BIOGRAPHY
Listen up as 2008 looks set to be the year DJ and producer Tom Real really makes his mark on the global dance scene. Kicking things off on New Year's Eve by playing to a crowd of thousands at Universo Paralello, Brazil's wildest beach party, Tom had two further dates in the country before returning to London and playing across the UK and Europe on a near weekly basis.
On the production front, the start of the year saw Tom unleash four new tracks on digital label Fakt Recordings. A mixture of electro, tech house and seriously wonky beats, the 'Get Fakt' EP showcased his diverse sound and received support from Hernan Cattaneo, Jon Carter, Acid Jacks, Alex Gopher, Etienne De Crécy, Greg Churchill, autoKratz, Remute and Slok to name just a few.
Always pushing things forward, he has been busy working on fresh music and remixes including a new project with long-time production partner The Rogue Element entitled 'Disco of Doom' that will see the duo leave their breakbeat past behind and forge ahead with a new bass-heavy mixture of tech-funk and electro. The first EP is scheduled for release in September and is already drawing upfront support from Meat Katie, autoKratz, Tronik Youth, The Loose Cannons (Kiss FM), Annie Nightingale (Radio 1) and Foamo. There has been press acclaim too with iDJ and DJ magazines awarding it 5/5 and 4/5 in their current issues respectively. The duo have also remixed Swedish artist Rob Le Pitch under their new guise for what they feel is their strongest remix to date.
Tom is also working on a new progressive/tech house project with Fake Hero and the first track 'Boxed In' (as featured on kaZantip 2008 video below) is receiving praise from the likes of King Roc, Hernan Cattaneo, Moguai, Dom Kane, Timo Garcia, Tim Davison, Dopamine and Tania Von Pear from an initial taster mail out. All this with the first release not even being complete and the track remaining unsigned – expect big things!
Elsewhere, Tom has remixed tech-funk supremo Elite Force with Black Russian and the track, 'Return2Mindfunk', will feature as part of the Elite Force tenth anniversary album. There's also 'Bad Boy Bass', a collaboration with Gaudi, one of the world's leading dub experimentalists, which will be featured on the latter's forthcoming artist album and sees the duo mash up electro-tech and dub-breaks with earthshaking results.
Put it all together and it's easy to see why Tom is fast becoming a permanent fixture on the international festival scene and this year has also seen him play in Spain, China and Romania as well as across the UK. Most recently, the legendary kaZantip festival in Ukraine, Portugal's Boom festival and the mother of all festivals, Burning Man in the Nevada desert have been treated to the Tom Real sound.
Next up on the agenda is a packed studio schedule working on his own productions alongside more Disco of Doom material with The Rogue Element and more tech house with Fake Hero, as well as packed DJ diary, both in the UK and internationally. Tom Real and The Rogue Element also have their own monthly Disco of Doom radio show on samurai.fm, one of the world's coolest online radio stations, and selected press cuttings about Tom can be found on his MySpace page.
