Justin Berkovi
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Justin Berkovi (born 1974, Watford, United Kingdom) is techno/electronic artist, remixer, producer and live performer. Additionally he is a graphic designer producing material for both the web and print.
He began his music career at a young age travelling to Holland in 1992 with Dave Clarke and hooking up with Dave Angel briefly in the summer of '92. However due to a lack of any real studio equipment the young Berkovi only managed to create his first proper track in 1996. He then hooked up with Cristian Vogel's '[no future]no future' crew and released the 'Crouton E.P' on Vogel's Mosquito Recordings record label in 1997. The record was met with critical success and the late John Peel was the first to air it on BBC Radio One - Peel subsequently played virtually every Berkovi record released on his show.
Cristian Vogel then introduced Berkovi to FORCE INC. Music Works, a Frankfurt based techno label and several releases followed. Berkovi's 'GRAVEL HEART' record on Sativae Records from Scotland was noticed by Cocoon head Sven Vath and this lead to further exposure. In May 1998 Berkovi played his first live show at Brighton's then "Escape" club (Now AUDIO). More releases followed (Bloodrouting EP on Force Inc, So Many Blurry Ceilings EP on Solid) and Berkovi then began taking his live set on the road.
In 1998 Berkovi released his debut album. Entitled 'Charm Hostel' it was more introspective electronica than dancefloor techno and marked a characteristic of Justin's vinyl outings being somewhat different to his live sets. In the same year 'Predicaments' was launched with Berkovi's 'EPGB' EP (Title inspired by classic Satin Storm rave ep) being picked up as Mixmags' techno tune of the week. Predicaments went on to host artists such as DJ Rush, Adam X, Dave Tarrida and Miss Kittin.
Berkovi's unique style of jerky off beats, melodies and filmic interludes allowed him to release material on a wide range of labels including Djax-up-beats, Cloned Vinyl, Drought Records, Sativae, Harthouse, Projex and his own two labels 'Predicaments' and 'Nightrax'.
Whilst releases on Force Inc such as '01273 Predicaments' and '01273 Violence' (NME dance single of the week) saw Berkovi lay down furious dancefloor techno his 1999 album on Force Inc 'After the Night' was still experimental electronica. However in the same year Harthouse relaunched themselves as a label with Berkovi's finest classic 'In the bag' album. This was arguably Berkovi's finest techno hour and year - with releases such as 'You're So Alien' and the oddly titled, 'Sustained Buxom Mad Chips' becomming techno classics. He also signed to Djax-Up-beats and released a series of tough techno EPs.
In 2000 Berkovi remixed Steve Stoll's 'Pieces of Eight' for Music Man Records, Belgium and the hook up provided him with his very own release on the Belgian label. 'My V8' was a fierce percussive offbeat workout and the double album 'Transit' followed which showcased a lot of Justin's live material for the first time on an album.
From 2002 onwards Justin's prolific output slowed right down as he concentrated on his live sets and releases for Music Man Records.
After a three year break from releasing albums Berkovi released 'Passion' in 2004 along with the popular single, 'I Can Feel The Sound'. He also remixed Yazoo's 'Don't go' which although never released saw considerable airplay and support from Djs such as Fergie, Dave Clarke and so on.
2006 saw only a remix single released from Berkovi - 'Rising' was reworked by Joris Voorn to great effect and Christian Wunsch.
It's been rumoured that Berkovi plans to relaunch Predicaments in 2007.
