Derek Martin is one of Edinburgh’s most renowned House DJs and promoters. After making a massive impact on the Scottish scene for many years with his UK if not worldwide industrially respected Progression brand, his new night Musika is on hot pursuit…
Derek is the main room resident @ Musika, a night which launched in Feb 2007 and one that has seen the likes of Erick Morillo, D Ramirez, Eric Prydz all play in the first year alone….
So where did it all start for Derek?? An initial interest at a young age in the Scottish rave scene of the early nineties, he soon out grew this and was soon to discover his real love; house music, mainly through regular excursions through to Edinburgh in the mid nineties, attending nights such as Colours, Horny Monkey, Yipyap, etc. This was followed by a couple of mad years as a devoted follower of seminal underground trance & techno night Sublime, which definitely played a big part in steering Derek’s musical style towards the emerging Progressive House vibe that was sweeping through the UK in the mid/late nineties…
Soon followed the first set of decks in 1998 and a few years on, Derek was to be found running small midweek clubs and most likely to be found at (or organizing) house parties all over the city, which eventually led to the launch of Progression.
A few years on and Progression grew to become one of Edinburgh’s premier and busiest club nights, attracting some of the biggest names in dance music to the liquidroom each month, to a packed out capacity crowd, which ran for 6 years until Sept 2006, where Derek, fellow Progression residents and Steve Angello blew the roof off the Liquidroom for one final party, a night that shall never be forgotten!!
Having literally played all over Edinburgh since 1999, with past residencies including Musika, Progression, Boomshaboom, Unlock The House in Edinburgh, Derek has played all over Scotland, all over England, guested at the mighty, 8000 capacity, Tribal Gathering weekender in Manchester in 2003, completed a tour in America throughout the Golden state of California in 2005 and guest slots throughout Europe from Poland to Ibiza. Some recent top UK guest slots have included Ministry of Sound in London for Pete Tongs ‘Wonderland’, Shindig @ Digital, Newcastle, RPM @ The WhiteHouse, London to name a few……….
Now with a vast amount of experience under his belt and having been influenced by many different aspects over the years, Derek musical taste is an upfront cutting edge house style, from Deep to Dirty to Prog and Tech and everything in between; most definitely a DJ that adapts his style to his surroundings.
He has played alongside the biggest DJs in the scene, from the likes of Axwell, Darren Emerson, Danny Howells to DeepDish.
Derek is also responsible for some of the biggest and coolest events to happen on the east coast, including Unlock The House (where Derek played live to 200,000 listeners on beat106), a renowned Essential Selection After Party with Pete Tong, and the coveted 2000 capacity Boomshaboom event (which was broadcasted live as a Radio1 Essential mix in 2004).
Each year see’s bigger and better things and 2008 should be no different… |
