The event will be headlined by Mercury Music Award winning British music producer Roni Size and Dynamite MC.
Roni Size and Reprazent have headlined or are headlining several major festivals worldwide this year including Ultra Music Festival at the Winter Music Conference in Miami, Exit Festival Eastern Europe, Summer of love Festival Eastern Europe, Get Loaded in the Park Festival in London, Coachella Festival in Los Angeles, Good Vibrations Festival in Perth, and now the 2009 Hong Kong Electronic Music Festival.
Roni Size came to prominence in 1997 as the founder and leader of Reprazent, a Drum and Bass collective. That year they won the Mercury Music Prize for their platinum selling album New Forms.
Reprazent's live performances have been nominated for several awards including best dance act at the 2008 UK Festival Awards.
Roni Size and Reprazent are iconic in that they have pushed the boundaries of both Hip Hop and Drum and Bass.
Also, headlining the event will be Dee McAuley aka Montero. Dee has held residencies at legendary super-clubs Amnesia, Pacha, Space and Café Mambo in Ibiza during the 2000 – 2005 summer seasons. Since then his international DJ schedule has seen him grace the decks at prestigious venues including The Cross in London, Redlight in Paris, Trilogy in Dubai, Luv Club in Athens and Déjà vu in Bali. Dee has also been in demand in Minsk, Kiev, Belgrade, Warsaw and Vilnius at Pacha. On top of that he’s had a line of successful releases on labels such as Renaissance, Audio Therapy and Duty Free Recordings, with heavy support from Sasha, Sander Klienenberg, Deep Dish and James Zabiela to name but a few.
The festival has also invited Hong Kong's prominent event promoter/DJs and top local talent such as Robot (Jay Pelment & Mike The Unstoppable - organizers of the Clockenflap festival), Foundation One (DJ's Frankie Lam and AKW), the electronica band Violent Jokes, PyR2 (EpZ and Yann - founders of the France Touches Hong Kong electro events), Magnetic Soul (named “Trend Setting Event Organizers” by HK Magazine), Red Label, Heavy, Pimpin' Ain't Easy (DJ Enso), and VJs Ocular and Forivermann.
Roni started on the path of musical production when he was thrown out of school aged 16, but music had always been a part of his life. Roni was born and grew up at 'the top of the hill' a.k.a. St Andrew's, Bristol. From the bottom of this hill came the sounds of the 70s blues parties and sound-systems - the beat infected Roni's bones. So, after being expelled he walked straight into Sefton Park basement project, which allowed youngsters to try their hand on the decks, the mixing desk, drum machines and samplers. Here he learned the basics and his brother's comprehensive collection of Studio One records gave him material to work with. After setting up a home studio and buying a sampler, a musical master of production was in the making. Meeting up with Krust in the early 90's brought two musically compatible minds together, they faced the same dilemma of having no outlet for their music they put their energies into their own label.
Meeting up with Krust in the early 90s brought two musically compatible minds together, they faced the same dilemma of having no outlet for their music so they put their energies into their own label. With the help of Chris Lewis, Roni set up WTP (Where's The Party At?) record label as part of Circus Warp. From that Full Cycle and Dope Dragon were established in 1993. Bryan Gee was an early admirer, holding on to their tapes whilst at work at RCA recordings. When in 1994 he set up V Recordings, Krust had V001 with 'Deceivers EP' and Roni and Die had V002 with their debut release, 'Agility'.
"We looked at V as the strong brother label, with Full Cycle the sister following in its footsteps... Over the years the two gelled, people associated V and Full Cycle together. Through putting a lot of music out on these two labels we then got noticed by another label, a major - Talkin' Loud." Roni Size and Full Cycle were one of the first to bring the jazzy elements into the dark jungle of the early 90s. "We were using more melodies, more jazz orientated loops - sounds that in London only people like Bukem, or maybe Fabio or Peshay were using. But they were still using fat Amens where we were just using toned down breaks."
'It's a Jazz Thing' in 1994 sparked the interest of fellow experimental types James Lavelle and the Mo' Wax posse. Roni Size was picked up by Talkin' Loud and the compilation album Music Box was released in 1996. Their varying personal influences helped create the unique Full Cycle sound. "Suv was more dub, Die was more jazz, I was more ragga or bashment and Krust was definitely more hip-hop but we all had elements of soul and break beat in us, we all had graffiti stains on our hands, we all rode BMXs or skateboards. We all came from the same school - the school of the 80s and 90s. We've always tried to incorporate all those elements into our music. If we could put the sounds from spray can, the sounds from skateboards scraping along the road and of people falling off BMXs, in one record we would."
The following year 'Roni Size & Reprazent', took the world by storm with their New Forms LP. Winning the Mercury Music Prize boosted their international status and the world awoke to the sound of Roni Size and Full Cycle. The singles from the album all featured the unmistakable vocals of Onallee whose call for the music in 'Brown Paper Bag' is a signal all ravers still respond to. 'Heroes' and 'Watching Windows' are also modern day classics. The album went platinum and, surprised by their new massive fan base, Roni and the boys returned to the studio to concentrate on their output for V and Full Cycle & Dope Dragon.
In 1999 with Die, Roni produced the highly acclaimed Breakbeat Era album featuring vocals from Leonie Laws and in July the following year his 'Through The Eyes' compilation showcased tracks from newcomers D-Product and Surge. Later that year came the long awaited second project from Reprazent. 'In the Mode' delivered a variety of tracks, some featuring vocals from Dynamite and Onallee and some from collaborations with hip-hop legend Method Man, Rage Against The Macine's Zac de la Rocha and beat-box master Rahzel.
In 2001, Roni returned to the studio and started working with Tali who had recently arrived from New Zealand on her album 'Lyric On My Lip' In this time he also produced 'Touching Down' - released in October 2002. This, his first truly solo album, included 16 brand new dance floor smashers mixed into one hour's set and includes the massive singles 'Playtime' and 'Sound Advice' and is one of the biggest selling independent d&b albums to date. He came back to 'V' in 2005 with the release of 'Return To V' which included the top 20 hit 'No More' with Beverley Knight plus 17 futher vocal collaborations with artists such as Jocelyn Brown, Vikter Duplaix & Rodney P.
He has spent the last 15 months locked away in his studio and has built up a collection of tracks including his re-edit of the classic 'New Forms' album due out on Universal.
Roni Size resurrected Reprazent in 2008 with the release of a deluxe edition of his Mercury Music Prize winning album 'New Forms' on Universal. Reforming the band, complete with original members Dynamite MC, Onallee and highly acclaimed bass player Si John alongside Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing), D Product, Jay Wilcox and Pete Josef, Roni Size and Reprazent toured some of the biggest festivals in Europe including Bestival, Glastonbury, Lovebox, Exit and Rock Herk. As a result, they were amongst the nominations for best dance act from the UK Festival Awards.
2009 is shaping up to be another busy year for Roni with the release of a new Reprazent album, a new Roni Size album, a Reprazent tour of Australia, North America, the UK and Europe as well as committing to his usual packed schedule of DJ shows.
The year began with a one-off sell-out Reprazent show at Komedia in Bath on 4th Feb . The band is currently touring Australia as part of the Good Vibrations Festival. In addition to the live shows in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Gold Coast, Roni Size & Dynamite MC is also playing four DJ shows. Following on from Australia, Reprazent will be back in North America for the first time in seven years as one of the headliners at this year's Ultra Music Festival in Miami on Friday March 27th. We are also happy to announce that Roni Size & Reprazent will be one of the headliners at this year's Coachella Festival on Sunday the 19th of April 2009.
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