| Mat Silver & Tony Burt | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Germany & New Zealand |
| Genres | Trance, Hard Trance, break beat, progressive house, Electro |
| Years active | 1997 - present |
| Labels | various |
Mat Silver & Tony Burt are a German & New Zealand dance music production team, composed of Matthias Scheffler (born May 1, 1977) and Tony Burt (born October 25, 1970).
Contents |
Silvers and Burts main contribution has been to the trance music scene but they have also produced other varied electronic music styles. They became increasingly well known for their hard and euphoric productions between 2000-2004 which were supported by some of the world’s leading DJ’s.
Matthias Scheffler originates from Bickenbach, Germany while Tony Burt lives in London but is originally from Auckland, New Zealand. Since meeting while DJ’ing at Electrowerkz, London back in April 2000 they decided to spend more time producing their style of trance music. Matthias was already producing in the late 1990s under the guise of Endymion, Mat Silver, Silver & Chrome and Stoker. Tony was running his own label full time as well as a specialist online music store for trance, progressive house, techno and break beat music.
The label featured artists such as Martin Eyerer, DJ Hinx, Mat Silver, S.H.O.K.K, Ferry Corsten, Ralph Fridge, Apoptygma Berzerk, Kuffdam & Plant, Shane 54, Alphazone, Audiowarp, Hiroshi Okada, Progresia, Octagen, Mike Shiver, Menno de Jong, Pervading Call, Informers, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Airbase, Timeok, Danjo & Styles, Global Interference, Passiva, Sonicvibe and Abert Vorne.
All Mat and Tony's productions happened in Matthias’s basement studio called B.Beach – a loose translation or a play on words from the name of their home village Bickenbach.
Their music arguable defined a new style of trance, particularly in the UK where the softer trance sound of the late 1990s had become increasingly unfashionable and commercialised to the underground club scenes. Hard house was increasingly popular with clubs like Trade and Frantic but lacked a lot of the sound production qualities found in trance. Matthias and Tony incorporated harder sounds and more complex percussion arrangements with soaring sythn lines. A fair reflection of their combined musical roots which was as varied as Jean Michel Jarre, detroit house, 80’s electro, Frankfurt techno and rock.
Their remix of Shane 54 - Equinoxe 4 peaked at number 12 in the Spanish Charts when it was released in 2003.
All of their original work appeared on Above the Sky Records. A label originally set up by Tony but then later A&R’ed collectively between Tony and Matthias.
The harder trance sound was to spread throughout early 2001 and German/Swiss artists such as Flutlicht, S.H.O.K.K., Scot Project and DuMonde were also seen as pioneers. (S.H.O.K.K. was to later remix Mat Silver vs. Tony Burt – Teardrops)
Matthias and Tony took a break from trance production after the release of their final single ‘Waimea’. This was to be Above the Sky Record’s 18th and final release due to financial problems of the label.. It was at this time that they decided to step back from the trance scene, decline remix work and concentrate on exploring a new style and sound.