Young Marco Vinyl

There was a time when Marco Sterk a.k.a. Young Marco’s talents as a DJ and
producer were among Amsterdam’s best-kept secrets. For well over a
decade, he plied his trade, largely unheralded, on the city’s underground
dance music scene.

It was here, via several now infamous residencies, that he learnt his craft,
gaining a reputation for ballsy, genre-defying eclecticism, playing sets that
joined the dots between everything from tropical rhythms, afro gems and
quirky Middle Eastern disco, to lost proto-house, throbbing techno and
industrial-strength jack-tracks.

These days, the Dutchman’s talents are widely known around the World. His
position as a crate digger, record collector and infamous party-starter now
guarantees a packed schedule of gigs in Europe, North America and beyond.
His passion for working a dancefloor with “strange music” and “unclassics” is
renowned, and it’s this that makes his sets so special.

This humid, off-kilter obsession with the inspired and unusual has become a
hallmark of Marco’s music, too. Once a key part of the Rush Hour family – the
legendary Amsterdam label releasing a number of his early singles – in 2011
he made his debut on Lovefingers’ highly regarded ESP Institute label. His
first two EPs for the label set out his now-trademark style, and won support
from the likes of Dixon and James Murphy, amongst others, along the way.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that a string of remix requests followed, leading to
now classic reworks for the likes of Heatsick, Joakim, Francis Bebey and Soft
Rocks. His 2013 remix of Tony G’s “Dreams”, a killer chunk of blissful new
age deep house, became one of the most in-demand and sought after records
of that year. At the tail end of 2015, the best of these remixes were gathered
together on Sorry For The Late Reply, the first release on Marco’s freshly
minted Safe Trip imprint.

2014 saw the release of his most accomplished studio work to date, the
superb debut album Biology on ESP Institute. Wonderfully picturesque,
melodious, humid and glassy-eyed, it received rave reviews and confirmed his
status as one of electronic music’s truly unique voices.
The same year also saw the release of Clouds, a magical collaborative fulllength
written and produced in a weekend with Italian ambient pioneer Gigi
Masin and British artist Jonny Nash. Credited to Gaussian Curve and released
by Amsterdam’s Music From Memory label, it was the unfeasibly beautiful
sound of three like-minded musicians working towards a shared goal.
In 2017, Marco is as busy as ever. He’ll be hitting the road April onwards with
Gaussian Curve for a handful of live dates around the world in support of their
second album The Distance, while his contribution to Dekmantel’s series of
crate-digging compilations, Selectors, is due to hit in March. His own label –
Safe Trip – will be picking up steam with a string of releases that explore
electronic music in many different directions.

As usual, you’ll also find him spreading his love of weird, wonderful and
eccentric music in basements, warehouses and clubs the world over.