Marco V is a Dutch house DJ and producer.  Producing since 1998 Marco V was one the pioneers of the tech-trance movement of the early to mid noughties and has numerous dancefloor hits and classic remixes to his name. Marco V runs the High Contrast Recordings imprint In Charge

Early Years: 1998 to 2004

Marco V’s breakthrough release was ‘Luvstruck’ in 1998, a collaboration with Benjamin Bates under the alias Southside Spinners. Released at the peak of the Dutch Trance boom ‘Luvstruck’ combined a funky but pounding trance beat with a big anthemic lead line. A dancefloor hit ‘Luvstruck’ got even wider exposure by featuring on the soundtrack of the Ibiza movie ‘Kevin and Perry Go Large’.

Though ‘Luvstruck’ had put Marco V on the dance music map, securing him a contract with big Dutch dance label ID&T, but his subsequent solo career took a markedly different direction. The timing of ‘Lovestruck’ may have benefited from coinciding with the peak of the Dutch Trance sound but it also arrived as the trance backlash was kicking in. For many trance producers and DJs this meant jumping on the progressive bandwagon, turning their noses up at the big lead line trance sound they had built their careers on. Marco V though was one of a smaller group of DJs that instead developed a new sound that whilst it was a reaction to the excesses trance had become known for, was still firmly trance. An evolution rather than a complete discarding of the sound. The result was a new tougher, more electro and less obvious genre called Tech-Trance. Along with artists such as Marcel Woods and, for a time, Tiesto, Marco V pioneered the new sub genre.

Early Marco V solo releases including his ID&T debut ‘In Charge’ (ID&T 2000) and ‘Godd’ (ID&T 2001) feature darker lead lines and driving electro riffs and bass lines. Trance, but with a tougher edge without becoming hard trance. Both tracks features on his debut artist album ‘Con:Fusion’ (ID&T 2002). By this stage Marco V started to DJ more widely, including ID&T’s major arena event ‘Inner City’. He mixed two of the annual albums for the event, in 2000 and in 2002 (the latter with Southside Spinners’ Benjamin Bates).

Marco V’s growing profile saw him remix a number of trance classics, most notably Café del Mar’s ‘Energy 52’ and Jens’ ‘Loops and Tings’. In 2004 he released ‘Combi:nations’, the first of a series of mix compilations.

Later Years: 2005 to present

By 2005 the ID&T label closed and Marco V switched to a new label High Contrast Recordings where he was given charge of a sub label In Charge, named after his debut single. The first release on In Charge was his second studio album ‘200V’ in 2005. Marco V’s label switch coincided with a shift in music direction.

The Tech-Trance movement had sputtered out and Marco V switched back to a more mainstream and more radio friendly sound. His 2006 release ‘False Light’ (In Charge) still has the strong electro feel Marco V built his early career upon, but now with a slow pace and a full vocal. By 2009 Marco V’s mainstream transformation was complete, as seen with the single ‘Unprepared’ (In Charge) featuring again a full vocal and big trance lead and pads.

In 2009 after a few years without any album releases Marco V released two studio albums in one year: ‘Propaganda’ Parts I and II. At the same time Marco V was once again DJing widely, including appearances at major global events such as Dance Valley, Love Parade, Creamfields and Trance Energy.

In 2010 Marco V launched the ‘TAO’ multimedia concept that would include a new compilation series, live events, multimedia and that promised to see Marco V pursuing a wider range of music styles.

Marco V was one of the pioneers of the Tech-Trance sound of the early noughties.  His productions delivered a tougher edged alternative of the bid anthems of late nineties mainstream trance.  But as the Tech-Trance movement petered out Marco V started moving towards a more mainstream sound.