Lee Burridge
Encyclopedia
Lee Burridge is a DJ, producer
, and record label
owner who helped launch the underground club scene in Hong Kong
during the early 1990s, and today plays at nightclubs across the world.
Renowned for his DJ sets
that mix together varieties of electronic dance music
into the early hours of the morning, as well as for his antics behind the turntables
in the DJ booth, Burridge was a member of England's Tyrant Soundsystem (along with DJs Craig Richards
and Sasha
) and has mixed albums for labels such as Global Underground
, Hooj Choons
and Balance.
in the county of Dorset
on December 26, 1984 when he played for the first time at The New Inn, a bar owned and run by his parents.
With the help of his father, shortly thereafter Burridge started his own mobile DJ operation
, "Cutz" and spent the next few years traveling the surrounding countryside playing weddings, birthday parties and even the occasional funeral (after party, not burial).
Working as a mobile DJ led to an opportunity at a local holiday resort. Soon after, Burridge began performing every weekend at the local town's nightclub
where he played mostly chart music while also entertaining the crowd with his antics on the microphone
.
Burridge's first true big break came when he landed a residency at an award-winning club called The Palace in Somerset
, where he played weekly and was introduced to the art of mixing records
by one of the club's other resident DJs, Wayne Rideout. It was also at The Palace during the summer of 1987 that a group of visitors turned Burridge on to London
's emerging acid house
sound which would shape his career from that point on.
.
Moving on his 22nd birthday, Burridge discovered an exotic city entirely devoid of a club scene. Burridge's Hong Kong stint started at a club called Joe Bananas during the hey day of the Asian economic miracle. He initially played to a mostly mainstream audience at his first Hong Kong job, where he earned a reputation for being a party DJ, hanging from the scaffolding ceiling of the club and mixing top 40 to a crowd of suits letting their hair down and eager to spend the easy come money of the time.
However each night beginning at 5am, Burridge would walk across the road to the Big Apple and would start playing house music for a late night crowd of bar workers, that carried on till more often than not mid afternoon, when the club closed.
These late night house sessions led to Burridge forging a friendship with two local bar managers from another club, called The Beach Hut, and the trio would eventually create a series of monthly Sunday night parties that become Hong Kong's first true rave
.
The Beach Hut's simple set up, which included a raw sound system
, smoke machine and strobe light
, didn't stop it from becoming a tremendous success. Thanks to Burridge's all night marathon sets, the Sunday night party quickly grew from 150 invitees into a roadblock of people eager to hear underground music.
Burridge would go on to hold the two main club residencies in the once-seedy Wan Chai
district during the six years he which he resided in Hong Kong, at The Big Apple and Neptunes. He played an eclectic mix of dance music
six nights a week to packed clubs until 8am most weeknights and the afternoons of the weekends. These parties went on to become some of the most popular nights in Hong Kong club scene and helped to establish Burridge's early DJ career.
One of Burridge's arguably biggest Hong Kong achievements, which he rarely mentions, was the establishment of Neptune's. Burridge and his friends at the time had left for Hadrin in Thailand during Christmas of 1996. Being people of leisure, thought nothing about whether their regular gigs would be available when they got back to Hong Kong, if they decided a few more weeks in Thailand was a good idea, which they ultimately ended up doing.
Upon returning to Hong Kong, the regular Big Apple gig had been given to someone else, and Burridge set about finding a new residency where he could spin underground music to the late night Hong Kong set. Eventually the now legendary Neptune's one offered him a late night spot. A residency that started after midnight, and finished whenever. At first it was grim, the first few weeks saw Lee playing to an empty dance floor and packing up his box by 6AM latest. And then one day, for no apparent reason, at about 2AM, the club filled up, people began walking in, by about 4 in the morning the club was throbbing and a new club and Hong Kong legend was born. One where mid afternoon closes were the norm taking over the mantle of Hong Kong's premier after hour's venue from The Big Apple.
It was also during his Hong Kong period, that Burridge ventured to Haad Rin
, Thailand
, and helped bring electronic dance music and DJing to the island. Arriving in February 1992 after hearing about the location from a group of travellers who passed through Hong Kong, Burridge’s performances helped grow the parties from an informal gathering of drum circles around open fires on the beach into an unofficial rite of passage for clubbers which today attracts more than 10,000 people each month.
Burridge would continue to visit the island regularly until 1999, staying for stints of three months at a time to play parties held every week alongside local DJ A and another Haad Rin mainstay, Backyard Dave, who had also begun bringing dance music to the island.
By the mid 1990s, Burridge had established himself as the most well-known DJ in Hong Kong. He would join visiting DJs from the United Kingdom
(U.K.) at huge rave parties in and around the city to complement his nightly sets in Wan Chai, often inviting the visiting DJs to come play at either the Big Apple or Neptunes after the parties were over.
These after parties led to his friendship with U.K. DJs Sasha
and Craig Richards
, who invited him to return and form the Tyrant Sound System.
According to Lee Burridge's PR "mythology", Richards—who was running several successful club nights in London, including Georgie and Malibu Stacey—invited Burridge to play at one of his parties, thus introducing him to the London crowd. However, in more detailed accounts, Burridge returned to London and struggled to develop a following, and consequently was considering returning to Hong Kong. As a favour, a promoter in Hong Kong flew him back to play a sold-out show with Sasha, and the exposure earned him a well-deserved international following.
The subsequent launch of Tyrant catapulted Burridge's career in the UK and globally.
As part of Tyrant, Burridge teamed up with Richards and Sasha to play regular monthly nights in London, first at a warehouse space and then the End nightclub, while also playing monthly at The Bomb in Nottingham
. At the same time, Burridge began playing solo gigs at other leading British nightclubs, such as Cream
, Golden and Ministry of Sound
.
He mixed his first compilation for Hooj Choons
, Deeper Shades Of Hooj 2 in just a single night.
In 1999, Burridge cracked DJ Magazine's prestigious annual Top 100 list for the first time, placing 33rd. That same year, Burridge also released his first solo mix album, Metropolis on Tide.
While continuing to carve out a career of his own, Burridge's work with the Tyrant project blossomed. Despite Sasha's production schedule causing him to miss several shows, Burridge and Richards continued to forge forward and grow a crowd of their own. When Sasha eventually decided to leave the project, the two decided to continue with the Tyrant nights and would go on to mix the highly acclaimed Tyrant mix compilation in 2000.
Also in 2000, Burridge and Richards began a Tyrant residency at the newly opened Fabric Nightclub in London, and helped build the club's sophisticated, hedonistic reputation while playing together each month until 2006.
In 2001 Burridge appeared on the cover of DJ Magazine and was asked to join an emerging group of young DJs for Global Underground
’s NuBreed
series. Burridge's double disc NuBreed compilation, which featured a mixture of breakbeat
, tech house
and techno
, helped to cement the DJ's mass appeal and popularity, and that same year he also moved into the top 30 in the DJ Magazine Poll.
At the same time, the duo's monthly parties in London at Fabric had become amongst the most popular nights in the city while Burridge was voted as the 9th most popular DJ in the world by the DJ Magazine poll. By this time Burridge was also touring globally and playing in cities such as Sydney
, Buenos Aires
, New York
, Singapore
and Ibiza
in addition to playing top U.K. festivals such as Creamfields
, the Gatecrasher
Summer Sound System, V Festival
and Homelands
.
In 2003 Burridge was again tapped by the Global Underground label to provide the second installment of the label's 24:7 series, mixing a two disc concept album based on the abstract opposites of 'day' and 'night.'
In 2004, Burridge began an annual series of Halloween
parties with New York-based promotion company MADE Event, signifying his growing his appeal in the United States
.
to remix the single “Eye for an Eye” by his U.N.K.L.E. project.
Later that year Burridge departed from London after nearly a decade and began an ambitious new project called 365. Following many years of global touring and one-off shows, Burridge developed the 365 project as a residency based tour where he would move to a city for a month or two at a time to play a series of parties in order to learn both the city and its crowds better.
Beginning in New York, Burridge spent the next two years taking the 365 concept to Ibiza, Florence
, Buenos Aires, Sydney, New York, San Francisco, Denver and Hong Kong. In each city, he worked with local promoters to build a series of four or more parties while also setting aside time to work with local producers.
During the 365 project, Burridge kept a popular journal which was published online monthly by DJ Magazine describing the adventures he encountered and the humorous take he has on life on the road as a DJ.
That year Burridge also joined Sander Kleinenberg to mix half of This Is Everybody! On Tour, a more fan-friendly album than his previous endeavors and he began what would become an annual mainstay party at the Winter Music Conference
in Miami, Florida
, in conjunction with MADE Events, the Burridge Barrage.
In 2006, Burridge began another annual party at San Francisco's Love Parade
, the LoveLee Party, and he launched his own record label, Almost Anonymous, to release the music produced by himself and local artists he collaborated with during the 365 project.
The label released collaborations between Burridge and Andy Page
, Steve Porter and Dan F, the latter of which, Treat 'Em Mean, Keep 'Em Keen, appeared on Ewan Pearson
's Fabric 35
album. However, the label suffered the same fate as many others in 2007, going under when its distributor and management companies went into receivership.
Burridge also visited and played at the Burning Man
Festival for the first time in 2006, and would go on to describe the annual eight-day arts and musical gathering in Nevada
as the best event he had been to.
's EQ Recordings, joining DJs such as James Holden
, Chris Fortier
and Desyn Masiello
. The three disc album, which received critical acclaim across the board, was nominated for "Compilation of the Year" at the PLUG Awards.
It also featured packaging which Burridge helped design. Burridge went on to spend the majority of the year touring in support of the album.
Currently, Burridge lives in New York. He continues to tour, playing at clubs and festivals across the globe and is managed by Joel Zimmerman of The William Morris Agency.
On the production front, Burridge recently began working on new music with Tim Green which is slated for release sometime in 2009.
In addition, Burridge began a new series of concept parties based on his experiences at Burning Man recently. The parties, launched in San Francisco and New York, were called "GET WEIRD" and Burridge has since taken the concept to many other cities.
1999 33
2000 45
2001 29
2002 9
2003 30
2004 56
2005 76
2006 88
2007 85
"Compilation of the Year" nomination at the PLUG Awards.
1998: Deeper Shades Of Hooj: Volume Two (Hooj Choons)
2000: Tyrant with Craig Richards (Distinct'ive Breaks Records)
2001: Global Underground: Nubreed 005 (Boxed)
2001: Metropolis (Tide)
2002: No Shoes, No Cake with Craig Richards (Fabric, London)
2003: 24:7 (Boxed)
2005: This Is Everybody! On Tour (Ultra Records)
2007: Balance 012 (EQ Recordings)
Releases:
2001: Lost & Found EP (Fire)
2006: Treat 'Em Mean, Keep 'Em Keen (Almost Anonymous)
2007: Do You Smoke Pot? (Almost Anonymous)
2007: Raw Dog (Almost Anonymous)
Leeki Tikki Boat with Lee Burridge, Winter Music Conference 2009
Lee Burridge rocks Movement 2008
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, and record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
owner who helped launch the underground club scene in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
during the early 1990s, and today plays at nightclubs across the world.
Renowned for his DJ sets
DJ mix
A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically mixed together to appear as one continuous track. When a DJ mix or DJ mixset is recorded onto some medium, it is often referred to as a mix tape...
that mix together varieties of electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
into the early hours of the morning, as well as for his antics behind the turntables
Turntablism
Turntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
in the DJ booth, Burridge was a member of England's Tyrant Soundsystem (along with DJs Craig Richards
Craig Richards
Craig Richards is a tech house DJ, also known as part of Tyrant alongside Lee Burridge. He is Fabric's musical director and resident DJ along with Terry Francis...
and Sasha
Sasha (DJ)
Sasha is a Welsh DJ and record producer. Sasha began his career playing acid house dance music in the late 1980s...
) and has mixed albums for labels such as Global Underground
Global Underground
Global Underground is a music label founded in 1996 by Andy Horsfield and James Todd. The label symbolizes the international explosion of dance music during the 1990s and first manifesto for high-end DJs such as Sasha, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, Darren...
, Hooj Choons
Hooj Choons
Hooj Choons is a house record label formed by Alex Simons and Red Jerry in 1990. The first release was "Carnival de Casa" by Rio Rhythm Band, however, it was not until 1992's release of Felix's "Don't You Want Me", which Red Jerry and Faithless founder-member Rollo co-produced, that Hooj Choons...
and Balance.
Early Career (1985 to 1990)
Lee Burridge's DJ career began in the tiny tourist village of EypeEype
Eype is a small village in south west Dorset, England. The village is situated on the Jurassic Coast, several miles west of Bridport.Eype means "steep place" and many of its buildings can be traced back to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, but little is known in detail until the...
in the county of Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
on December 26, 1984 when he played for the first time at The New Inn, a bar owned and run by his parents.
With the help of his father, shortly thereafter Burridge started his own mobile DJ operation
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
, "Cutz" and spent the next few years traveling the surrounding countryside playing weddings, birthday parties and even the occasional funeral (after party, not burial).
Working as a mobile DJ led to an opportunity at a local holiday resort. Soon after, Burridge began performing every weekend at the local town's nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
where he played mostly chart music while also entertaining the crowd with his antics on the microphone
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
.
Burridge's first true big break came when he landed a residency at an award-winning club called The Palace in Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, where he played weekly and was introduced to the art of mixing records
DJ mix
A DJ mix or DJ mixset is a sequence of musical tracks typically mixed together to appear as one continuous track. When a DJ mix or DJ mixset is recorded onto some medium, it is often referred to as a mix tape...
by one of the club's other resident DJs, Wayne Rideout. It was also at The Palace during the summer of 1987 that a group of visitors turned Burridge on to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's emerging acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
sound which would shape his career from that point on.
Hong Kong (1991 to 1997)
In early 1991 Burridge was spotted by a visiting club owner from overseas who offered him a job abroad in the then British colony of Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
Moving on his 22nd birthday, Burridge discovered an exotic city entirely devoid of a club scene. Burridge's Hong Kong stint started at a club called Joe Bananas during the hey day of the Asian economic miracle. He initially played to a mostly mainstream audience at his first Hong Kong job, where he earned a reputation for being a party DJ, hanging from the scaffolding ceiling of the club and mixing top 40 to a crowd of suits letting their hair down and eager to spend the easy come money of the time.
However each night beginning at 5am, Burridge would walk across the road to the Big Apple and would start playing house music for a late night crowd of bar workers, that carried on till more often than not mid afternoon, when the club closed.
These late night house sessions led to Burridge forging a friendship with two local bar managers from another club, called The Beach Hut, and the trio would eventually create a series of monthly Sunday night parties that become Hong Kong's first true rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
.
The Beach Hut's simple set up, which included a raw sound system
Sound reinforcement system
A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers that makes live or pre-recorded sounds louder and may also distribute those sounds to a larger or more distant audience...
, smoke machine and strobe light
Strobe light
A strobe light or stroboscopic lamp, commonly called a strobe, is a device used to produce regular flashes of light. It is one of a number of devices that can be used as a stroboscope...
, didn't stop it from becoming a tremendous success. Thanks to Burridge's all night marathon sets, the Sunday night party quickly grew from 150 invitees into a roadblock of people eager to hear underground music.
Burridge would go on to hold the two main club residencies in the once-seedy Wan Chai
Wan Chai
Wan Chai is a metropolitan area situated at the western part of the Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. Its other boundaries are Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west and Bowen Road to the south. The area north of Gloucester Road is often called...
district during the six years he which he resided in Hong Kong, at The Big Apple and Neptunes. He played an eclectic mix of dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
six nights a week to packed clubs until 8am most weeknights and the afternoons of the weekends. These parties went on to become some of the most popular nights in Hong Kong club scene and helped to establish Burridge's early DJ career.
One of Burridge's arguably biggest Hong Kong achievements, which he rarely mentions, was the establishment of Neptune's. Burridge and his friends at the time had left for Hadrin in Thailand during Christmas of 1996. Being people of leisure, thought nothing about whether their regular gigs would be available when they got back to Hong Kong, if they decided a few more weeks in Thailand was a good idea, which they ultimately ended up doing.
Upon returning to Hong Kong, the regular Big Apple gig had been given to someone else, and Burridge set about finding a new residency where he could spin underground music to the late night Hong Kong set. Eventually the now legendary Neptune's one offered him a late night spot. A residency that started after midnight, and finished whenever. At first it was grim, the first few weeks saw Lee playing to an empty dance floor and packing up his box by 6AM latest. And then one day, for no apparent reason, at about 2AM, the club filled up, people began walking in, by about 4 in the morning the club was throbbing and a new club and Hong Kong legend was born. One where mid afternoon closes were the norm taking over the mantle of Hong Kong's premier after hour's venue from The Big Apple.
It was also during his Hong Kong period, that Burridge ventured to Haad Rin
Haad Rin
Haad Rin is a peninsular beach area and town on the southern tip of Ko Pha Ngan, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Its two main beaches are Sunset Beach to the south and the larger Sunrise Beach to the north...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, and helped bring electronic dance music and DJing to the island. Arriving in February 1992 after hearing about the location from a group of travellers who passed through Hong Kong, Burridge’s performances helped grow the parties from an informal gathering of drum circles around open fires on the beach into an unofficial rite of passage for clubbers which today attracts more than 10,000 people each month.
Burridge would continue to visit the island regularly until 1999, staying for stints of three months at a time to play parties held every week alongside local DJ A and another Haad Rin mainstay, Backyard Dave, who had also begun bringing dance music to the island.
By the mid 1990s, Burridge had established himself as the most well-known DJ in Hong Kong. He would join visiting DJs from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(U.K.) at huge rave parties in and around the city to complement his nightly sets in Wan Chai, often inviting the visiting DJs to come play at either the Big Apple or Neptunes after the parties were over.
These after parties led to his friendship with U.K. DJs Sasha
Sasha (DJ)
Sasha is a Welsh DJ and record producer. Sasha began his career playing acid house dance music in the late 1980s...
and Craig Richards
Craig Richards
Craig Richards is a tech house DJ, also known as part of Tyrant alongside Lee Burridge. He is Fabric's musical director and resident DJ along with Terry Francis...
, who invited him to return and form the Tyrant Sound System.
Return to England and Tyrant (1998 to 2001)
Although Burridge's reputation in Hong Kong earned him gigs nearly every night in the city's top venues, he was relatively unknown in the UK upon his return.According to Lee Burridge's PR "mythology", Richards—who was running several successful club nights in London, including Georgie and Malibu Stacey—invited Burridge to play at one of his parties, thus introducing him to the London crowd. However, in more detailed accounts, Burridge returned to London and struggled to develop a following, and consequently was considering returning to Hong Kong. As a favour, a promoter in Hong Kong flew him back to play a sold-out show with Sasha, and the exposure earned him a well-deserved international following.
The subsequent launch of Tyrant catapulted Burridge's career in the UK and globally.
As part of Tyrant, Burridge teamed up with Richards and Sasha to play regular monthly nights in London, first at a warehouse space and then the End nightclub, while also playing monthly at The Bomb in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. At the same time, Burridge began playing solo gigs at other leading British nightclubs, such as Cream
Cream (nightclub)
Cream, based at the Nation nightclub in Liverpool, is one of the best-known night clubs in the UK. Cream began life as a weekly house music night at Nation, and ran in this format for 10 years, from October 1992 to June 2002...
, Golden and Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound
Ministry of Sound London, commonly referred to as simply Ministry of Sound or MoS, is a nightclub based in London, United Kingdom and an associated record label. It was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Magazine top 100 clubs poll 2010. As well as the nightclub in London, there is another in Egypt and...
.
He mixed his first compilation for Hooj Choons
Hooj Choons
Hooj Choons is a house record label formed by Alex Simons and Red Jerry in 1990. The first release was "Carnival de Casa" by Rio Rhythm Band, however, it was not until 1992's release of Felix's "Don't You Want Me", which Red Jerry and Faithless founder-member Rollo co-produced, that Hooj Choons...
, Deeper Shades Of Hooj 2 in just a single night.
In 1999, Burridge cracked DJ Magazine's prestigious annual Top 100 list for the first time, placing 33rd. That same year, Burridge also released his first solo mix album, Metropolis on Tide.
While continuing to carve out a career of his own, Burridge's work with the Tyrant project blossomed. Despite Sasha's production schedule causing him to miss several shows, Burridge and Richards continued to forge forward and grow a crowd of their own. When Sasha eventually decided to leave the project, the two decided to continue with the Tyrant nights and would go on to mix the highly acclaimed Tyrant mix compilation in 2000.
Also in 2000, Burridge and Richards began a Tyrant residency at the newly opened Fabric Nightclub in London, and helped build the club's sophisticated, hedonistic reputation while playing together each month until 2006.
In 2001 Burridge appeared on the cover of DJ Magazine and was asked to join an emerging group of young DJs for Global Underground
Global Underground
Global Underground is a music label founded in 1996 by Andy Horsfield and James Todd. The label symbolizes the international explosion of dance music during the 1990s and first manifesto for high-end DJs such as Sasha, Paul Oakenfold, John Digweed, Danny Tenaglia, Nick Warren, Dave Seaman, Darren...
’s NuBreed
NuBreed
NuBreed is a trio of Australian producers Jason Catherine, Michael Walburgh, and Danny Bonnici. They have performed several remixes for artists such as The Crystal Method, Luke Chable, and Way Out West. They have also recorded several DJ mixes including Electric_02 for EQ Recordings and an entry...
series. Burridge's double disc NuBreed compilation, which featured a mixture of breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
, tech house
Tech house
Tech house is a subgenre of house music that mixes elements of minimal techno into simple, 4-to-4 beats found in soulful deep house. The genre came to prominence in the late-1990s atmosphere of American clubs as soul influenced Detroit-style techno that also borrowed elements from house before...
and techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, helped to cement the DJ's mass appeal and popularity, and that same year he also moved into the top 30 in the DJ Magazine Poll.
Early 2000s (2002 to 2004)
Now fully established as one of the world's top DJs in 2002 following the successful NuBreed project, Burridge and Richards once again teamed up for another Tyrant album, No Shoes, No Cake. The compilation also featured Burridge's first single release, Lost and Found, on Fire recordings.At the same time, the duo's monthly parties in London at Fabric had become amongst the most popular nights in the city while Burridge was voted as the 9th most popular DJ in the world by the DJ Magazine poll. By this time Burridge was also touring globally and playing in cities such as Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
in addition to playing top U.K. festivals such as Creamfields
Creamfields
Creamfelds is a large dance music festival featuring DJs and live acts. It is held annually on the August Bank Holiday weekend in Daresbury, Cheshire, England, just outside of Liverpool where it had previously been held for a number of years. It is renowned for being headlined every year by the...
, the Gatecrasher
Gatecrasher
Gatecrasher is an international clubbing brand made famous by the Gatecrasher dance music events held at the Gatecrasher One nightclub in Sheffield, England during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The event received awards such as "Club Of The Year" at the Ericsson Muzik Magazine Dance Awards in...
Summer Sound System, V Festival
V Festival
The V Festival is an annual music festival held in England during the penultimate weekend in August. The event is held at two parks simultaneously which share the same bill; artists perform at one location on Saturday and then swap on Sunday. The sites are located at Hylands Park in Chelmsford and...
and Homelands
Homelands
Homelands was a British music festival which consisted mainly of Dance music, both live acts and famous DJs. The event was held at Cheesefoot Head near Winchester, Hampshire, and was one of the most popular British festivals of this genre. It was run by Live Nation UK.A Scottish edition of the...
.
In 2003 Burridge was again tapped by the Global Underground label to provide the second installment of the label's 24:7 series, mixing a two disc concept album based on the abstract opposites of 'day' and 'night.'
In 2004, Burridge began an annual series of Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
parties with New York-based promotion company MADE Event, signifying his growing his appeal in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
365 Project (2005 to 2006)
In early 2005, Burridge and Richards were invited by James LavelleJames Lavelle
James Lavelle is a DJ, electronic recording artist and record label boss.-Early years:Born into a family with a strong tradition of music, Lavelle first began by learning the cello with his grandmother in Oxford....
to remix the single “Eye for an Eye” by his U.N.K.L.E. project.
Later that year Burridge departed from London after nearly a decade and began an ambitious new project called 365. Following many years of global touring and one-off shows, Burridge developed the 365 project as a residency based tour where he would move to a city for a month or two at a time to play a series of parties in order to learn both the city and its crowds better.
Beginning in New York, Burridge spent the next two years taking the 365 concept to Ibiza, Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Buenos Aires, Sydney, New York, San Francisco, Denver and Hong Kong. In each city, he worked with local promoters to build a series of four or more parties while also setting aside time to work with local producers.
During the 365 project, Burridge kept a popular journal which was published online monthly by DJ Magazine describing the adventures he encountered and the humorous take he has on life on the road as a DJ.
That year Burridge also joined Sander Kleinenberg to mix half of This Is Everybody! On Tour, a more fan-friendly album than his previous endeavors and he began what would become an annual mainstay party at the Winter Music Conference
Winter Music Conference
The Winter Music Conference is a weeklong electronic music conference, held every March since the mid-1980s in Miami, Florida, United States. Venues are hosted primarily in Downtown Miami and Miami's South Beach...
in Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, in conjunction with MADE Events, the Burridge Barrage.
In 2006, Burridge began another annual party at San Francisco's Love Parade
Love Parade
The Love Parade was a popular electronic dance music festival and parade that originated in 1989 in West Berlin, Germany. It was held in Germany annually between 1989 and 2003 in Berlin, and then from 2006 to 2010 in the Ruhr region...
, the LoveLee Party, and he launched his own record label, Almost Anonymous, to release the music produced by himself and local artists he collaborated with during the 365 project.
The label released collaborations between Burridge and Andy Page
Andy Page
Andy Page is a fictional character appearing in several well-known short stories written by popular Australian writer and poet Henry Lawson. Andy is rarely found without the company of good mates Jim Bently and Dave Regan, and is generally the 'straight man' of the trio.Andy's character first...
, Steve Porter and Dan F, the latter of which, Treat 'Em Mean, Keep 'Em Keen, appeared on Ewan Pearson
Ewan Pearson
Ewan Pearson is an English electronic music producer/remixer who works under various aliases including Maas, Sulky Pup, Villa America, World of Apples, and Dirtbox. He is also in Partial Arts with Al Usher. He has remixed for artists such as Cortney Tidwell, Seelenluft, Ladytron, Depeche Mode,...
's Fabric 35
Fabric 35
Fabric 35 is a DJ mix compilation album by Ewan Pearson, as part of the Fabric Mix Series.-Track listing:# Jahcoozi - Ali McBills - Careless...
album. However, the label suffered the same fate as many others in 2007, going under when its distributor and management companies went into receivership.
Burridge also visited and played at the Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
Festival for the first time in 2006, and would go on to describe the annual eight-day arts and musical gathering in Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
as the best event he had been to.
Present Day (2007 to 2009)
2007 saw Burridge mix Balance: 012, the twelfth installment of the Balance series for AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
's EQ Recordings, joining DJs such as James Holden
James Holden
James Holden may refer to:* James Holden British mechanical engineer* James Holden , British locomotive engineer* James Holden , American actor* James Holden , electronic music artist and producer...
, Chris Fortier
Chris Fortier
Chris Fortier is an American DJ and founder of the Balance Record Pool as well as co-founder and owner of Fade Records. Fortier's DJ-ing covers a range of styles from dark progressive to minimalist techno...
and Desyn Masiello
Desyn Masiello
Desyn Masiello is a British electronic music producer and DJ. He has mixed albums for the Balance series and Bedrock's Original Series as well as Yoshitoshi's In House We Trust series with Luke Fair. He also produces together with Leon Roberts and Omid 16B as "The Idiots"...
. The three disc album, which received critical acclaim across the board, was nominated for "Compilation of the Year" at the PLUG Awards.
It also featured packaging which Burridge helped design. Burridge went on to spend the majority of the year touring in support of the album.
Currently, Burridge lives in New York. He continues to tour, playing at clubs and festivals across the globe and is managed by Joel Zimmerman of The William Morris Agency.
On the production front, Burridge recently began working on new music with Tim Green which is slated for release sometime in 2009.
In addition, Burridge began a new series of concept parties based on his experiences at Burning Man recently. The parties, launched in San Francisco and New York, were called "GET WEIRD" and Burridge has since taken the concept to many other cities.
Awards and honors
DJ Magazine Top 100 Poll Rankings1999 33
2000 45
2001 29
2002 9
2003 30
2004 56
2005 76
2006 88
2007 85
"Compilation of the Year" nomination at the PLUG Awards.
Selected discography
DJ Mixes/Compilations:1998: Deeper Shades Of Hooj: Volume Two (Hooj Choons)
2000: Tyrant with Craig Richards (Distinct'ive Breaks Records)
2001: Global Underground: Nubreed 005 (Boxed)
2001: Metropolis (Tide)
2002: No Shoes, No Cake with Craig Richards (Fabric, London)
2003: 24:7 (Boxed)
2005: This Is Everybody! On Tour (Ultra Records)
2007: Balance 012 (EQ Recordings)
Releases:
2001: Lost & Found EP (Fire)
2006: Treat 'Em Mean, Keep 'Em Keen (Almost Anonymous)
2007: Do You Smoke Pot? (Almost Anonymous)
2007: Raw Dog (Almost Anonymous)
Video Links
Lee Burridge @ Kudos Beach RomaniaLeeki Tikki Boat with Lee Burridge, Winter Music Conference 2009
Lee Burridge rocks Movement 2008
External links
- Lee Burridge on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- Lee Burridge on MyspaceMyspaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- (2006) Lee Burridge Interview
- Lee Burridge tracklisting archive