Bang your ed in Bucharest

MR. FLASH

Mr Flash, aka Gilles Bousquet, starts producing in 1999. Soon after creating Ed Banger, Pedro Winter meets Mr Flash, and signs him as the first artist on the label. Mixing the audacity of hip hop with the finest French house (and including some great guitar sounds), Flash releases «Radar Rider» in 2003, remixes Zongamin's «Bongo Song» in 2005. The same year, the mixed compilation «Monsieur Sexe» is released, and he makes the 7!! «Supa Chic» for Arcade Mode.

Mr Flash is the man behind dance anthems as «Disco Dynamite» and «Over The Top». «Champions», his second EP on Ed Banger, arrives in 2006. He makes tracks for the label's compilations («Ed Rec Vol.2» and «Ed Rec Vol.3»), «Eagle Eyez» and «Over The Top». In 2008, after remixing Mr Oizo «Positif», Flash produces three tracks for the New-York rapper Mos Def, including «Life In Marvelous Time», the official single of the album.

VICARIOUS BLISS

A chateau somewhere deep in the french Dordogne countryside, bottles of bordeaux lie empty on the table... "This is vicarious bliss," whispered Andy to no one in particular. Born 1658 kilometres away, above a tandoori restaurant in Manchester, relocated to & adopted by Paris in the mid-ninties, he slipped over the castle drawbridge & discretely returned to the capital at dawn with the vicarious bliss blueprints in his bag - no-rules mashed-up electro-psychedelia, girlie harmonies, dirty moog & a 1958 fuzz pedal - it's all in there somewhere - the only working rule in the studio being "if you can't hum it, bin it !".

Logical then (vicariously speaking) that it should be back in London that he bumped into Pedro Winter, manager of Daft Punk, by chance in the street in rainy Soho. Vicarious Bliss quickly signed to Ed Banger Records, the label at the forefront of what the UK press are already calling the 'French Revolution'. 'Theme From Vicarious Bliss' EP was released early 2005. Quickly playlisted by DJs such as Erol Alkan, 2many DJs, Mark Moore & Boris Dluglosh, the track (& it's killer remixes from Justice & Lifelike) was picked up by UK Radio 1 with Rob Da Bank proclaiming it 'Tune Of The Month' for November.

Never one to refuse returning a compliment, Vicarious Bliss has remixed N*E*R*D, Mystery Jets and Ladytron amongst others and took the producer's chair to oversee the debut album from I Love UFO, out on Recordmakers . There's no let up with DJ bookings either and the last year has seen Vicarious Bliss play right round Europe, Hong Kond and Australia.

The groundwork now done, the next chapter can unfold - a new 12" on Ed Banger soon, an album for next year and the release of Ladytron's new album which he has been asked to produce, more remixes and dates-a-gogo mean that for end.

Warm up: DJ LOGAN (Haules Baules, London/ Bucharest)

Logan has been dj’ing, making music and running clubs (legal and illegal) for nearly 20 years. His break came with a residency at “The Betty Ford Clinic” at the Gardening Club in London’s Covent Garden (1992-1993). This was London’s best mid week night out and rode the crest of the emerging UK progressive house movement spearheaded by Leftfield and Guerilla Records.

He then moved onto his own club night “Bumpy Capers”, which was crowned 2nd best club of the year in DJ mag, sitting awkwardly between super-clubs Ministry Of Sound and Back To Basics. Logan spent the next years dj’ing around UK and Europe. He also released tunes on Sven Vath’s Eye-Q Records surrounded by labelmates such as Hardfloor, 16B, Joy Zipper, Freddy Fresh, Mogwai and Sven himself.

Since 2006 Logan has moved to Bucharest in Romania, where he is Creative Director of Mustard. He has been Music Director for a feature film and created a soundscape for a theatre production at the National Theatre. He’s still dj’ing and collecting vinyl, and probably always will.