Ivan Smagghe (FR)

France's most wanted radio host and selector, Ivan Smagghe stands at the crossroads between glamorous Parisian hype and musical integrity. His genre-defying/defining production work originally in Black Strobe and now in It's A Fine Line has connected him to and garnered the praise of James Murphy, Trevor Jackson, Ata, Optimo, and the aforementioned Weatherall. All fellow crusaders in the fight to prove that electronic music can be so much more than a one-dimensional soundtrack for a night on the lash. The success of his musical blog 'a few things from Ivan Smagghe' has generated a compilation series of edits for Paris uber-fashion store Colette. The first volume sold out in a couple of weeks. His project with Tim Paris, It's A Fine Line, has already put out numerous remixes (from Superpitcher to the XX) and releases that can't be pigeonholed (electro rockabilly on Kompakt to Italo rickety disco on Marketing Music). Their new studio is now fully set for original music, remixes, and production. Aside from his A&R role, for now, ten years old label Kill The DJ, Ivan has also started solo work as well as more planned collaborations with musical friends Ewan Pearson and Tiga being first on the list. You can catch Ivan subverting the masses on any given weekend, all around the world.