Riot Recordings

It’s been 20 years since Hard Trance Legend Carl Nicholson first burst on to the UK scene, originally playing for the pioneering brands of Hard Dance including events such as Frantic, Fevah, Sunny Side Up, Strawberry Sundae and Trinity, Carl was one of the first DJ’s to play a mixture of Hard House and Hard Trance, breaking down genres and fusing the euphoric elements of trance with the driving grooves of Hard House like a man possessed, inspiring many of today’s big guns including Phil Reynolds, Ian Betts and Ali Wilson to get with the underground sound.

Since then Carl can lay claim that many other DJ’s could only dream of, he’s played virtually every major brand in the land including Miss Moneypenny’s, Frantic, Sundissential, Heat and Judgement Sundays, alongside some of the biggest DJ’s to have ever walk this planet from the Chemical Brothers, Judge Jules, Lisa Lashes and Paul Van Dyke, to Fatboy Slim, Todd Terry, Grahame Parkes and Jon Pleased Wimmin. He is the only Hard Dance DJ to have ever received a residency at the world famous Fabric in London for DTPM, and he has toured the World over from the UK to Ibiza, Warsaw to Amsterdam, and Japan to Sydney to very high acclaim.

Of late, unless you have been living in the Tibetan Foot Hills, you no doubt would have come across his name, with over 120 Original tracks and remixes on all the biggest labels including Tidy, Nukleuz, Riot and Elasticman which have featured on no less than 30 complications worldwide, plus not forgetting the now formidable force that are his record labels, Presence Recordings, Carl is now revered even by some of this scenes most influential characters as a living Legend.

With his recent onslaught of releases smashing the charts, claiming No 1 album on Beatport with ‘Ultimate Hard House Anthems’, and the forthcoming full release of Carl’s debut album ‘Storybook’ on Riot!, it’s safe to say that 2012 is without doubt looking to be an exciting one, with major players such as Amber D, Jon Bishop, Andy Whitby and Ilogik to name but a handful hammering his productions as though they were going out of Fashion, and DJ Magazine, IDJ and Mixmag all giving top marks, Carl is finally looking to be rising to the top spot with monumental speed and clarity.