Pukkelpop Special: Steve Aoki

Oi!

Almost one week until Pukkelpop in Hasselt, so lets talk about one of our favorites, Steve Aoki.

Aoki, called Kid Millionaire a couple of years ago, founded the label Dim Mak Records in 1996. Dim Mak started as a hardcore metal and the records first album was created by the hardcore band Stickfigurecarousel. After a year it grew more into a rock like label, with signed names like Bloc Party. After 2005 Dim Mak signed all kinds of different artists with big electro names like MSTRKRFT, the Bloody Beetroots and indie rock bands like the Scanners.

As a DJ, Aoki started to produce some music on his own as well, first with in a collab with Blake Miller under the name Weird Science, then in late 2007 he started producing on his own. Which lead to his first album called Pillowface and his Airplane Chronicles. The album is about himself, living without sleep for weeks on airports. The album featured names like Justice, MSTRKRFT, Peaches and Bloc Party, and contains some massive tracks like Refuseds New Noise, which is also remixed by the Bloody Beetroots this year, or MSTRKRFTs remix of D.A.N.C.E., or a remix of Gooses Bring it On.

Refused - New Noise (Erol Alkan remix)


Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT remix)


Goose - Bring it On (Todd Fink remix)


After his album, Aoki continued with making remixes, but also started organize parties in LA, in the famous Cinespace, expanded his Dim Mak label with a clothing line and was getting even a bigger recognized DJ in the world with preformances from Holland to Singapore and USA to Australia.

Dim Mak clothes with Danny Matterson

In late 2008 and 2009 Aoki started making loads of remixes with the best known remix of N.A.S.A's Gifted, but he also made remixes for Good Charlotte, Chris Cornell and The Killers (ft. The Bloody Beetroots)

Good Charlotte - Misery (Steve Aoki remix)


Chris Cornell - Part of Me (Steve Aoki remix) from RCRD LBL


The Killers - Spaceman (Steve Aoki ft. The Bloody Beetroots remix)


Then in March 2009 his first big track was released, it was the massive collab with the Bloody Beetroots, Warp. Soon after Warp more remixes followed, one of Drake, the banger remix of Pursuit of Happiness, and collabs with Afrojack, Zupa Blahq and Armin van Helden.
As a side project, Aoki collabed with Sir Bob Rifo under the name Rifoki, which stands for hardcore metal electro, some raw shit.

Rifoki - Spermdonor


Steve Aoki loves loads of different kinds of music, which you can see in his DJ sets, from poppy electro to almost metal like music. This and the fact he will end the evening with Noisia, see our next Pukkelpop special, on Thurday makes it a must see on Pukkelpop 2010!