L-OW | en

L-OW aka Margus Löve (1985) is an Estonian electronic music producer, but also a DJ and a promoter. His music is characterized by attention to the smallest of details. It's not the loud midrange wobble-bass that tries to rip your heart out but ends up being just plain silly. The melody and overall composition are just as important as the very low frequency bassline which tests the PA system to its limits – this is the music to the dancefloor with enough kW to spare. Today he has made his mark mostly in dubstep but has also a decade of other beats behind him.

At young age he was very much addicted to speed garage, Sneaker Pimps "Spin Spin Sugar" (Armand's Dark Garage Mix) being the first and most influential track. Those raw and infectious basslines which have been the core element through his career of music production, polished to perfection as he learned to look further and wider.

He skipped 2-step garage turn into glamourous and slinky, went through a short period of reggae and dancehall, and found his love in pre-millennium drum and bass mayhem. With your usual suspects like Ed Rush and Optical, Ram Trilogy and Technical Itch being his picks from that time (1998-2004), then maybe a bit surprisingly Chico - Death Of A Rockstar is his all-time favourite track to remix, if only he is allowed.

After going through the raver phase, starting to produce drum and bass and also making first steps in DJing were like a natural progression, in contrast to a lot of other clubbers who only limit themselves to consuming music. Nowadays, as he says, he has to limit himself to listening less music, but not because his hunger for freshness has died out, but simply to keep himself away from formulas.

The three following years (2002-2005) he spent listening to all kinds of different music. He was DJing, producing drum and bass and promoting events like Suburban Beat, held in Tallinn’s legendary venues called "Wimbledon" and art-club "KuKu". His main music was still neurofunk - acts like Cause4Concern, Konflict etc and DJing in this scene he managed to get his first gig abroad, in Riga/Latvia 2004. The pinnacle of his drum and bass promoter years was the The Red Dragon label night with Keaton, Teebee and Future Prophecies, which was held in indoor rooms of Tallinn Song Festival Ground. In 2006 his first release under Lizon moniker (he still keeps this alias for dnb-only appearances) "Bravado" appeared under Red Dragon recordings to be followed a year later by his remix of Dzheimz & Ninja – Karjala for Estonian drum and bass compilation, a cult track, and too good for many Estonian underground musicians to remix.

But perhaps the most important thing, from the future perspective, happened in 2005 when he got stuck to techno. Names like Marco Carola and Adam Beyer have almost god-like status to him. His 5 dub-techno compositions ended up in Italian netlabel Deepindub. The lush and on the same time punctual atmosphere of these tracks is not achieved by him anymore. To share love for his favourite era of techno (99-2003) with other people, he organised Resume events with Dutch dnb producer Raiden (doing live) and Mark Slavin, simply to present his interpretation of techno.

The year 2007 was basically end for his dnb works as he was already travelling in other landscapes of music called dubstep. It was his long-time friend - ITOK Element - who played him Digital Mystikz essential mix and Dubstep Warz. The new and raw look of uk bass music, especially the sub-bass, took him totally into it. It was relatively easy, as he had a strong kit of production skills from previous years, to make his vision of dubstep.

Since 2008 various labels (Z-Audio, Dub:iouz, On The Edge, Project Squared and Heartfelt) have released 7 12" singles. One track appeared in Estonian Dubstep Compilation released by LejalGlobe. As L-OW is also a part-time freelance designer, the artwork of this compilation is done by himself.

He is very much into minimal techno these days, the sheer quality of soundscapes combined with experimentalism and the highest development of technology.

Check L-OW's homepage for more info and releases: http://l-ow.subbeat.com .