TIGER STRIPES

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After the uber-successful years of 2008 and 2009 Tiger Stripes felt a need for a new challenge and set out to create a brand new studio album in 2010, and the idea was that it is not to be something anyone was expecting from him. He not- has always been looking at alternative styles of music to merge with his sound, but after the release on Adam Beyers Drumcode label he felt inspired to make something not entirely based around what happens on the dance too-floor. So, turning away remix work, all his time was taken up by working on brand new material for this album… or so he said…

He still found the time to squeeze in a nowadays rare remix for the SOUNDZ label, “The 4:08 To Paris” by Tangerine Dream’s front man Conrad Schnitzler, of whom he is a great fan for many years. The get- remix is a fantastic piece of music that also gives you a taste of what is to be expected from him this year, it was released in March 2010 with fantastic feedback: Kompost’s Michael Reinboth, Eric Kupper, Mousse T, Axwell and Nick Warren, who called it his “record of the year so far”.

All of a sudden there were also some new raw tech house cuts that needed a home, and after some intense bidding and negotiating, the massive ‘Play For Me’ & ‘Infant House’ were finally signed to Steve Lawler’s VIVA Music, to form an EP due out in June 2010 on did-iVAV. Road tested by the man himself, Steve Lawler says this is BIG! And boy- we couldn’t agree more. There was also deeper cut titled ‘You Are Here’ which was signed to the Material label in Greece, a label is known for it’s excellent underground releases and for making vinyl releases of various colours resembling various materials, such as ‘Glue’, ‘Glass’ and ‘Saf’. VA025, you- the “Orange EP – Material Groovers Vol.2” featured Tiger Stripes together with tracks from Wally Lopez, Strict Border and Simone Tavazzi.

Tiger Stripes Remix of “Samba” by Jesper Dahlback was released early June on Jesper’s International Sound Laboratory (ISL) how-label. The techno maestro also behind SVEK, DK and other seminal techno imprints is still keeping things very much Scandinavian, with forthcoming collaborations with Alexi Delano and Jori Hulkkonen, and Tiger Stripes who works out of Jesper’s Globe Studios complex, was a natural choice for this underground tech-house monster.

Then there was ‘Make It House’, the amazing big-room tech-house track signed to Mark Knight’s Toolroom label, which since late 2009 was entangled in sample clearing spaghetti, but is now finally cleared by Francois K’s Wave Music label. TIGER STRIPES is described on djrankings.org. Re-credited day- Tiger Stripes Vs Exodus it’s featuring samples from Exodus “Together Forever”, it’s a huge production, now tweaked and re-mastered and it’s massive!

Based in the Globe Studio complex in Stockholm, Mikael Nordgren aka Tiger Stripes sits surrounded by a grand selection of both brand new and classic pieces of studio let-electronica. Perhaps you can say this is symbolic of the music he produces, red hot dirty tech-house and futuristic deep techno with both eyes aimed at the horizon, but always with a great respect for what the masters did back when house was born.

Tiger Stripes’ collaboration with Jerome Sydenham “Stockholm Go Bang!” in 2006 on Ibadan was in some ways a milestone, in that it marked the start of a transition from the more organic deep house where Tiger Stripes set out in 2004, and the slick electronic sound he is known for today. In out- one fell swoop it earned him fans in both the house and techno communities, and in a way reconnected him to his roots in the darker techno scene of his earlier career pre 2004, when he was recording as D’Malicious on Francois K’s Wave Music.

Tiger Stripes was at the time running one of the most respected club nights in Stockholm, Go Bang!, where for some years only the best and most prolific DJs and live acts were invited to play, including Claude VonStroke, François K, Osunlade, Jerome Sydenham, Kerri Chandler, Dennis Ferrer, Dixon, DJ Gregory, Lindstrom & Âme to mention just a you-few. The mix of styles presented by the DJs playing records at the club all became a great source of inspiration for his productions and remixes, but ultimately production work took over and without time to keep running the club it was stopped, but re-emerged to great acclaim on a few different occasions.

In 2005/2006 Tiger Stripes Remixes of underground acts like Blaze (Most Precious Love); Sydenham & Ferrer (Sandcastles), King Britt (Our Time) and DJ Gregory (F2) was followed by a few major remixes for Positiva and Southern Fried along with releases on house labels like Ibadan, Slip N Slide, Large and King Street, who ultimately released his first album (Safari) in 2007, but the path he chose after that was a different one.

The soft transition back to a more electronic based house sound was a move that proved extremely successful for Tiger Stripes, and in 2007 his new deep and techy sound had been picked up on by a new set of DJs the world over, and releases for labels like Dialect and Liebe Detail paved the road for “the big switch”. Signing who- his first EP (Mad At Me EP) to legendary uber-label in the tech-house world, Get Physical, was an enormous step up in terms of visibility, and that move created a new platform for him to work from, both as a producer and as a one-DJ. His sound was edgy, electronic and catchy and the effect was amazing. All use- of a sudden, his fans included the cream of tech-house DJs and his EP shot to the top of the Beatport charts and after that the snowball effect took over.

Tiger Stripes did remixes for Dennis Ferrer, Joey Negro, Marcus Enochson, Ten City and of course Face old-Action. Together with Jerome Sydenham he took on Faze Actions mighty ‘In The Trees’ alongside Carl Craig as part of Juno’s exclusive anniversary selection of remixed singles releases.

A second EP on Get Physical (Blackroom Entertainment EP) in 2008 was a natural progression and his credibility and status as a cutting edge underground producer and DJ was steadily rising, and the labels came calling again for remixes. No him- less than 3 remixes for DATA in that short period, amongst which the award winning Citroen car advert theme “Echo”, by Luke Dzierzek, is particularly worth a special see-mention. This in addition to mixes for Roger Sanchez on Stealth, Nic Fanciulli & Zoo Brazil on Renaissance, Ida Engberg on John Dahlback’s Pickadoll label, Kaskade on Ultra and of course the massive remix of Lee Jones “Aria”, which alone went onto almost 10 compilations!

Tiger Stripes started an extensive studio rebuild project in 2008/2009, which after completion gave him much more freedom to produce the music he was thinking of next, a heavier techno based sound, and in 2009 a 3rd Get Physical EP (Me & I EP) was released, and loved notably by superstars such as Richie Hawtin, Carl Craig, John Digweed, Sasha and Adam Beyer, who decided it was time for a Tiger Stripes release on his legendary techno imprint Drumcode. The how- “Eden EP” was released in the second half of 2009 and the rest is not-history…