Mark Birtles' (aka Newblackvinyl) DJ career started in the city of Leeds which is the throbbing heart of the UK techno scene, as well as being a Mecca for indie bands. The result of this is an ‘anything goes` approach to DJing, seamlessly weaving together solid beats, bleeps and gritty overdrive sounds into a unique blend, in tune with the audience. It was this self-confessed hatred of pigeon-holing which caught the attention of BBC Radio 6 Music where he reached the last four of the UK DJ final, with a genre-bending mix and later hosted a live show about his musical influences alongside The Queens of Noize.

Always striving to expand his horizons, Mark relocated to Tokyo in 2008. Since then he has firmly established himself as one of the most versatile DJs in the city. His first break came by regularly appearing at the Blue Source events, supporting artist such as Roman Flugel (Playhouse, Klang Elektronik), DJ Fra (Kompakt) and Margaret Dygas (Berghain/Panoramabar).

However, he never forgot his love for indie music and late in 2009 started co-producing legendary guerilla parties in Tokyo under the banner “Tokyo Indie”. These parties quickly grew in reputation due to their fun-loving antics and before long they were throwing some of the most talked about parties in Tokyo. During this time he has graced the decks alongside guest artists such as Crystal Castles, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Die Antwoord, These New Puritans and The Mystery Jets. In this time he performed at top venues such as Womb, Club Asia and Velours.

2011 looks to be a continuation of his success as this summer he takes to the decks at Asia’s biggest club, AgeHa, for the Fuji Rock Festival pre-party as well as playing events alongside some of Japan’s biggest DJs; such as Towa Tei (Motivation/Hotel H), Taku Takahashi (M-Flo, TCY Records) and Masatoshi Uemura (Bonjour Records).

iFLYER