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DJ Mag Top100 DJs
42
Mark Knight
9

Although Mark Knight's remake of Laurent Garnier's jazz techno classic 'Man With The Red Face' is Beatport's fastest ever selling record, it's the success of his Toolroom label that he's most proud of this year. Compilations, club tours, bigger offices and more staff have all played a part, as has a successful Ibiza season in Amnesia. "I just got back last week and the phone hasn't stopped ring about what we're going to do next year," he says. One part of the imprint that has really come into its own this year is the Leaders Of The New School offshoot, a kind of Toolroom Jr that's been hunting out new talent. "It's a bit like a football team having a reserve side, we can test out producers," explains Mark. "Tim Weeks, for example, is moving up to Toolroom now." An interesting thing that has come out of the Toolroom Amnesia sessions is a change of music policy from out-of-the-box tech-house to bringing in some unlikely influences. "Being in Ibiza with the trance guys in one room and me in the other has influenced me stylistically," says Mark. "My latest record 'Arena' was very much for the festival season and it's got those hands-in-the -air moments fused with tech-house." Another influence has come from his tour of Australia with The Chemical Brothers. Seeing the impact of their visuals, Knight's now taken to using DVDJs at his bigger gigs.