From late 80's Manchester clubs heaving to the sounds of The Happy Mondays, New Order and The Smiths, to the peaceful Auckland suburbs chirping with the sounds of native New Zealand birds, DJ/Producer Dick 'Magik' Johnson's life has been a journey in sound. Since making the move from England to New Zealand in the early 2000's, Magik has made himself at home down under, although his heavy production output means DJs around the world are never short of a piece of Magik to throw in their sets.
It's from this antipodean sanctuary that Magik's second album, You Are Sound (on Underwater), has emerged. The album slides with ease from ambient bubblers to banging club tunes, making several diversions along the way and pulling in some of New Zealand's premier vocal talent to help out. Listen for the massive first single 'East West Connection', which leaves dancefloors quivering in its tech electro wake. The road to this album has been a busy and bustling one. Since releasing his debut album Cardboard Journey in 2005, Magik hasn't slowed down. In between a hefty cycling and fishing schedule, Magik joined Darren Emerson's Underwater roster, and then came the launch of his new digital label Magiktrax, distributed by NRK Music. Other releases of late have included 'Scanning For Viruses' on Jesse Roses' Made to Play which came with a remix from Claude Von Stroke, 'Eastern Lights' on Nic Fanciulli's Saved and 'Asylum Sneaker' on King Unique's Curfew label, plus remixes for The Crookers, Spektrum, Onionz, The Karoshi Brothers, 30HZ and Bassnectar. All this studio output may lead you to believe Magik doesn?t leave his cosy Auckland studio. On the contrary, he?s out every weekend testing these tunes on dancefloors from Russia to Argentina and most points in between.
It's a long way from the early days when Magik rocked his own room at the legendary Manchester nightclub The Hacienda. From there an interest in production developed, and before long he was producing tracks for Cream's Olympic label, New Order's Pleasure Recordings and Manchester's Paper Recordings collective. Shortly afterwards, he established Shaboom Records, which developed into one of the worlds most respected dance labels, with releases from artists such as UBU, Joeski & Onionz, Fred Everything, Doc Martin and DJ Sneak. Magik's own music has been released on such influential imprints as Made To Play, Twisted, End Recordings, Saved, Underwater, Paper Recordings, KG Beats and NRK/Honchos. He has completed remixes for Worthy, Ian Pooley, Crazy Penis, DJ Sneak, Joey Negro, Q-Burns, Human League, Neon Heights, Spektrum, Nick Holder, Darko Esser, 33HZ, The Bionics, The Crookers and too many more to list here. All in all, it's a sound resume, proving that the music loving public well and truly believe in Magik.
(www.magikjohnson.com)
