Striz
Member since Mar. 2012One of the windy city's most versatile DJs, Striz has developed a reputation for funking up any environment with his unique blend of downtempo, hip hop, broken beat, and house. Mixing broken polyrhythms, live instrumentation and a heavy dose of funk, his genre-defying DJ sets showcase the organic side of electronic music. Starting out in 1996, Striz developed his crowd rocking abilities at college house parties playing golden age hip hop. After moving back to sweet home Chicago in 2000, h...Read more
close
Striz's Bio
One of the windy city's most versatile DJs, Striz has developed a reputation for funking up any
environment with his unique blend of downtempo, hip hop, broken beat, and house. Mixing broken polyrhythms,
live instrumentation and a heavy dose of funk, his genre-defying DJ sets showcase the organic side of electronic
music. Starting out in 1996, Striz developed his crowd rocking abilities at college house parties playing golden age
hip hop. After moving back to sweet home Chicago in 2000, he co-founded illmeasures, a collective of DJs,
producers, and designers that has been keeping the local underground scene alive through club nights (Madbar,
Smartbar, Big Wig, Lava Lounge) and legendary large-scale loft and warehouse parties. Living in Madrid and his 3
year employment at Groove Distribution (a jazzy underground record importer) opened his ears to new styles of
electronic music from around the world and expanded his music collection to encompass a multitude of tempos and
moods.
His first foray into production with long time cohort Justin Reed, titled Striz & The R "Diced Hype",
was released by Stockholm based Cartridge Records on 12" featuring remixes by Swedish tech-house guru Tony
Senghore and Chicago's Stax aka Abicah Soul. Recently Striz has been chosen to perform alongside numerous
international talents including Tricky, Jazzanova, DJ Krush, Bassnectar, LoSoul, Diplo, Four Tet, Roman Flugel,
Derrick Carter, Bonobo, Freq Nasty, James Murphy, Pezzner, Gene Hunt, DJ Food, Metro Area, The Herbaliser,
Quantic, and many others of myriad disciplines.
On top of that, he is a lead producer for a monthly series of burner-oriented underground gatherings
called The Freakeasy, and also for an annual burner community throwdown called Resonate that has been building
for 6 years and sold out Metro/Smartbar in 2011 (See illmeasures.com for many recorded sets and event photos). As
the main talent booker and scheduler for these homegrown events, Striz shapes the musical experience of each event
with care and purpose. He has had the distinct honor of playing twice at Eighteenth Street lounge in DC (the
national downtempo mecca owned by Thievery Corporation) and also performed twice at Millennium Park in
Chicago. This past spring he was called upon to be involved with the opening season of Music Now!, a monthly
showcase of new music featuring members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Having been immersed in
electronic music for nearly 15 years, his experience with and knowledge of it runs deep.
environment with his unique blend of downtempo, hip hop, broken beat, and house. Mixing broken polyrhythms,
live instrumentation and a heavy dose of funk, his genre-defying DJ sets showcase the organic side of electronic
music. Starting out in 1996, Striz developed his crowd rocking abilities at college house parties playing golden age
hip hop. After moving back to sweet home Chicago in 2000, he co-founded illmeasures, a collective of DJs,
producers, and designers that has been keeping the local underground scene alive through club nights (Madbar,
Smartbar, Big Wig, Lava Lounge) and legendary large-scale loft and warehouse parties. Living in Madrid and his 3
year employment at Groove Distribution (a jazzy underground record importer) opened his ears to new styles of
electronic music from around the world and expanded his music collection to encompass a multitude of tempos and
moods.
His first foray into production with long time cohort Justin Reed, titled Striz & The R "Diced Hype",
was released by Stockholm based Cartridge Records on 12" featuring remixes by Swedish tech-house guru Tony
Senghore and Chicago's Stax aka Abicah Soul. Recently Striz has been chosen to perform alongside numerous
international talents including Tricky, Jazzanova, DJ Krush, Bassnectar, LoSoul, Diplo, Four Tet, Roman Flugel,
Derrick Carter, Bonobo, Freq Nasty, James Murphy, Pezzner, Gene Hunt, DJ Food, Metro Area, The Herbaliser,
Quantic, and many others of myriad disciplines.
On top of that, he is a lead producer for a monthly series of burner-oriented underground gatherings
called The Freakeasy, and also for an annual burner community throwdown called Resonate that has been building
for 6 years and sold out Metro/Smartbar in 2011 (See illmeasures.com for many recorded sets and event photos). As
the main talent booker and scheduler for these homegrown events, Striz shapes the musical experience of each event
with care and purpose. He has had the distinct honor of playing twice at Eighteenth Street lounge in DC (the
national downtempo mecca owned by Thievery Corporation) and also performed twice at Millennium Park in
Chicago. This past spring he was called upon to be involved with the opening season of Music Now!, a monthly
showcase of new music featuring members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Having been immersed in
electronic music for nearly 15 years, his experience with and knowledge of it runs deep.
