Milton Jackson
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After studying classical guitar for 8 years Milton Jackson AKA Barry Christie got the electronic music bug when his parents got him an MPC 2000 for his 18th birthday. It wasn't long before he released his first EP aged 19 for Stevie Sole's Tronicsole imprint. Roger Sanchez was a fan and included a track from it on his Mixmag compilation.
From there Milton went from strength to strength and carved out a reputation as a house producer to be reckoned with. Through countless hours spent in the studio he would perfect his dark, techno influenced deep house music fusing straight driving beats with eclectic production.
Following these initial outings MJ signed an EP to Black Vinyl and an album deal with Glasgow Underground. His first long player 'The Bionic Boy' saw celebrity dance fans in the form of Laurent Garnier, Larry Heard, Tom Middleton and Ashley Beadle. Jockey Slut magazine called him 'potentially the most exciting thing to happen to UK house music.' The Bionic Boy spawned two bona fide hit singles, 'Dimensional' and 'Sunlight'. Romanthony liked 'Dimensional' so much he asked to remix it. Sunlight was even raved over in indie-rock mag NME.
Live and DJ dates followed The Bionic Boy's release and Milton found himself playing at The Rex Club in Paris and the legendary Pressure night at Glasgow's Arches.
In 2001, Milton founded his own label Bear Trax as a P+D through Solemusic to use mainly as a vehicle for his own productions. Bear Trax released Mylo's first vinyl outing when Milton and Mylo teamed up as 'The Pretty Boys'. Bear Trax also hosted Milton's Portishead sampling 'Incidental' which was Yousef's Miami tune for 2002.
In 2003, Milton took a back seat from house music and recorded an album of downtempo electronica under pseudonym 'Napolean Solo'. He also paired up with Million Dollar Disco's Al Kent to release a slew of disco tinged Joey Negro style jams.
After a brief hiatus, Milton returns back to house music with a vengeance - 2006 sees him release twelve EPs on a multitude of labels including Silver Network in France, Icon, Tronicsole, Urbantorque, three EPs for Freerange and one for Slip n Slide. These tracks have been played and charted by heavyweight DJs such as Carl Cox, John Digweed, Funk Dvoid, Ben Watts, the list goes on and on. Carl Cox is a big fan of Milton's 1998 EP on Tronicsole, having included two tracks from it on various compilations.
He has also been touring Europe with his unique DJing style playing to 5000 at the legendary Fabrik/Goa all dayer in Madrid. Other gigs in 2006 include spots in Slovakia, Austria, Turnmills London, Jaded @ The Egg, Belfast, Dublin, Estonia and Club Maria in Berlin.
Currently doing the rounds is 'Rogue Element' EP on Freerange. This off-kilter piece of Detroit futurism is proving very popular. Not to mention Jimpster's sublime deep/minimal remix.
Another fruitful collaboration saw Milton team up with fellow deep house don and Freerange artist Shur-I-kan over three EPs. Their monster track 'Special Powers' for Freerange was BBC dance single of the week and 'I Want It' sold out initial pressing prompting Freerange to order in more vinyl.
Milton is also branching out into a more tech, minimal sound after collaborating with fellow Glaswegian 'Droido'. They have recorded two EPs for Jef K's Crack & Speed label and Stevie Sole's Tronicsole imprint.
2007 sees no let up in Milton's schedule. A new EP for Urbantorque 'Fade Runner' is already big with the likes of James Zabiela, Sasha & Digweed, Hernan Catteneo and Mike Monday. Also in the works are a remix of Groove Armada's Andy Cato and 2 EPs with Shur-i-kan.
