dj sleepless

Growing up in South London during the 1980’s, Karl Francis fell head over heels in love with hip-hop both local and from across the Atlantic Ocean. That, along with the reggae, soul and rare groove music that he soaked up from events held in local parks to him made him want to create music. However, at first Francis was making musical equipment, apprenticing under anyone involved with it he could find to the point where he was creating amps and bass bins on his own by the time he was 15. From here he branched out into production, working with artists in his local scene and on his own material to the point where he was sometimes self-releasing two records a week. By the age of 23 he had 50 releases to his name, and that number was only going to get bigger from there.

With so much experience in self-releasing his records, rather than sign to a record label, Francis decided to create a number of his own own. While he remained as prolific as he ever was, none of them stuck until 1997, when he and his long-time collaborator Kevin King (otherwise known as Lemon D) formed Valve Recordings. Ever since then, Valve has remained Francis’ home base for his highest charting singles and his studio albums, the first of which, “Cybotron” came out in 2000 and the second a compilation called “My Sounds (1993 - 2004)” came out in 2004. However, Dillinja is a singles artist through and through, which has allowed him to release countless experiments with all forms of electronica and techno.

These have gone on to inspire multiple generations of artists from producers and DJ’s to legends like David Bowie and Bjork (both of whom have worked with Francis in the past). For anyone to have that kind of influence should be celebrated, and for being one of South London’s most celebrated musical exports of all time, Dillinja comes highly recommended.