Artist
CITIZENN
Taking his name from a passing visual reference in the Manga film Akira, Citizenn originally arrived via releases on MadTech, the label owned by New Jersey house don Kerri Chandler. Within a year, after singles on Waze & Odyssey's Street Tracks, as well as on the label extension of Love Fever, his favourite underground party, Citizenn had been named DJ Magazine's Breakthrough DJ of 2013. He was only just getting started.
When house music was born in mid-1980s Chicago, it arrived as ground-breaking urban machine music - but its parents were disco and soul. The best house producers never forget the human warmth of that heritage. It's no surprise, then, that the scene's contemporary leading light, Citizenn, has entitled his debut album 'Human Interface'. From an early EP called 'Trax', after the seminal Chicago imprint, through deliciously classy remixes of Maya Jane Coles, Adele and Hercules & Love Affair, to his recent blissful 'Tied' single, featuring a rerub by original Miami house masters Murk, Midlands-born producer Laurence Blake's output has been effortlessly approachable, futuristic and classic. In short, he's a musician-DJ who fits in as well at the tech-mecca of Sonar as at more intimate Secretsundaze parties.
"I've always been completely infatuated with technology," says Blake, "The western world's obsession with augmenting our natural abilities runs deeper than just allowing us to move things quickly from one side of the world to the other. It allows us to manifest complex ideas and emotions in an artistic context. It's that aspect of technology that fascinates me."
Taking his name from a passing visual reference in the Manga film Akira, Citizenn originally arrived via releases on MadTech, the label owned by New Jersey house don Kerri Chandler. Within a year, after singles on Waze & Odyssey's Street Tracks, as well as on the label extension of Love Fever, his favourite underground party, Citizenn had been named DJ Magazine's Breakthrough DJ of 2013. He was only just getting started.
"I'm getting myself into that headspace where not every track has to be a banger, working with artists who are blowing up - vocalists," he says, "pulling in all my influences and making it into a unified whole."
When house music was born in mid-1980s Chicago, it arrived as ground-breaking urban machine music - but its parents were disco and soul. The best house producers never forget the human warmth of that heritage. It's no surprise, then, that the scene's contemporary leading light, Citizenn, has entitled his debut album 'Human Interface'. From an early EP called 'Trax', after the seminal Chicago imprint, through deliciously classy remixes of Maya Jane Coles, Adele and Hercules & Love Affair, to his recent blissful 'Tied' single, featuring a rerub by original Miami house masters Murk, Midlands-born producer Laurence Blake's output has been effortlessly approachable, futuristic and classic. In short, he's a musician-DJ who fits in as well at the tech-mecca of Sonar as at more intimate Secretsundaze parties.
"I've always been completely infatuated with technology," says Blake, "The western world's obsession with augmenting our natural abilities runs deeper than just allowing us to move things quickly from one side of the world to the other. It allows us to manifest complex ideas and emotions in an artistic context. It's that aspect of technology that fascinates me."
Taking his name from a passing visual reference in the Manga film Akira, Citizenn originally arrived via releases on MadTech, the label owned by New Jersey house don Kerri Chandler. Within a year, after singles on Waze & Odyssey's Street Tracks, as well as on the label extension of Love Fever, his favourite underground party, Citizenn had been named DJ Magazine's Breakthrough DJ of 2013. He was only just getting started.
"I'm getting myself into that headspace where not every track has to be a banger, working with artists who are blowing up - vocalists," he says, "pulling in all my influences and making it into a unified whole."
2020-09-25
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