Planetary

真名Luke Slater

(born June 12, 1968 in Reading, England) has produced techno since the beginning of the 1990s. He is one of Britain’s true electronic music and techno pioneers, with a career that has spanned 20 years.. Born in Reading and raised in Horley, Luke’s early sound dalliances with his dad's ancient reel to reel tape machine and his drumming stints led to work in local record shops including self set up infamous Jelly Jam in Brighton. By 1988 Slater was fully immersed in the embryonic acid house scene DJing at London's seminal Troll at sound shaft Heaven. Luke soon began releasing original tracks under various monikers and his single debut came in 1989 in the form of “Momentary Vision”. After releases on DJax as Clementine, on General Production Recordings as 7th Plain and Morganistic (with Alan Sage) and especially on Peacefrog with nearly a dozen of releases as The X-Tront and as Planetary Assault Systems, Slater's trajectory through the early to mid nineties electronic music scene was at very least staggeringly prolific and a lot of the times utterly majestic. Especially his Planetary Assault Systems alias that Slater uses for his harder edged techno output became a sound that had gone into the heads and hearts of the dance scene and as a result became a milestone in UK techno history. After releasing 4 full length PAS albums on Peacefrog, he ascended to the majors in 1997 with the release of a modest milestone of latter-day techno album on NovaMute that resulted in 1997's Freek Funk and the album Wireless followed two years later. His first volume of the mix series Fear and Loathing appeared in 2001 on the React label. Alright on Top from 2002 was an "album of songs" with vocals from Ricky Barrows and others featured on every track. The second volume of Fear and Loathing appeared in late 2004. Similarly his international DJ career and live performances had become far-reaching with headline gigs at full speed all over the world. Equally revered as taste maker and remix artist, Luke has released a mix for the Fabric DJ-mix series and has reinvented innumerable tracks in remixes from artists like Depeche Mode and Ken Ishii to more recent remixes for the likes of Radial and Soul Designer. Maintaining multiple musical personalities, different in style yet bound together by a distinct quality, his work has often combined ambient and experimental textural elements with direct, minimalist rhythmic structures. In 2006 Luke set up his label Mote-Evolver, releasing limited 12" records for discerning collectors and digital downloads through the Mote-Evolver and N.E.W.S. websites. Running his own label gives him the chance to release music of artists who often peak in his personal charts topping the releases with his own remixes. Regular appearances at legendary clubs such as Berghain of Berlin, Fabric of London and Nitsa of Barcelona and varied clubs and festivals all over the world he delivers energetic sets to sold out crowds which retain his star status today as a live performer and of course a DJ. 2009 promises to contribute an essential chapter to Luke’s already compelling tale. With momentum gathered from recent contributions to Berghain’s Ostgut Tontrager label, Luke’s eagerly anticipated Planetary Assault Systems album “Temporary Suspension” is assured to make a bold impression on the electronic musical landscape.