Exclusive works by DJ Surgeles and Mike Storm
Start a new series on Axis Records
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It is with great pleasure, consideration, and honor to introduce this new element in the Axis Records online shop. We’ve always wanted to play a part in highlighting artists in a capacity that really focuses on the quality of their work and have in the past created projects such as Mission 6277 and other limited-edition releases. Like in the historic frame of so many long-standing vinyl records around the World, ones that we’ve unfortunately lost and those that continue to serve the public, not just with Music, but also with a sense of music community, we wanted to create something digitally and more widely reachable in that same spirit and structure.
The Axis Online shop will now offer music in a curated form to feature exclusive works of various artists that are considered masters of their craft and style of Techno Music. To begin this endeavor, we’ve invited two artists that we think are important to the future of Techno Music.
Both composers share a common technique of using Techno Music as the means to mentally travel, to explore – to feel something that wasn’t there before. Each are unique storytellers about distant Worlds and other dimensions and both use the important aspect of mystery in their work to enhance the genre in provocative ways that pulls the listener inwards. Both are masters of harmonics and tonal communication – a unique but fairly misunderstood type of style that I believe sets a direction in which music might be based upon far into the future.
This sets our course and primary direction. We hope you will enjoy this just as much as we do to present it. From all of us here at Axis, we thank you for your continued and long-lasting support. Let’s get started.
– Jeff Mills
DJ Surgeles: Cosmic Distance Markers
Surgeles (Kole Leijen) is a true musician with a lot of energy. He started digging into his parent’s records collection at the age of five and at the young age of eight his sister introduced him to house music. Soon after that, young Surgeles got his first set of turntables as a present for his birthday and started visiting regularly his local record dealer. While after a couple of years he started producing his own dark, deep and swerving techno. In 2005, while attending a Jeff Mills’s show, Surgeles managed to give a demo CD to The Wizard. The very next day Surgeles received a personal mail from Jeff Mills claiming that his music sounded great and that it inspired him to let Surgeles make a mix for his Purpose Maker Label. Two weeks later Surgeles’ mix was on Jeff Mills’ Axis Records’ website for the 10th anniversary of the all-time Techno anthem „The Bells“! Later that year, during the Amsterdam Dance Event, Surgeles won a competition hosted by Dave Clarke for the best-produced track and was than picked to play on Dave Clarke’s White Noise radio show on 3FM Radio. Around 2007 Kole started throwing his own parties called ‘Civilized?” at the legendary Escape club in Amsterdam. While 2009 marked the beginning of his career as record-label boss, as he launched his brainchild: ‘Underground Freedom Fighters (UFF) Records’. ! Ever since the collaborations with Jeff Mills kept on flowing and Surgeles‘ consecration came when Jeff asked him to make a compilation for his label, ‘Something In The Sky’. ! In 2017 Jeff entrusted DJ Surgeles to take care of “the Betty Hill Case”, a 12” inspired by the story and the interviews of an American couple, who were allegedly abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of New Hampshire in 1961. 2019 starts very well with a exclusive contract on Axs records and been working with Jeff Mills on his STR MRKD sub-label since.
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Mike Storm: Absorbing Other Stars
Mike Storm is coming from the underground scene of the 072 area (Alkmaar) in the Netherlands. As a teenager he started at home DJ-ing & producing, following by performances as a local DJ in the late 90’s. Short hereafter he switched from turntables to equipment and performing live at a dozen local parties. While the underground scene was deeply involved in Electro and Techno music, Mike learned from established DJs and producers how to work with analog equipment. Until this day, he still produces his tracks without any daw. No edits or total recall, just straight forward recordings directly from machines only. Mike Storm is mainly inspired by the Sci-Fi sound. The thinking process of his sound are created effecting emotions and leading to action. Sometimes there are actions we can’t control and therefore each creation is a unique process. Thoughts are created and disappearing like stars and planets. Mike Storm translate these thoughts and emotions into music sequences and it influences the mental state. Building sequences and sound development become a natural process. His passion is performing live on stage to go deeper into the process of creating the moment. His live sets are typically a journey through space in search of the unknown. Following beats into deep minimal sequences. Seeing himself performaning at the famous Tresor club Berlin and Awakenings Holland to name a few. This past decade Mike Storm sees his music being appreciated by people like Jeff Mills and a dozen other established DJ’s, producers, labels and other well known names on the scene. The result is a number of Ep’s, Va’s, albums getting appreciated throughout the global Techno scene.
