At the age of 14, dance music caught Michal Ruzicka, aka DJ Schwa’s, attention mainly through Radio 1. Around this time he tried to mix his first tracks (techno in particular) from cassettes and shortly afterwards he moved to the turntable. In 2000 he started performing publicly. Two years later Schwa joined the group Tribal Vision and became an essential part of this promotional group.

In 2002, Michal started his weekly resident nights in Prague at Cross Club and since 2003 he has been working as a sound engineer at ORM studio in Prague. In 2004 Michal, along with DJ Slater, started working on the first Czech progressive label and by the end of the year “Tribal Vision Records” was born. The first CD compilation, “Urban Legends,” caught the attention of both DJs and listeners worldwide and Tribal Vision has since then been slowly establishing itself as one of the leading labels on the progressive scene. At the end of 2005, the idea of an electro/experimental sub-label of Tribal Vision Records became reality and thus established the foundation for “BEEF Records.”

Schwa’s sets are not strictly one style oriented; he combines electro sounds that progressively flow from deeper techhouse with electro and breaks elements to minimal rhythms. Schwa’s unique mixing and track selection has resulted in a particularly massive following throughout Japan, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Austria, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Slovakia and Australia. Schwa has performed at huge international festivals such as “Open Air Field” (Czech Republic), “Parihaka” (New Zealand), “No Mans Land Festival” (Hungary), “Rainbow Serpent”, “Earthcore Carnival” (Australia) and as a part of Japan tour Michal had a chance to perform at the biggest club in Japan – Ageha.

Michal is also part of a new Sydney based electronic project called, “Shades of Gray”. Their first EP draw attention and was supported by Djs/producers such as Hernan Cattaneo (Renaissance), D-Nox (Sprout), Nick and John Dalagelis (Audio Therapy), Pena (Flow), Steven-M (Two-B), Guy J (Electribe/Mutekki), Stephan Hinz (Kling Klong) and many more.

Schwa and his live act Shades of Grey play Earthdance on Saturday September 13th, check out ITM’s festival page for more info.

Tracklisting:

01 El Carlitto feat. Chelonis Jones – On and On (Parquet rec)
02 Fergie – Anon (Excentric rec)
03 Sasha – Park In The Shade (Emfire rec)
04 Solead – Serpent – Anna remix (Beef rec unr)
05 Schlomi Aber – Tokyo Shanghaigh (Ovum rec)
06 D’Julz – Just so u know (Ovum rec)
07 Marcel Wave – 27 Holton – Serafins Back to New York remix (Freerange rec)
08 Dave Shokh – Thumbs – Simon Baker remix (Connaiseur rec)
09 Ramon Tapia – UFO (Great Stuff unr)
10 G. Riedatz – Mode (Timbee)
11 Ramon Tapia – Epic (Beef unr)
12 Lutzenkirchen – unknown (Great Stuff unr)
13 Len Faki – Odyssee (Podium rec)
14 Oliver Klein – Babylon (Klink Klong rec)
15 Simon Baker – Confused – David K rmx (Viva music)
16 Unknown – U-Turn
17 Shades of Gray vs Mod – Spectrum (unr)