Carl Cox

One of Britain’s best-known and, indeed, best-loved house DJs, Cox actually began his career in hardcore and rave in the eighties, where he commanded crowds at iconic clubs that included Heaven in London and The Hacienda in Manchester. His charisma and personality guaranteed him several radio jobs during his nineties heyday, including on Radio 1 - where had a monthly residency - as well as on Kiss FM. He’s released four solo albums to date - 1996’s ‘At the End of the Cliche’, 1999’s ‘Phuture 2000’, 2005’s ‘Second Sign’ and, in 2011, ‘All Roads Lead to the Dancefloor’. He’s put out a slew of single over the course of his career, too, but he’s best known for his live work.

His main focus these days are his two record labels, Intec Records and 23rd Century Records, but he continues to perform live; he curates a night at Manchester superclub the Warehouse Project on an annual basis, and also has his own stage at Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida, Electric Daisy Carnival in New York, and the world’s biggest dance festival, Tomorrowland in Belgium. The free reign he's given over the curation of a stage at these huge festivals tells you everything you need to know about his revered status in the dance world.

Estornel was born 11 July 1978 in Cuba, but established his career in Miami. Not long after he got this start in the industry he began setting trends on his own, exposing the city to a blend of hard hitting low end mix, topped with subtle pulsing synth swashes. His music also featured strong dance influences integrating bass lines dripping with acid house influences and heavily syncopated guitars treated with flanger effect, which seemed to beckon the work of Chic guitarist Niles Rodgers.

Over the years Estornel has used a number of aliases in addition to his most recognized stage name Maceo Plex. The others include Maetrik, Mariel Ito, Plaex, Tali Wackas, and Eric Entity. Some of his earliest documented material was released in 1999 under the latter two monikers, both through Illmatic Records. He put out a variety of 12” singles and two feature lengths under the name Maetrick, some which dated back to 2001. As Mariel Ito, he released a studio album through SCSI-AV in 2005 as well as an EP entitled “Indexed”, which was issued by Manchester label Modern Love Records (whose list of artists include the likes of Andy Stott and Demdike Stare).

It was not until 2009 that Estornel began releasing material under Maceo Plex. Within a few years time he already developed a profuse catalogue with this project. He released the EP “Clubs” in 2009, which was followed by the 2010 single “Vibe Your Love”. 2011 saw the release of his first studio album “Life Index” as well as an additional 7 releases including 2 DJ mixes, 4 EPs and the tech house single “Your Style”.

Though Estornel fell into the rave culture in America in the early 90s and his sound was largely classified as techno and house, he has since progressed into a more classic driven electro funk sound, channeling the influences of Stevie Wonder, Funkadelic, and Isolee.

This change in framework was somewhat evident with Estronel’s move from the US to Valencia, Spain. During Estornel’s career as Maceo Plex he has toured multiple festivals such as the Amore Festival in Roma and in 2014 he factored in at No.5 on Resident Advisor’s poll for the “Top DJs of 2014”. Maceo Plex has also been involved in remixes throughout his career, editing material for Royksopp and having his own compositions revised by artist such as Nicolas Jaar who treated the single “Gravy Train”.