Rob Booth - Electronic Explorations - Week 016 - Mar 2008

Biography of Rob Booth

Rob Booth, born January 1978, Cheltenham, UK. During his youth, Rob was never keen on the academic side of school, preferring to concentrate on more creative areas such as art, design and of course music. He soon became known as the guy to go to if you were after the latest music, with “The Raw and The Cooked” by Fine Young Cannibals and Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” among his first purchases – 10 year olds can be excused a lot of things! A little later Rob went to his first gigs, with The Wonder Stuff, Funkdoobiest and Smashing Pumpkins among the first acts he saw live.

A fascination with Rage Against The Machine, The Pixies & Nirvana, and then the emerging Britpop scene followed, until Rob’s epiphany came in 1993, when somehow he stumbled across seminal electronic acts such as Man With No Name, The Dust Brothers, Orbital and in particular, Basic Channel, Underground Resistance & Leftfield. To this day Leftfield play a major part in Rob’s obsession with all things electronic, his life dream being to persuade Leftfield’s Neil Barnes and Paul Daley to get back together again. He knows it might never happen, but if it’s not possible then he’s determined to get both to do exclusive mixes for Electronic Explorations

By 1995 Rob’s personal CD collection was outstripping the size of his bedroom. The world-famous Q-Club in Birmingham,UK, became Rob’s home from home as the monthly Atomic-Jam nights ignited his love for all things techno, the venue playing host to artists such as Surgeon, Regis, Female, Sirreal, Dave Clarke, Oliver Ho, Holy Ghost and Jeff Mills. Then, one night in 1997, everything turned on its head. A late night/early morning radio show began on Radio 1, known simply as the ‘Breezeblock’ and hosted by a forward-thinking, enthusiastic and driven young lady named Mary Anne Hobbs. You could say the rest is history. Over the next 30 months Rob stayed up each and every week recording and playing back the shows, discovering new types of music, clubs and scenes that shaped his musical tastes and cemented his love of all things electronic.

After graduating in Music Business Management & Marketing, Rob gained experience at ‘Good Looking Records’ (LTJ Bukem’s record label). On a whim, Rob decided to email Mary Anne Hobbs, and soon after he and Mary were in regular contact. Work at Breezeblock HQ soon followed and Rob got the opportunity to learn first-hand what it took to make the radio show that he’d followed so religiously for all those years.

Now the time has come for Rob to go a step further and start his own show. Electronic Explorations is a weekly 90 minute Download / Podcast show which promises totally exclusive mixes from the cream of the electronic world; deviously crafted patchworks of carefully sewn rhythms, sonic contortions and delicate melodies - dubstep, minimal electronica, techno and anything else that’s pushing the boundaries of electronic music. The future is in safe hands; if you want to hear the latest, most ground-breaking electronic music the world has to offer, Electronic Explorations is the show for you.

http://www.myspace.com/robbooth

Ramadanman - Electronic Explorations - Week 016 - Mar 2008

Biography of Ramadanman

David ‘Ramadanman’ hails from north London, but now lives near Bournemouth and goes to university in Leeds. He has been DJing from the age of 14, beginning with deep house and hip hop, becoming attracted to hip-hop and jungle as he grew older.
Ramadanman has been interested in music all his life, and began producing by recording keyboard songs onto cassettes. After learning how to make music on computer, Ramadanman started to use his brother’s copy of Fruity Loops at around the age of 15. He has stuck with this program ever since.

He heard about dubstep through making grime instrumentals, after several people commented that his beats sounded like it. Inspired by a Mala set after reaching FWD for the first time in April 2006, Ramadanman became involved in the dubstep scene. He made many tunes that summer after moving house, two of which he had professionally mastered at Transition Studios. These tunes were digitally released as WAVs, and were sold directly to DJs through Dubstepforum.com.

Since then Ramadanman has put out two more digital releases, and has seen his music appear on vinyl. His tune ‘Response’ was the first release on Bare Dubs, and the anthemic ‘Good Feelin’ came out on 2nd Drop Records with a Jamie Woon remix on the flipside. In late 2007 his track ‘Every Next Day’ opened proceedings on the compilation Box Of Dub 2, released by the legendary Soul Jazz Records. He has enjoyed DJ support from Skream, Kode9, Distance, Mary Anne Hobbs, Rob da Bank and many more.

Ramadanman decided to start a record label called Hessle Audio with fellow students Ben UFO and Pangaea at the start of 2007 and the first release by TRG sold out within weeks. He is involved in organizing the Leeds’ first 100% dubstep night ‘Ruffage’, as well as hosting a weekly show on internet radio station Sub FM. 2007 has seen Ramadanman DJ in UK cities such as London, Leeds, Bristol, Nottingham, York, Brighton, Cambridge, Stoke and Durham as well as international bookings in Amsterdam, Berlin and Brussels.

He has performed alongside dubstep artists such as Digital Mystikz, Skream, Benga, Kode9, D1, Rusko, Kromestar, Plastician, Mary Anne Hobbs, Heny G, Scuba and Headhunter. With more releases forthcoming on Soul Jazz as well as Hessle Audio, things are looking promising for Ramadanman in 2008.