Even in the stellar lineup of the Sunburn festival, one DJ manages to put everyone else in the shade, says Ambika Muttoo.
 How do you fit the electronic universe’s most recognisable names in one sentence? You list the the compilations and labels on which Sultan has releases: John Digweed’s Bedrock, Tiesto’s “In Search of Sunrise 4”, Paul Oakenfold’s Creamfields, Dave Seaman’s “Renaissance Masters”, Deep Dish’s “George Is On” and Armin Van Buuren’s “A State of Trance”. There. Now add on a roster of clubs from Space in Miami and Pacha in Ibiza to Ministry of Sound in London, and you have one incredibly busy DJ and producer.
Sultan was born in Kuwait, where he lived for the first 11 years of his life. His family was forced to leave during the first Gulf War in 1990, and they moved between Cyprus, Egypt and eventually Canada, where he chose to study mechanical engineering at McGill University. But a very different type of machine would end up engineering his life. “During my third year of university, my best friend was getting into the dance scene in Montreal and was looking to buy turntables and a mixer. I decided to join him and pitch in for the equipment, which ended up collecting dust for a year,” he said, in an email. “But over time I started waking up and mixing a few records every morning, and before I knew it, mix tape in hand, I landed a radio and club residency and kick-started my DJ career.” Today his monthly radio show “Connected Live” is syndicated to over 20 internet and FM radio stations.
In 2007, Sultan released his debut worldwide compilation “Yoshitoshi Montreal”, which floated its way up to number four on the iTunes Top 10 Dance Album Charts. What exactly makes Sultan’s blend of techno, progressive and house stand out? In his own analysis, “My productions have successfully attained a balance of groovy tech beats, popular in the scene today, with melody and vocals. For some time there was a clear divide between the underground techno records and the commercial mainstream vocal records. I was always stuck in the middle, and fortunately was able to bridge the gap between the two.”
One of his releases, “Deep Dish vs Dire Straits – Flashing for Money” (Sultan Club/Radio Mix), is regarded as the world’s first legally cleared remix. It made waves not only on the EDM scene, but with Dire Straits and Sting as well. “When I started that project, my aim was to do a fun bootleg of Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing”. A couple of nights after finishing the bootleg, I woke up randomly singing Deep Dish’s flash dance guitars with the Dire Straits guitars. I ran to my computer, mashed the two guitar riffs together and it worked!” Once that was done, Deep Dish took it into their own hands to get the clearances completed. “From what I was told at the time, both Dire Straits and Sting, who was a co-writer, were really into it. That made it the first ever official bootleg mashup to get cleared,” he explained.
2008 was an even bigger, better year, as Sultan co-launched his own record label Harem Records along with Ned Shepard. They’ve spun out three consecutive releases that made their way to the Beatport progressive top-ten charts.
Last year, Sultan also washed up on the shores of Goa for the Sunburn festival, where his colossal set left its mark. His gigs have gone seamlessly compared to one of his first sets in Turkey. “I was two hours into my set, [there was a] packed dance floor and I had just mixed in the biggest record I had in my crate. The buildup was about two minutes long and the drum rolls were going off as the energy was beginning to peak. Just when the climax was about to go off, the ground started shaking and rumbling, and within a few seconds everything went dark and silent… We had just experienced an earthquake.” If he makes terra firma react, we’re guessing we’re in for a moving experience.
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