2012 continues to be a ground breaking year for Ad who has notched up several A-list remixes for the likes of Usher, Dionne Bromfield, Tinchy Stryder and Loick Essien. Not to mention returning from a 6 month tour of Asia and the South Pacific. Its surprising this man has time to breathe let alone deliver consistantly high class music, which hes seems to do effortlessly.....
Introduction: Marking a new dawn in British EDM, his precision-built, evocative electronic soundscapes have fast found the ears of many of the scene’s leading lights. Prog maestros like Sasha, Nick Warren & Dave Seaman are ardent supporters, as are forward-thinking trance legionnaires like Ferry Corsten and Gareth Emery. No less a talent behind a pair of turntables, he has become the warm up man-of-choice for some of the biggest names one the scene. In the last 3 months of 2009 he supported Calvin Harris and Paul Oakenfold on their respective UK tours.
Ad Brown – The Early Years: Attending the prestigious Academy of Contemporary Music (the starting point for stars including Sugar Babe Amelle Berrabah and Mercury Music Prize Award Winner Toby Couling), Ad took his degree in Business and Music. Whilst studying he learnt the music industry ropes moonlighting in the promotions department of heavy-hitting dance label, Serious Records. Upon graduating, Ad had to decide whether to go down the record label or DJ/recording artist route. Believing in himself as a producer and DJ, he opted for the latter…
Release The Music: Through both his Ad Brown and Maxi Valvona releases, he quickly began to made a name for himself as the go-to man for enriched prog-themed atmospherics. Think the melodies of Above & Beyond crossbred with the backing tracks of Digweed and you’re nine tenths of the way there.
Signed to Black Hole Recordings, he debuted on the off shoot label Fris! in late 2008 with the double-header release ‘Smoke’ and ‘I Just Do’. Just a few months later recognition came fast to his door with the ‘09 releases ‘Hope’ and ‘Chasing Rainbows’. The latter scored the 5/5 Money Shot review in DJ Mag, with the publication stating that the track “positively bulged with dark synthery, thudding drums and imaginative percussion” and added that it was one with “a murderously good chiming top line”. A month after its release the track was compiled onto the 2009 Trance Energy album and Ad himself was named by the music-critics.com website as “a producer to watch in 2009”. Over the course of the year Brown also drew many plaudits for his much-spun bootleg rewiring of Holden & Thompson’s prog house classic ‘Nothing’. It was music again championed by a remarkably broad spectrum of DJs. In May of that year he also delivered the ‘Velvet EP’, his debut release under his new pseudonym, Maxi Valvona (for Solarstone’s Insatiable Records). On the immediate horizon for 2010, he has an intensive release schedule with tracks & remixes forthcoming on imprints including Anjunadeep, Black Hole, Baroque, microCaslte and Slinky.
Ad Brown – The DJ: You will rarely see a spinner more at home and at ease in front of a pair of CDJs than Brown. Combining flawless mixing with sophisticated selection and electric audience interaction, both UK and abroad, he has brought clubs under his spell. He’s played nights that have included UK club landmarks like Serious’ night at the Cross, Dusted, The Honey Club in Brighton, Maximal at Turnmills and has warmed up for both Oakenfold and Calvin Harris on their Dec ’09 tours. Of late he’s also spun at famed progressive night, Twisted Audio, as a guest alongside Anthony Pappa. Ad is also is the only UK artist to be invited to play the fast-emerging Silk Royal Showcase night in Philadelphia.
