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BIOGRAPHY

It's a family thing. Dan Cat's dad, Paul Cat, was part of 70s prog-rock band Wally, and Dan's excursions onto the dancefloor take that same experimental, unfolding and epic approach to song dynamics. But while these days Dan still keeps one foot in dance with his Catzmuzik parties, he's also increasingly moving into the song world, producing acts like singer-songwriter Adam Masterton, rave-pop band The Legion of Many, and even coproducing the 12"s of guitar bands like Kings Cross.

It all started with a DJ duo, the Catz, and a set of legendary house parties in Cheshire St, London - hence the "Catz" name. Two friends, Dan and Jon Blond, DJing to twenty friends in a flat on a rooftop apartment. Within 18 months the Cheshire St parties had exploded to 1500 people trying to cram into four adjacent flats, with such a crowd coming and going that a taxi rank spontaneously formed outside the building.

It was time to move to a bigger venue, so the Catz did six "At Night" parties, taking the house-party vibe into London warehouses - and scoring the Catz gigs at nearly every major London club off the back of their rapt local following and blistering sets. At the same time, Dan and Jon moved into production, with their first tracks earning raves from Claude von Stroke to Sasha, Radio Slave to Audiofly. The music even earned them a remix of the legendary Coldcut on Ninja Tunes - Dan's first steps into working with groups and personalities as well as writing for the dancefloor.

Eventually the Catz had to split, citing "artistic differences" way more extreme than the average, from a near car crash in France that almost took out a writer for DJ magazine to a few hundred too many Sundays spent by Dan at London's endless afterparty scene. But thankfully, even after falling so far off the wagon that you end up run over by the wagon behind, Dan proved that you can't keep a good producer down. He vanished for a year, found love and a fistful of odd samples on his travels, and now he's launched into a set of new releases: Winterslow on Playtime, Outa Bongolia on Plastica, and Dentata on his own label Catzmuzik - alongside killer new Catzmuzik parties at sound-conscious venues like East Village, the London home of Quentin Harris, Derrick Carter and DJ Sneak.

Today, with fans from Slam to Luke Solomon, Shir-Khan to Severino of Horse Meat Disco, Groove Armada to Style of Eye, Dan Cat is one of London's wonkiest additions to dance music. His Hackney studio takes in singers and songwriters as well as coproductions with DJs like Fabric's Cormac, and his father's experimental spirit and his seven years of obsessively honing his own production chops have got the press and DJs are right behind the new dancefloor tunes..

PRESS QUOTES FOR DAN CAT
'Weird, warm and wonderful' - DJ mag

'Winterslow is killer - full support' - Luke Solomon

'I love the disco vibe that Dan Cat brings to the wonky and wobbly tech sounds' - Pulse Radio

'Genius' - wonky house blog WKPD.

AND FOR THE CATZ
'One of the hottest UK DJ/Production acts around' - DJ Mag

'From cult underground London DJs to globe-trotting electro/techno/minimal hotshots' DJ Mag

'Drawing on a melting pot of sounds from techno, house and electro, the catz hybrid set leaves the dancefloor thoroughly shaken and stirred, delivering a sermon in twisted funk' - One Week To Live

'Former choirboys and East-end heroes the Catz crank it a notch: BRILLIANT'
The Guardian (May 2006)

"The weekend's never over with the Catz at the helm" - Time Out

"The Catz... hailed as 'ones to watch' by numerous publications and have the ability to rock parties right: no doubt about it" - One Week To Live

KEY TRACKS

DISCOGRAPHY

Winterslow . Dan Cat . Playtime
Outa Bongolia / That was Hot . Dan Cat . Plastica
Candiru / Music Box . Cheshire Catz . Playtime
Drop EP . Cheshire Catz . Berwick Street Records
Straitjacket . Cheshire Catz. Catz Muzik
Wide Awake / Locked On . Cheshire Catz . FAKT

Remixes
Played Out . Male Model Machine . Black Van Records
Walk A Mile In My Shoes . Coldcut . Ninja Tunes
Voodoo . Male Model Machine . Blu Fin Records
Hot Flush . MODE . MODE Records