Anton Banks - The Vault Radio Show - Jul 2007

Biography of Anton Banks

By day, Anton works as an Engineer in the aerospace industry for a company that produces jet aircraft engines. He graduated from Central Connecticut State University in May, 2000 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology and is currently pursuing a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hartford. In his free time, Anton is a DJ and aspiring techno music producer.

In 1993 Anton Banks was a student at the University of Rochester and was into hip-hop and euro-dance pop music. He especially liked the beats and rhythms found in this music but became increasingly disinterested in the lyrics. Looking for something different, Anton borrowed a compilation CD from a friend. That CD was the seminal 'Moove Your Body' release on Tribal America Artists. Soon he was obsessed with all forms of underground dance music and broke all ties to the pop music scene. Anton found himself buying all the rave and house music he could find at a store called 'The Record Archive'. Also at about the same time Anton started going to a club in Rochester called 'Heaven' which was a stripped down version of New York City's infamous super club , the Limelight, as it was also built out of an old church. He only knew that he liked the music but it would be almost a year and a half later before Anton realized that he had been listening to early techno in it's heyday in the form of tracks like The Goodmen's 'Give it up', Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams' and an assortment of music from early Detroit and Plus 8. The turning point came in 1994 when Anton first heard 'Psychotrance', a mixed CD by Mr. C on Moonshine Music. This CD and his experiences at 'Heaven' gave him a desire to learn to spin records.

In 1995 Anton transferred to Central Connecticut State University and joined the school's radio station, 107.7FM WFCS, as the student engineer shortly after that. As the engineer he had 24 hour access to turntables and an audience and used this opportunity to learn to mix records by taking advantage of dead air (which was and still is often at WFCS) to practice mixing. Through WFCS Anton met other people such as DJ Rockphonics- founder of Equinox and O.L.- the third hillbilly on 'Hillbilly House', who showed him the ropes and got me bookings. In 1996 Anton got his first booking at the now legendary Equinox weekly (Webster Theater in Hartford, CT from 1996 to 97). This turned into his first residency which gave him the opportunity to open for many touring DJs from New York City, Boston, and beyond.

Anton's first radio show, 'Spatial Distortion', was first heard on WFCS on January 18, 1995 and was on the air until May of 2000. In July, '99 Anton started a second show, 'Vault Radio', that now airs on 88.1FM WESU (Wesleyan University), as an offshoot of 'Spatial Distortion'. Anton is now one of a small number of people promoting non-commercial electronic music in Connecticut on a station that covers most of the state.

It has now been over 10 years since Anton began DJing and he has become one of the most versatile acts around. He has built up a musical repertoire of several thousand records that span from minimal house to techno to industrial and most styles in between.

Gary Martin - The Vault Radio Show - Jul 2007

Biography of Gary Martin

Head of Teknotika Records in Detroit, Gary Martin is highly respected in the industry, with over 30 releases to his and the labels credit. A true urban soul with over 20 years of music experience in leading band projects, producing records, and DJing is what makes him one of today’s more entertaining artists.

The label’s original concept was to merge the 1950’s exotica era, and sci-fi influences, with Detroit techno. The result was a lot of percussion, spacey keyboards, novelty track titles like ”Interview with an Alien”, and the campy alias Gigi Galaxy. Having hit the top ten lists of popular DJ’s such as Sven Vath and Laurent Garnier, numerous times, most fans of electronic music are familiar with Teknotika records, Gary Martin or the Gigi Galaxy alias. In the January 2000 issue of Germany’s Groove Magazine, Black Forest is charted in 8 top ten lists. Also of note are Gary’s remixes of Gus Gus : Lady Shave from the last album and Barry from the first album. Gary’s version of Barry was a top 20 radio hit in Iceland in 1998.

Gary is now delivering a powerful and moving DJ set of tribal, house, and funky techno. He is a favourite in Paris since his first trip at the Aquaplaning Festival in 1999. He has since DJ’d at The Rex in Paris, The Loft in Switzerland, and the 7th House in Istanbul. In the 2001 Detroit Music Awards, Mr. Martin was a nominee for Best Electronic DJ Performance.