About Me

 

Name: Mat Mckenzie
Age: 42
Based: Derby, UK

"A lifelong obsession with Electronic music"

Musical Influences - Groups
 Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Steve Roach, Depeche Mode, Orbital, TALLA 2XLC, Brian Eno

Musical Influences - Styles
 Berlin school Electronica, 80's electro, 80's Synthpop, 80's House, Early 90's German Techno from TECHNOCLUB Frankfurt, Ambient, Chillout, Trance, Deep and Progressive House

Musical Influences - People
John Peel
Andy Garibaldi

Favourite Albums and tracks
Check out my Top 10's section for a full list!

Music clubs / memberships
 Original Tangerine Dream fan club
Current Tangerine Dream Online club
Original Klaus Shulze fan club
 EMMA Electronic Music & Musicians Association

Key Festivals & Clubs I have been to
Various UK Electronica Synth festivals
Various EMMA Festivals
Tribal gathering
Creamfields
Gatecrasher (Sheffield, UK)
 Renaissance (Was in Derby briefly)
Progress (Derby)
Holy Trinity (Derby)

Groups & Artists I have met

Key online music discussion groups
Tadream - Tangerine Dream yahoo group

My Music

·         Making electronic music since 1990. Self-released two albums to date and had my music included on an official album bonus CD for Kmotiv

·         Bought my first Synth In 1990 and the collection keeps growing. See Gear section for more info

·         No formal musical training. Self taught. I learn by trial & error and play by ear - maybe you can tell :-)

·         Remixes: Various unofficial and official - loads more planned

·         My music has been played on Stillstream Ambient web radio and on the Tangerine Dream Fans Zone web radio station

·         Try to maintain a presence on most fashionable music and social networks, MySpace being the main and most obvious one but there are new ones appearing all the time. One of the earliest ones I was an artist on, was the now defunct Electromancer  site (shame it was a good site!)

·         I have always worked alone to create music but collaboration is in the pipeline...

Other Musical Activities

 

 

Current taste in music

Having collected music for almost 30 years I now have a substantial music collection to dip into, so I'm lucky enough to always be able to find something to suit my mood

Typically, I play a lot of Ambient and chilled out beats; Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Steve Roach and Ulrich Schnauss for example

When I am feeling livelier I tend to head for some Deep House like The Timewriter or Terry Lee Brown Junior or spaced out drum and bass like LTJ Bukem, Photek or Blu Mar Ten

I'm never far from something nostalgic though, 80's Synthpop  groups like New Musik, Depeche Mode, OMD and The Human League feature regularly and representing dance music from that era there is my perennial favourite Mr. Fingers and 80's House music in general

Increasingly I am revisiting my roots in the pure electronic scene too; people like Robert Schroeder, Harald Grosskopf and Software. It goes without saying that music by Tangerine Dream is never far away

For a shoegaze fix I play groups like the Cocteau Twins, Slowdive or The Lost Patrol

I have moved away from listening to trance because it's been done to death! Occasionally I hear something good but more likely if I am listening to trance it will be the classics from people like Paul Van Dyk and BT.

I find Progressive House far more interesting and innovative.

During the day I mainly listen to various Web Radio channels (see links) and go through my friends requests on MySpace

Often the less well known bands I come across are making unbelievably good music.

Currently The Event are top of that tree but there's Badloop, Koan and plenty more... 

Favourite Films
Bladerunner, Risky Business, Vanilla Sky

Day Job
 IT Researcher

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