Slok
Alessandro Russo a.k.a. "Slok" was born in Italy on october 21th, 1982; Libra / Scorpio cuspid, left handed, his love for music was developed in his childhood, listening to any kind of records, playing acoustic and electronic instruments with his "musical" family members and growing up with a polyedric and free music feeling. He started off playing drums and percussion in a rock band, then, when he was 16, he got his first 4-track Fostex home tape recorder, a digital effect processor, a drum machine, a sampler and a Roland 8-track midi workstation; with that equipment, he begin to produce funky orientend grooves combined with self-taught chords and harmonies. The first official release came later, in 1993 as 'B&R - Freeway' (a house track that Dave Piccioni called out as a "medley") on The Milkyway EP - Zippy Record / Azuli compilation with tracks from Terry Hunter & Aaron Smith, Jovonn, and Brown Melody.
In 1994 he was involved in an Italian Hip Hop project named 'Razzarap' (Marton/Sony Music Italy) as a composer, producer and vocalist. It was around that period that the first Jungle tunes came from the UK and he immediately fell in love with that sincopate rhythm mixed up with ragga vocals and fat basslines; this provided the insipiration to release his first release as Slok in 1996, 'Jungle In My Home' EP - (Cuadra/IRMA records), followed up by the album 'They Call It Jungle' (1997), the first ever Italian Drum'n'Bass cd, where he experimented with various elements, from jazzy atmosphere to raw funk, walking on brazilian textures painted with Sci-Fi effects. The opera was well accepted by critics and this was accompanied with a good media response, with several of the tunes featuring in various compilations.
Then came the d'n'b remixes for other artists such as The Average White Band, Sarah Jane Morris and Montefiori Cocktail. Meanwhile, Alessandro started Djing in Italy with Jungle/Drum'n'Bass and Break Beat DJ sets. In 1999 he flew to London and lived there for several months, jamming and recording (with Goldie's keyboardist Justina Curtis from Metalheadz) the formed the basis for what later would become his second Slok album:'Freak 2000' (IRMA records 1999). With this release he attempted to join d'n'b roots and styles, with rock and techno beats, reggae echoes and all the vibes that wrap you in living in "The City"; after that, he performed on the international stage, playing at Batofar club in Paris and at the Transmusical Festival, Rennes.
Encouraged by the availability of low-cost technology and the increasing amount of quality production software, Alessandro siezed the chance to build-up a home studio, locked in, and focus on the quality of his features.
In 2002, joining with House DJ Davide Casaccia, the "Stereonova" project saw the light. The duo have received support from most of the world's biggest progressive-oriented DJ's and started to release records for the UK label Plastic Fantastic. They're currently working in their own studio (NovaStudio, Ancona, Italy) with grooves and sounds that will be played and performed live on their upcoming releases, first of which, 'Massive', featuring the singer Freyia, will be published next april 2005 by Atollo Records, Universal Italy. In 2003, Alessandro meet and became friend with Eric Pasquereau, a young and talented singer-songwriter from Nantes, France; Eric, a.k.a. "The Patriotic Sunday", is 22, and after growing up in the US and playing in an indie-rock band influenced by Sonic Youth and Fugazi, he'll release his first album on the 16th of march for the Collectif Effervescence label: 'Lay Your Soul Bare', a collection of 11 self-penned songs.
Together, they created two songs, 'Lonely Child' already included on the Satoshi Tomiie ES album+Pacha winter Session vol.4 (mixed by Hector Romero / Pacha Recordings), and 'Hey Steve', composed during Eric's Italy study trip; those were both born as a testimony of their friendship and love for music! From April 2006 his own Electronic Petz label is active - www.electronicpetz.com with some nice releases.
Actually Alessandro are co-produced the best Syndication FM Radio show in Italy called MAGMA - www.magmaweb.it , also he's monthly resident on M2O the biggest Italian dance FM network - www.m2o.it Coming soon an electro tribal funk remix for Juicy Music of a track called ‘Insert Coin’ (Robbie Rivera Label) and on the early 2007 is planned the second sigle release with the Satoshi Tomiie imprint, SLOK 'Hey Steve'.
Anyway the future of Alessandro is well planned and focused on gigs around the globe and on quality releases and collaborations with the best Artists/Dj’s Labels in the ‘House Music’ scene as the latest Elbee Bad remix for the HOT Get Phiscal Music!!!
Bookmark
Sitemap
