Johnny Budz
www.johnnybudz.com

DJ 54

Mike Rizzo

DJ/Producer Mike Rizzo infuses the best parts of his historic run of house club mixes with these Progressive/Trance influences from world-renown DJs such as Sasha, Sander Kleinenberg and Jerry Bonham. After a recent break to spend time with his wife and new baby, Mike is hitting the road again for selected dates in between producing & remixing several new projects.

Mike has been DJing for over 15 years at venues including NYC's Roxy, Webster Hall, Cheetah & Tunnel, as well as traveling to clubs in South Beach, Boston, Salt Lake City, Arizona and internationally to perform. An Asia tour in June of 2004 included dates playing at the JJ Disco in Beijing China and Club Lola/Centro in Singapore. That fall Mike spun alongside Ibiza's #1 DJs Erick Morillo & Josh Wink at Club Pacha in Ibiza, Spain.

In addition to spinning worldwide, during his career Rizzo has fulfilled the role of producer/remixer; writing, producing and remixing artists including Tamia (Stranger In My House), a track that went to be WKTU's  #1 song of 2001. That same year Rizzo won Best Remixer and Best Remix of the Year for SIN magazine in 2001. Can't Go On (Mike Rizzo presents Allie) was a smash hit across the board in 2004,finishing #10 on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart and broke into the Billboard Radio Play chart as well that year. Jennifer Green's How Can I Be Falling, co-written & produced by Mike Rizzo, hit #1 on the Billboard Dance Club Play chart as well. Rizzo has had over 15 Billboard #1 remixes, including Play Your Part (Deborah Cox), Serve the Ego (Jewel), One With You (Sun), Try It On My Own (Whitney Houston) Surrender (Laura Pausini), Slow (Kylie Minogue), I Never Knew (Gloria Gaynor) Getaway (Becky Baeling), I'm Ready (Cherie) & How Can I Be Falling (Jennifer Green), which Rizzo also co-wrote & produced.

Mike Rizzo has remixed compilation CDs for major dance labels including Ultra Record's June 2004 release, Trance Nation America Three mixed by Rizzo and DJ Drew, which hit the Top 20 Electronica chart in Billboard magazine. That same year Rizzo's Webster Hall Dance Volume 6 broke into the Top 20 on the Billboard CD sales. In 2005, Rizzo's compilation Thrive sold over 50,000 units and broke into the Billboard magazine Top 5 Electronica sales chart.

Louie Devito

Few DJs wake up each morning with the nagging dilemma of 'Will I lose the Golden Ear'? Welcome to DJ Louie DeVito's early morning crisis.

While most euro clubbers are fans of Oakenfold, Tiesto and Erik Morillo (the other mega DJs) - Louie DeVito has become a superstar among an entirely different audience.

His N.Y.C. Underground Party, released on his own independent Elastik label, sold 450,000 copies. That may pale in comparison to cd sales of pop stars like Kelly Clarkson who sell in the millions, but it was enough to land Louie DeVito in the Guinness record books for all-time best-selling DJ mix compilation. Paul Oakenfold (listed in Guinness as the most successful DJ of all time) sold a mere 222,000 copies of his best-selling album to date, Tranceport (Kinetic).

"I called it 'New York City Underground Party," explains DeVito, "but I'm the first to admit that for the hard clubber, there's nothing underground about it. You have to define who you're asking. For your average mainstream dance fan, it's very underground."

In spite of all the success, or perhaps because of it, there is one thing DeVito claims has eluded him in his music career – respect. He's aware that many of his DJ peers consider him a sell out. DeVito inverted the hallowed DJ success paradigm, the one that clearly states that a DJ shall only release a CD (and then to generally modest success) after years of begging gigs at tiny clubs and working to headline at larger ones. DeVito was a Billboard success story before the club cognoscenti knew who he was.

DeVito, however, is unapologetic. "A lot of DJs in the club industry think that to be legit, you have to play hard, dark trance beats. I don't subscribe to those edicts. As a DJ, I'm not playing for myself. I play what my crowd wants to hear."

The music his crowd craves is an indulgent blend of radio-friendly club smashes, the sort of aerobicizing tracks where vocals are a prerequisite and the synth riffs are bigger than Yankee stadium. And though harder DJs may label his music 'commercial', it's DeVito who is taking over the nation's most prestigious booths. In addition to monstrous record sales, and because of them, he is being aggressively courted by the same clubs the trance DJs once believed was exclusive to them.

Case in point, DeVito released the much-anticipated Pacha cd (Pacha, for those outside of the club realm, is the crème de la crème of nightclub chains). There are Pachas in every major world city including New York, Rio De Janeiro, Madrid, and the party capital of the planet, Ibiza.

Landing the Pacha gig was a major coup for DeVito. It sent shock waves through a club community who despite his record sales, had misjudged DeVito's viability in the scene. Now, no matter how they felt about his legitimacy, they could no longer deny Louie DeVito's prominent position in the DJ hierarchy.

In support of the Pacha album, Louie DeVito will embark on an international Pacha tour. He will play every Pacha nightclub in the world, and spin the harder beats than what his American fans might be used to.

Due to the success of DeVito's first Pacha cd, including a recent June 07 appearance at Pacha Ibiza, the fate of Louie's craft has been embraced. A respectful second "Pacha NY" double CD has just been signed  and released on Ultra Records.

Denny Tsettos
www.dennytsettosmusic.com

More then just a DJ!- Denny has been the bridge between the NYC/NJ metropop audience and the dance floors of underground NYC nightlife for almost 20 years. He has worked within NYC's globally recognized nightclubs Crobar, Limelight, Twilo, and Sound Factory and has held residencies at Carbon, Exit, and World. His 12 hour marathon sets at Exit became the weekend soundtrack to 5,000+ Tri-State clubbers.

While some DJs may forget their roots, Denny began a decade plus tradition in his home state of NJ and raised the Jersey Shore on house music every summer weekend at the legendary Temptations in Seaside Heights. His incredible DJ skills have sent him across the globe. Denny has played prime-time at nightclubs in Tokyo, Osaka, Sao Paulo, Bogotá, Santo Domingo,
San Juan, Cancun, Las Vegas, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, and several times at the world famous Club Space in Miami. In March of 2006 Denny was invited to participate at the first ever Global Gathering held in the United States. He played along side the talents of Deep Dish, Roger Sanchez, Steve Lawler, and Murk.

Aside from his success in the clubs, Denny is a Billboard reporter who maintained the most popular and longest running radio mix-show on WKTUNew York. His mix-show, "The Sanctuary" aired late Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings. In addition, Denny has a weekly national radio show. "Abducted" reaches dance music fans across the nation every Tuesday at midnight EST on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 33.

In between gigs and broadcasts Denny is tweaking the knobs in the studio. Denny's remixes of Georgie Porgie's "I Believe" and Jennifer Green's "How Can I Be Falling" charted #1 on Billboard Club Chart in January 2007 and April 2005. His list of remix clientele include Justin Timberlake, Brandy, N-Sync, The Corrs, and many more. Along with his extensive remix work, Denny Tsettos has six commercially released dance compilations.

Denny has also been a record label executive and was in charge of A/R and Promotional Direction for Metropolitan Records(1998-2000) and at Strictly Rhythm (2000-2004).