egypt, Sultan moved to Montreal, Canada in 1996 to pursue an education in Mechanical Engineering and Business. Inspired by the vitality of the nightlife and his passion for music, he quickly immersed himself into the house scene of his adoptive city. Little by little, his interest for structures irrepressibly shifted from engineering to music.

In 2000, his reputation took root in solid ground when Montreal’s Mix 96 radio station assigned him the 12-3 a.m. slot every Sunday night. And In July that same year, Sultan became the weekly Level resident at club Living, opening and playing alongside such DJs as Deep Dish, Sander Kleinenberg, Danny Howells, Saeed and Palash, Max Graham, Nick Warren, Lee Burridge and many more.

Following his graduation from university in the summer of 2001, and in the wake of his DJ success as resident at the internationally renown Stereo and Sona after hours, Sultan created his own studio in order to unleash his talent as a producer. Once again, the results were tremendous. His first-ever production, “Primal Instinct” was signed to Chug Records that same year and garnered much appraise. The door had opened and with great enthusiasm Sultan quickly established himself as one of the most innovative and respectable producers in the house/progressive scene. With releases on various labels including Deep Dish’s Yoshitoshi label and John Digweed’s Bedrock Breaks Label, Sultan now has more than 70 titles under his belt with releases under the aliases of Soul Tan and Jiva (Sultan and Ned Shepard), as well as numerous collaborations with Tone Depth (The Greek), TommyBoy, DJ Tarkan and Ned Shepard.

In 2003, international recognition became imminent whereas four of Sultan’s productions (including a remix) were featured on “Global Underground 25: Toronto” mixed by Deep Dish, which made its way to number one on the Billboard Dance Album Charts. In 2004 Sultan began to make his mark on the international music scene playing over thirty international tour dates across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa while maintaining a solid consistency in his productions and remixes.

2005 and 2006 have seen Sultan rise to the next level with more compilation appearances including Tiesto’s “In Search of Sunrise 4

Ben Brown Remix of The Funky Bastard “Koalas for Breakfast”

The original “Koalas For Breakfast” is an awesome piece of chill house music.. Great guitar work and composition under a nice 4/4 beat.. LOVE this track.

With this remix I wanted to add a little bit  more energy but keep the groove and atmosphere of the original. This remix is a little more uptempo, with a shortened up the bassline for some more drive and added a bit more active percussion and fx to make it purr a litttle more on the dancefloor.  This remix was created exclusively for the HiDef 001 Mix Compilation on Audio Logic

Listen to The Funky Bastard – Koalas For Breakfast (Ben Brown’s Toasted Koala Remix)

[audio:The_Funky_Bastard-Koalas_For_Breakfast(Ben_Brown_Remix).mp3]

You can download this track exclusively at Beatport: The Funky Bastard – Koalas For Breakfast (Ben Brown’s Toasted Koala Remix)

Check out The Funky Bastard while you’re at it

Here’s another remix, this time of Franz Ferdinand’s “Ulysses”.  Meant to give this one a little more electro + vocal mix but it turned out to be a stripped down big room progressive track (don’t ask me how), hence the “Stadium Mix” title

Listen to Franz Ferdinand – “Ulysses” (Ben Brown Stadium Mix):

[audio:Franz_Ferdinand-Ulysses(Ben_Brown_Stadium_Mix).mp3]

And, dub below=same track minus the vox

Franz Ferdinand – “Ulysses” (Ben Brown Stadium Dub):

[audio:Franz_Ferdinand-Ulysses(Ben_Brown_Dub_Mix).mp3]

Here’s the video of “Ulysses”:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdGGqScwe4w[/youtube]

If demand is high enough, I’ll post free hiqh quality mp3s for download, so let me know in comments below if you dig it.