Joey Beltram

Joey Beltram, the New York-based DJ and producer, earns recognition as a pivotal force in Belgian-style acid and techno through landmark recordings including "Mentasm" and "Energy Flash." Although his earliest selections drew from Chicago house—a preference he still honors during home sets—his driving club productions defined high points of late-'80s and early-'90s pre-breakbeat hardcore techno. Those tracks continue to rank among many selectors' essential lists as defining statements of post-Detroit European dance music. Raised in Queens, Beltram took up mixing while still young, playing New York and Chicago house records in his bedroom before shifting into original production. At 18 he began releasing material on the Detroit techno mainstay Transmat and joined Mundo Muzique and Richie Hawtin for several tracks on the latter's Plus 8 label. After "Energy Flash" appeared on Transmat in 1988, R&S licensed the track, forging the Belgian link that has endured ever since. He followed the reissue with the 1992 single "Mentasm," a hallmark of hoover-style techno whose blaring vacuum-cleaner synth tones and pounding rhythm quickly became signature elements. Belgian techno and hardbeat audiences and DJs embraced the record, propelling Beltram to international attention. While techno remains his most recognized domain, he also moves through house and ambient, a range shown by the 1994 Aonox LP issued on the San Francisco experimental imprint Visible. He returned to hard, minimal acid with 1995's Places on Berlin's Tresor and 1996's Close Grind, released as Jb3 on NovaMute. Beltram's mixing abilities surface on the Logic anthology Joey Beltram Live and on The Sound of 2 AM for Moonshine.