DJ, producer and Area10 label boss MK (Marc Kinchen) was recently announced as an addition to the Sunday, October 20 bill of the ALL MY FRIENDS Music Festival for a b2b set with a special surprise guest. Today (Sept 26), event organizers have announced that good friend DIPLO will join him for a one-of-a-kind music experience.
Diplo recently launched his deep house-inspired Higher Ground EP and corresponding new house imprint, Higher Ground as a platform to showcase both established and up-and-coming talent in house music, and a new home for Diplo’s own house tracks and collaborations. Aiming to transcend a singular sound or subgenre, Higher Ground represents everything from tech-house to deep/melodic house, lo-fi to Afro-infused house, and everything in between.
“House is where it all came from. Everything we know and love as dance music today started with the masters in Chicago & Detroit almost forty years ago,” Diplo says. “The genre has always been incredibly important to me, and Higher Ground is our homage to the legends and opportunity to champion new sounds and artists from around the world pushing the genre forward.”
Diplo’s pairing with the Detroit house music hit-maker MK makes a perfect fit for the festival. This b2b dynamic will bring the fresh sounds of Diplo’s Higher Ground and Mk’s reborn Area10 labels together and will not be found anywhere else in the U.S. Beyond being like-minded artists musically, the two are actually really good pals. They have a sort of chemistry that is bound to bring a special energy to the ALL MY FRIENDS Music Festival.
MK’s latest track “There For You” with Gorgon City comes in the midst of a hugely busy summer for the producer who has been touring the Area10 brand to some of the world’s most sought-after party locations including Parklife, Creamfields, Ireland’s Life Festival, Scotland’s EH-1. Responsible for creating some of the defining sounds and biggest tracks of early house music, MK has recently released the summer hit “Body 2 Body” which has racked up more than 5 million combined streams to date. Last year MK’s gold-selling single “Back & Forth” peaked at #12 in the official UK Top 40 Singles Chart and remains a mainstay on streaming playlists everywhere. This was preceded by 2017’s “17,” Kinchen’s most successful career release, amassing just under 300 million Spotify streams to date.
ALL MY FRIENDS Music Festival happens October 19 & 20 at Skylight ROW DTLA also features headliners JUSTICE (DJ Set), Black Coffee, Idris Elba, DESTRUCTO and many more. For ticket info and the full line-up, log on to www.amfdtla.com.
About DIPLO:
Diplo, born Thomas Wesley Pentz, is one of the most dynamic forces in music today under his own name, as well as a member of the now-legendary Major Lazer, LSD with Sia and Labrinth—which has tallied more than a billion streams and just released its debut album, and Silk City with Mark Ronson—whose “Electricity” with Dua Lipa topped charts worldwide and won a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. As the world’s most in-demand producer, Diplo has worked with artists as disparate as Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, and Turnstile. The past year has seen the release of three EP’s, the continent-inspired EP Europa and California, inspired by his sometimes-home base of Los Angeles, and the deep house-inspired Higher Ground that was followed by a brand-new show production at Diplo’s Coachella headline set. He continues to tour the world over.
Follow Higher Ground:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thehigherground
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehigherground/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehigherground
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/thehigherground
YouTube: http://youtube.com/thehigherground
Bandcamp: https://thehigherground.bandcamp.com/
About MK:
Producer, remixer, DJ and Area10 label boss, Detroit native MK (Marc Kinchen) came to prominence early on in his career with songs like “Always” and “Burning” and records like 4 You and Just A Dream penned under his alter ego 4th Measure Men became some of the most influential house songs of the early ‘90s and still remain so today. Along with his iconic total rework of a song called “Push The Feeling On,” It is said the MK’s sound helped define the sound of 90’s house. With a nod to the past, and a look into the early 2000’s MK moved West to sharpen his R&B skills with powerhouses like Will Smith, Quincy Jones, and Diane Warren. By 2007 or so, MK was yearning to return to house music; Fast forward to the 2013 release of MK’s rework of Storm Queen’s “Look Right Through” an MK remix that scored a UK number #1 on the official singles chart. MK followed the success just one year later with his remix of “My Head Is A Jungle” by Wankelmut & Emma Louise - the Ibiza anthem of 2014. “My Head Is A Jungle” was followed by Bakermat's rework of gospel great Shirley Ceasar’s “Teach Me,” and then remixes for Rudimental’s “Powerless” w Becky Hill; Disclosure’s “White Noise", Hot Natured’s “Reverse Skydiving,” and Lana Del Rey’s “Blue Jeans,” “Summertime Sadness,” and West Coast,” as well as remixes for HAIM, Rihanna, Diplo, Tove Lo, Halsey, Mark Ronson, Elderbrook, Mary J Blige, Sam Smith, Sigrid, Ellie Goulding, London Grammar, and many more.
Shortly after the success of “Powerless”, MK and Becky Hill decided to collaborate again. They released the platinum “Piece of Me.” Mk’s next release “17,” came out in 2017 has gone platinum as well and to date has streamed over 300 million times on Spotify, the most recent before “Body 2 Body” is the gold-certified “Back & Forth,” that continues to be a favorite at festivals and shows such as SW4, We Are FSTVL, Parklife, Amnesia, Pacha, Ushuaia, EDC, WHP, Tomorrowland, and Creamfields - where MK curated his own Area10 stages.
For more information on MK, please visit
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