About | RSS News Feeds | Feedback | Search

Ben Keen, aka BK, is a successful and prolific UK hard dance producer. With worldwide dance chart hits like Music Is Moving and Revolution, BK has breathed new life into the hard house style.

Having conquered the world of hard house with his production skills, BK is working on taking over the global DJ scene, ranking since 2001 as one of DJmag’s top 50 international DJs.

BK calls his sound “ever-changing and full of energy,” with innovative infusions of trance and techno that redefine the hard house style. He believes that “the sound of hard house has definitely changed—it’s got to."

BK began his production career at age 16 as a trainee engineer at a London studio and gradually progressed into writing music for film and television. In his spare time, he used the studio’s equipment to experiment with his own sounds, and it was later, at Media Records, that he began producing original tracks.

BK later joined Nukleuz Records, the world’s top hard house label, and became known for his profusion of hard house tracks. Since 1995, BK has produced more than one hundred 12”s and remixes, including remixes of Mario Piu (The Vision), Mauro Piccotto (Iguana), Storm (Storm Animal), DT8 (Destination), and Tony De Vit (I Don’t Care), and recorded tracks for labels ranging from Positiva, Data, and Ministry of Sound to NuLife, Ffrr, and Tidy.

Many of his tracks have become UK Top 10 hits, but BK is best known for Revolution, which with the support of Judge Jules and Dave Pearce, entered BBC Radio One’s daytime rotation in 2002—a singular accomplishment for a hard house track. BK’s albums and compilations have also garnered huge success, with his series of Nukleuz Presents compilations (including HardHouse Anthems) earning multiple Mixmag “Album of the Year” awards and the 2003 release Extreme Euphoria Mixed By Lisa Lashes, BK, & The Tidy Boys on track to become the highest-selling hard house album ever.

The true measure of his BK's talent can be seen in the number of fellow producers and DJs who clamour for a slice of BK’s skills. This is typified by such comments as, “If one man has single-handedly shaped what our world is dancing to, then it’s he.” (Mixmag, June 2002) This feeling is evident in the tracks found on BK’s 2003 solo album, Klub Kollaborations, which represent cooperative projects with eleven of the world’s top producers, including Andy Farley, Lab4, Christopher Lawrence, Paul Glazby, and Rob Tissera.

In 1999, BK enlarged his creative scope to include the DJ circuit. By 2000, BK was playing clubs around the world, headlining and appearing at big dance events, such as Global Gathering UK, Gatecrasher Summer Sound System UK, Creamfields UK, Godskitchen NEC UK, Lashed in Ibiza, Slinky UK, and Code Japan. Much of his success is due to the same experimental approach that he utilizes in the studio. “As a DJ, I’ve been looking at other genres, and I’ve found that kind of music is something I like and that I like to play, and no one’s complained!”

In an relatively short period of time, BK has become recognized as a genre-defining producer, and an influential DJ in the hard dance scene. His talents have helped create a new direction for hard house, but BK is not ready to stop yet. “I’ve made every sort of music in the past, even stuff for television commercials. I’ve mic’d up a 60-piece orchestra at Abbey Road… And now I want to start bringing that into the kind of tracks I do now. Do that, but make it danceable and club-friendly—find a new sound for myself.”

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

RECOMMENDED SITES:

120 Years of Electronic Music

Ableton

Access

Akai Music

AKG Acoustics - headphones and microphones

Amazon Free Music Downloads

American DJ Equipment

American Mavericks

Ampcast

Analog Music Zone Guitar FX Projects