The Lean - Hip Hop Classic to Current | No Regular Play/ Taimur Agha/ Ballin' Oates

No Regular Play are a duo equally at home in the rehearsal rooms of Julliard as in the main room of Fabric. Emotive and unapologetically organic, their fluid approach unites more than a lifetime of influences. Their impressive live show, which features Paulus' inimitable trumpet and vocals alongside DeBruyn's masterful manipulation of the rhythm and soundscapes bridges the gap between the indie arena and the heartbeat of the dancefloor. Watch their set at Boiler Room Berlin http://www.youtube.com/embed/CS17vmYvWyI Greg Paulus and Nick DeBruyn met as 8 year olds growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota, bonding over an early mutual love of hip-hop and jazz legends such as A Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock. This deep-rooted connection allows them to understand each other in a rare and profound way. Paulus performed trumpet at local jazz clubs in his teenage years and went on to study jazz/classical at the Manhattan School of Music. Together they later traveled to Cuba's Havana to study Afro-Cuban rhythm, music and culture. But the seeds of their evolution were really sewn in 2006 when they attended a Wolf + Lamb party in NYC that blew their minds. Thrown at the Marcy Hotel, a space featured in The Guardian newspaper it propelled DeBruyn to join Paulus in Brooklyn and begin experimenting with electronic music. They naturally formed a very close musical and personal relationship with Zev and Gadi of Wolf + Lamb and their first output, a deep and cerebral string of EPs, was released on the W+L label in 2008 alongside artists such as Soul Clap and Nicolas Jaar. No Regular Play became integral to the Wolf + Lamb family when they took up residence in the Marcy building, a melting pot for creative minds. This move allowed a more fluid approach to their productions and new collaborations were formed. Subsequent material from the duo has shown up on a slew of respected labels including No. 19 Music and Supplement Facts. Never to be tied to one breed or style, in 2012 they released the track "Rain (All Day)" on Cut Mistake Music, which was reconstructed and performed as a 25-minute piece by Paulus and his father for improvisation/ electronics with the Minnesota Orchestra. Greg Paulus has also released solo material on Double Standard Records and Wolf + Lamb, respectively. He has worked and toured with critically acclaimed indie band Beirut and, more recently, Matthew Dear's live band over the past two years. The duo still watches over the infamous Marcy Hotel, and tour regularly performing their incredible live sets at some of the world's most cutting-edge clubs. Fall 2012 will see the release of their debut album, "Endangered Species", out on Wolf + Lamb Records. Typically jammed with new collaborations, the album features The Real Live Show, a New York based Hip-Hop collective, and Eliot Cardinaux, a fellow alumnus of Greg's from the Manhattan School of Music. The album was mixed by Francis Harris and mastered by the legend, Joe Lambert, who has also worked with the likes of Animal Collective, Washed Out and Dirty Projectors. The project fully demonstrates their dexterity in creating depth, structure and rich song based formulas in the electronic realm.


As co-founder, resident DJ, and primary creative director of Blk|Market Membership since its founding in 2006, Taimur Agha has been instrumental in building the rapidly growing New York dance community to where it now stands. A participant in the late ‘90s’ and early 2000s famed club residencies in NYC, including Sasha & Digweed’s legendary stint at Twilo and the equally illustrious era of Danny Tenaglia and Deep Dish at Vinyl, he weathered the club scene’s dissolution post 9/11 and the retreat to the underground, and when Bill Patrick, Nick Ac, and Dennis Rodgers parted ways at the end with ROBOTS, they handed the torch to Taimur and his partner Fahad Haider to become the new leading lights of a re-established dance culture that would take the city into its next nightlife era.

Blk|market Membership’s list of guests reads as a who’s who of contemporary artists from the era, hosting debuts from the Wighnomy Brothers, Cassy, San Proper, Jamie Jones, Skudge, Rødhåd, Mike Dehnert, Apollonia, and many more, as well as the returns of legends like Laurent Garnier and Scan X’s L.B.S. project, Carl Craig, Moritz von Oswald, Francesco Tristano, and a rare 2013 appearance by Dan Bell as DBX. Frequent regular guests include Margaret Dygas, Robag Wruhme, DJ Koze, and Innervisions’ Ame & Dixon; Secretsundaze holds current a residency, and they have been honored to host past residencies for Craig Richards, Scuba’s SUB:STANCE, Ostgut Ton, and Cocoon Heroes. Taimur’s personal DJ resume includes appearances at world renown locales like fabric, Panorama Bar, Trouw, Club der Visionaere, Renate, Ibiza’s Zoo Project and tiNI & the Gang parties, Vertigo, Montreal’s legendary STEREO, Chicago’s Smart Bar, Gipsy, the sadly-closed Arma 17 in Moscow, Paris’ Sundae, Dubai’s Analog Room, Romania’s Sunwaves festival, and many more across the United States from Hawaii to New York and around the world from Tokyo to Bogota. He has mixed alongside many of the world’s best-known DJs, including Craig Richards, Sasha, Digweed, Michael Mayer, Sven Vath, Richie Hawtin, Lee Burridge, Adam Beyer, Ivan Smagghe, Onur Ozer, DJ Koze, Marco Carola, Ben Klock, Scuba, Luke Slater and friends like Three, Bill Patrick, Francis Harris, and Alexi Delano. Locally, he has presided over most of New York’s most noted night spots, past and present, including a personal invitation to play at Danny Tenaglia’s loft, Output, TBA Brooklyn, LOVE, Wolf+Lamb’s Marcy Hotel, and an uncountable number of temporary addresses. Taimur and Fahad also now hold a monthly residency at the Standard Hotel’s prestigious Le Bain while continuing their underground activities.

As head buyer and head of distribution at Halcyon Records from 2008 until mid-2014, Taimur sustained New York’s struggling dance scene through difficult times and helped set the tone for its resurgence. His community-oriented radio show The Bandwagon ran 116 episodes during his tenure at Halcyon and helped to bring together labels and promoters from around the city, with appearances from his own Blk|Market talent and showcases for The Bunker, ReSolute, L.I.E.S., Deconstruct Music, Underground Quality, The Corner, Plan B Recordings, Voodoo Down Records, and more with a list of talent that includes Rhadoo, Fred P, Adam X, tiNI, Aybee, the Martinez Brothers, DJ Qu, Joey Anderson, Anthony Parasole, Kyle Hall, Function, Christopher Rau, Thugfucker, Reade Truth, Recondite, DVS1, Radioactive Man, Boddika, Gerd Janson, Juan Atkins, A Made Up Sound, Mr.Ties, Raresh, and Elbee Bad, and many of those previously mentioned. His A&R vision for distribution led to agreements with Novel Sound, Deconstruct, The Corner, Strength Music, Inimeg, Sonic Groove, White Material, Scissor & Thread, LAG, Blank Slate, Dystopian, and more. On the strength of these accomplishments, Taimur at last devoted himself full-time to his own DJ career, to the management of his labels Higher Frequencies and BlkMarket Membership, and to his still-growing nightlife empire. With eight years of history and accolades for helping to revive one of the world’s most important dance music centers, Taimur and Blk|Market Membership hold an esteemed position as architects of New York’s contemporary scene as well as guiding lights for its future.