Ivan Smagghe stands at the crossroads between trendy scene hype and unflinching musical integrity. Since his earliest days on the Parisian electronic underground - working in record shops, as a music journalist, playing parties – he's shunned the obvious trends and embraced his own ideas choosing to work with a wide variety of close collarators. Spawning projects like BlackStrobe, they're currently finishing their album, and Volga Select, which he has released on 20:20 Vision and his own Set Recordings. Long associated with the electro house sound, there's much more to his DJing and production than this particular niche. His daily Leftfield eclectic show on Radio Nova allowed him to indulge his wide tastes, and spawned his Kill The DJ parties, label and compilations. Over the years he's recorded standout compilations for the Source Lab series, Suck My Deck for Bugged Out, and most recently Death Disco for Eskimo. He can currently be found touring the globe as a DJ, releasing new material on Kill The DJ and appearing at festivals with the live presentation of Blackstrobe.

Ivan on DJing: "I'm happy to be playing now because it's really not going to be what people expect, which for me is a lot of what DJing is about. I've got this thing that's coming from the (Andy) Weatherall approach – for me he's always been the guy who's got the best line of conduct and ideas about DJing and making music. Knowing how to say no, and when to say no, and don't do what people expect because, otherwise, what is the point?"