DJ Sweetleaf (AKA Doug Ross) has been involved in the music scene for approximately 12 years. He started playing top 40 nightclubs which led him and to be the resident DJ at some of the cities best dance venues.

After taking a couple of years off to pursue other projects, Sweetleaf has returned to the house scene. With a style that is not limited to a certain type of house music, you can expect to hear a cross of Progressive/Tribal/Funky/Tech House and Breaks in the mix.

Sweetleaf also promotes shows when he has time with his production company, The 3am Crew. In the last year he has brought the talents of Jon Delirious, DJ Czech and Bohdisava to the city. On top of this he is a Partner in an Internet Design agency known as Visual Lizard.

The studio is the next step for Sweetleaf who is getting more and more involved with the production side of music. New tracks are in the works and hope to be out this summer.

Producer Gordon Burns (a.k.a. ProCynic) originally hails from Ontario.

Having spent a good portion of his life in various cultural or urban wastelands, this artist seeks to channel his negative experiences through aggressive percussion, searing sound effects, and dark textures.

Some of Gord's musical roots stem from early 80's New Wave and Industrial music - hence listeners will often here snippets of sound reminiscent of those earlier genres.

Since 1984 his production skills have gained various facets and he currently can be heard and seen performing with long time friend Jason Ali Khan in the Winnipeg-based techno act Negativ Nein.

Gear:
Oxygen-8 Controller, Electribe ER-1, Studio S100 Effect Unit, Ensoniq DP-2 Effect Unit, AMD64 PC, RME Digi96/8 PST Sound Card, Event 20/20 monitor speakers, Alesis RA-100.

Software:
Ableton Live 4, ACID Pro 5, Sound Forge 6, and many DX & VST plug-ins and utility soft-synth tools.

Ali Khan was born in 1970 in one of Canada's smaller and more isolated cities, Winnipeg. His musical skills were initiated through drumming and jazz piano instruction beginning at the age of 12. Percussion had always been the basis of his passion for music, which was ignited when he discovered popular 80's electronic bands such as Depeche Mode, Erasure, and New Order. Desperately trying to recreate the sounds produced by these innovators, he programmed his first drum machine using a C64 computer. This first experiment in sound generation gave Ali an addictive introduction to synthesis using elemental constructs such as envelopes, noise and triangle waveforms. Through generous instruction by many teachers and leaders, Ali's insatiable appetite for knowledge expanded to most forms of electronic sound generation, experimental composition, and live performance.

After years of basement production as "Shock Culture", Ali finally took his performance to stage in 1997 at a local underground club in his home city. The following years of performance shaped Ali's sound as it evolved through psy-trance, house, tech-house, progressive then minimal house.

His live performances are quirky and intelligent sounding, performed with precision using Ableton Live. Many compositions feature his own vocal recordings and custom-built Reaktor instruments developed in his home studio. (Still located in the basement)

His inspiration comes simply from those he loves and the ever-changing world we live in.

Ali Khan currently produces electronic music independently and in collaboration with friends Joe Silva (tonepushers) and Procynic (negativ nein).

As a drummer of 10 years, Phaze M was introduced to electronic music through band mates and friends who shared similar intrests in the incorporation of electronic intruments in bands. In the early/mid 90s, already having friends regularly attending warehouse parties, he began listening to bands such as Depeche Mode, Happy Mondays, Space Monkeys, Prodigy, Inspiral Carpets, The Shamen, Underworld, The Orb, and Nitzer Ebb. By the late 90s, after the break-up of his indie band and growing more and more fond of electronic music, Phaze M decided he wanted pursue his new interest in the electronic music scene. Phaze M found himself completely enthralled by live DJ sets, and thus proceeded to buy vinyl and experiment behind the decks. (This is when the robots first started to take control) There's been no turning back since. With an almost obsessive passion for spinning, Phaze M started making waves within a year. His first break came at Nyce Fridays at The Opium where he consistently rocked dance floors. He has since found himself consistently moving dancefloors at the top clubs and parties in Winnipeg, including The Horseshoe, The Playground, Cloud 9, Wellingtons, The Pyramid, The Collective, Red Cactus, Chaos Chameleon, The Blue Agave. Phaze M has also been takin his passion on the road lately, playing many shows and clubs out of town, including Thunder Bay ON, Regina SK, Saskatoon SK, Calgary AB, and in British Columbia.

His influences include Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Umek, Valentino, Tony Thomas, Terry Francis, Mark Farina, Jay Tripwire, H-Foundation and the many players involved in the West Coast house scene. Locally, Phaze M has been inspired by many, but lists Zan, Jr. Ragoo, Lomax, Grubb, Andre Bisseck, Oxide and especially Joe Silva as outstanding ones.

2002 was really a breakthrough year for Phaze M. He was resisdent for Nyce Fridays at Club Kairo where he opened up for Josh Da Funky 1 and Bad Boy Bill, released a new CD, started doing a weekly internet radio show, played at the Molson Canadian Snow Jam, joined the Symptom Technologies Crew, and played many out of town gigs. 2003 (now completely under the robots control) is shaping up to be his most successful, and busiest year to date. Phaze M has already landed himself a residency for Sweet Saturdays at The Avenue, took over Symptom Radio online, opened up for the likes of Hatiras, Jay Tripwire and began promoting a hugely successfull monthly deep house/techhouse night. Add all this to his continuing interest in the studio working on producing tracks and recording many mixes, and the future seems to be incredibly bright for this budding electronic music artist.

Consistently being able to drop tight set after tight set, Phaze M is definately a name you will be hearing more of in the future. His passion for music, fun lovin attitude, his skills on the decks, and the funk shine through in every show he plays. One thing is for certain, this kid shows no sign of slowing down and with all this going for him, (especially with the robots transmitting their will upon him) it's no wonder he continues to rock dancefloors time and time again!!

Nathan Zahn a.k.a. DJ Zan is a lifelong lover of music. Now 25 years old, Nathan has played the trumpet for 14 years and spun records for 8 years. His attraction to electronic music stems from an early interest in electronic jazz including Miles Davis's fusion material from the late 1960's and early 1970's. In the summer of 1994 Nathan was at a jam session with some friends when someone suggested that he play his trumpet through guitar effects processor, the result was his first venture into electronic music. Later that year Winnipeg's underground warehouse scene and CBC's "Brave New Waves" combined to provide Nathan with such influences as The Orb, Ninja Tune, Detroit & German Techno and later Tech-House - Nathan's defining sound to this day.

Music expresses a certain headspace that only music can. The purity of instrumental music from improvised jazz to multi-layered electronic dance music has the common feature of the musician being in control of certain elements within a structured form. What one chooses to do with these elements of music are purely improvised and come from a higher consciousness. The path that the pilot of the music can take is uncharted and flows from the essence of the Universe. The beauty of improvised music shared by people throughout time is that it comes from the source, one experiences a different level of consciousness that is timeless and has a certain spiritual connection that brings us closer to experiencing the oneness of reality that we are all a part of. Nathan has a passion for music that is a global phenomena shared by people from many cultures and traditions. The current wave of electronic music is in its infancy, as humans and technology continue to evolve together we can look forward to new dimensions of sound and experience as we learn to expand our capacity to experience musical and audio soundscapes in yet unimagined ways.