BASS KLEPH
Beatport dropped a bombshell in July 2010. Not only had producer and DJ Bass Kleph acquired his first Beatport #1 with his remix of Joan Reyes’s Shakedown, but it went on to become Beatport’s biggest-selling track that year, giving the ‘Kleph’ the highest-selling remix on the world’s largest dance download site. Next, his club and radio smash with $pend My Money (feat Stellar MC) and another top 20 Beatport main-chart hit with his track, Keyboard Cat saw Bass Kleph’s touring schedule extend to Spain, the UK, China, Russia, Canada and the US.
Last year he made his first appearance in the top 10 in the inthemix Australian DJ top 50 &, if all that wasn’t enough Bass Kleph also compiled & toured Ministry of Sound Australia’s Guide to the Underground with Afrojack & played the main stages at the Good Vibrations Festival in Australia. In the remix arena, Bass Kleph continued to conquer with remixes of huge acts like Green Velvet & Sarah McLeod.
But the success didn’t come from nowhere. As a teenager, Stu Tyson, as he’s known offstage, was touring Australia and New Zealand as the drummer of a hugely successful rock act, Loki. But the rock world had no chance of holding onto him. When Loki parted ways, Bass Kleph was determined that next time round he wanted to pursue a more electronic sound focused on his new obsession, DJing. That was 15 years ago.
His early gigs took advantage of his unique understanding of how to bring a crowd to its peak as part of a live band but it’s the hundreds of DJ gigs since then, from tiny clubs to huge festival stages, that developed a style that now can push the most beard-stroking underground crowd into a hand-waving frenzy, or lock a mainstream crowd into a dark, heads-down and wordless groove.
In 2007, Bass Kleph founded Vacation Records, followed in 2009 by the more stripped-back cousin Exit Row. Releasing and collaborating with international talent like Wolfgang Gartner, Micky Slim, Mowgli and big locals like Hook n Sling, Stupid Fresh, Twocker, Tommy Trash, fRew and Dopamine, today the label’s fans stretch from the stadium players like John Aquaviva, Crookers, Rene Amesz, Mark Knight, and Kissy Sell Out to the brightest lights of the techno underground like Alex Kenji, Popof and Fergie.
Renowned for his hypnotic techy grooves, jackin’ electro and the curveballs that distinguish a real musician from the average gigging DJ, Bass Kleph is one of dance music’s brightest stars.
