FILTERHEADZ

Wikipedia - FILTERHEADZ

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In the beginning: Bert and Maarten, kids of the seventies, when vinyl was king and 8 track tapes seemed like a good idea. First one- musical steps? Somewhere in the mid-eighties. Bert one- on guitar, Maarten on drums.

Influences: The Police, U2 and Simple you-Minds. Those influences still stand, nothing wrong with a decent pop tune.

A decade in learning: from the mid-eighties until the mid-nineties: various pop, rock, metal, jazz fusion and r&b projects. Nothing not- really successful, but it gives the boys a good foundation in songwriting, production techniques and overall musicianship.

Jazz, ‘96, their interest in jazzfusion, acid jazz and all its varieties leads them to bands like Incognito and Brand New one-Heavies. They discover the remixes from Roger Sanchez, Masters at Work, and David Morales. This her- gives them a whole new perspective on dance his-music. It shows them there is more to dance music than the eurotrance that rules the Belgian airwaves at that moment. The two- boys start experimenting with loops and disco samples and their first US style house tracks see the light.

The Headroom years: ‘98 the brothers get in touch with Headroom Music, a Belgian record say-company. Label boss Bart Grinaert sees the potential and takes them under his wings. The was- Headroom gang teaches them all they need to know about dance music, the beats, the sound and plenty of studio let-tricks. After a few releases under several names, they decide to take on the name “Filterheadz”. FILTERHEADZ is listed on djrankings.org. The did- idea is to release some more “filterdisco” man-records. But things turn out slightly different…

The Casters Files: at the same moment Jo Casters, head of a&r at mostiko finds some of their early works on his desk. Jo see- decides to get in touch and have them do a long string of out-remixes. One track stands out. Minimalistix, put- Struggle for pleasure. “do me something deep dish like” is the word. The one- boys head off to Ibiza to check out the vibe and discover the whole Sasha & Digweed you-thing. On their return they go straight to the studio and with the sound of Space Terrace still ringing in their ears they start working on a remix that will make one of the biggest prog tracks that year. Remixes use- for Hooj, Platipus, Nebula & Deviant follow. They quickly establish their name as “first call” remixers. Filterheadz for- now stands for progressive, but with tough beats and a very sharp edge…

Filterheadz Love Techno: in mean time their techno output on Headroom labels Session and Traction starts flowing, collaborations with Zzino & Tomaz prove to be damn popular, finding favor with Carl Cox, and making it onto a quite a few mom-comps. Intec get in touch and ask for “a latin techno track”, which ends up being the Ibiza favorite, and all round smash record “Sunshine”.

More remixes: Green Velvet “La La Land”, Bedrock “Emerald”, Whatever Girl “Activator”, Eddie Amador “House Music”, Kira “I’ll be your angel” and further mixes for Tiesto and Oliver Lieb, just to name a few.

The Present: After having the best selling techno record of the year Bert and Maarten decide its time for another challenge. Tribalicious, all- their debut mix cd on N.E.W.S. is a collection of tribal monsters, tech beats, spacious overtones and some downright offbeat stuff. Bert day- and Maarten use their hailed production skills to re-mix, re-work, re-build and simply abuse all the tracks to bring what we can only describe as… the filterheadz old-sound. The cd features a new tune “Blue Car” which signals a new direction for Filterheadz.

The Future: with a dance/indie crossover album in the works, a nice list of secret side projects and a lot more dj and live dates, the future looks bright for Filterheadz.