Producer, DJ and musician Blend Mishkin has been blessed with recent rave reviews of his work, and prominent radio rotation from the likes of David Rodigan (BBC1Xtra), Toddla T (BBC Radio One) and Seanie B (BBC1Xtra) to name a select few.
Having spent most of his professional music career behind either a computer screen or pair of turntables, the Athens based producer has been putting in work since the mid 90s with early releases on labels such as Pork Recordings, Tru Thoughts, Shadow Records and many more and has successfully worked with/produced for a plethora of artists such as Gappy Ranks, Skarra Mucci, Screetchie Dan, Brother Culture, Jamalski, Carlton Livingstone whilst also being called upon for remix projects with bands/artists like the Dub Pistols, Wax Tailor, Mr. Williamz, DJ Spooky and more besides.
In 2006 Blend Mishkin co-founded ‘Cast-A-Blast Recordings’ which along the way has enjoyed the success of many projects/releases including the infamous ‘Palov & Mishkin’ collaboration and within the labels productive 10yr span have also released eleven albums alongside numerous singles and remixes for vocalists and producers on the global scene.
His 2015 international released/acclaimed album ‘Survival Of The Fittest’, perfectly steps the line between classic authentic roots with modern style reggae and dancehall, featuring a full live band and an international cast of artists including Gappy Ranks, Exco Levi, Skarra Mucci and Suga Roy. Released through London’s ‘Nice up! Records’ the album hit stores in July 2015 and having been fully embraced by the worldwide reggae community, sold out of its first pressing within a two short months.
‘United Reggae’ managed to strike a chord when it wrote in a recent review: “A great reggae album driven by a man of enormous musical energy" while also adding that “putting an album like Survival Of The Fittest together takes the kind of dedication that can only come when a person believes that what they are doing is worth it all - and believe me, it is”.
Meanwhile, renowned reggae blogs like ‘Jaheire’ and ‘Forward Ever’ acknowledged Survival Of The Fittest as the ‘Album of the year’ and the album’s cover, designed by Chouette Design, won 9th position for ‘The best record cover 2015’ through www.artvinyl.com acclaimed poll.
Blend Mishkin benefits from a consistently busy DJ schedule across his Grecian homeland and throughout Europe, regularly seen at clubs in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, UK, Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium as well as his numerous and successful tours to further reaches. In recent summers Blend Mishkin has also become a firm fixture on the European festival circuit having taken to the stage at events including Boomtown fair (UK) Overjam International Reggae Festival (SLO), Gampel Open Air (CH), Secret Sound (GR), Turtle Fest (AL) etc.
Garnering respect and praise from his peers, his DJ sets are a force to reckoned with and consist of a wide range of Jamaican influenced flavours, from roots to dancehall, old school to new school, jungle, moombahton, dub, ragga, Jamaican bass and everything in between.
As we progress into 2016, Blend Mishkin is gearing up for a forthcoming release titled ‘In Real Life’ through his newly born imprint “Rewind Guaranteed” that sees the result of many months of hard work. Skillfully conducting his purpose made ‘Roots Evolution’ band to authentically lace the backdrops of a new album alongside Antigua’s finest reggae artiste ‘Promise No Promises’.
Who knows where this next chapter will lead.