DJ Vibe or Antonio "To" Pereira,
started mixing at the early age of 15 years old, back in 1983,
when he got his first ever club gig at Lisbon's Bataclan.
At that time he was helping out in his father's shop in downtown
Lisbon, the place where all the DJs would get the most recently
imported 12 inches. Since then DJ Vibe has been involved in
all kinds of music-related activities from DJing, producing,
remixing other artists and playing in a portuguese band called
LX 90.
Largely considered as the most sought after and internationally-known
Portuguese DJ, DJ Vibe has been instrumental in the club scene
in Portugal for over 20 years. Back in the eighties he was
invited to open the club, Plateau in Lisbon, a venue that
forever changed the nocturnal habits of the city's people.
Playing to a very select crowd of artists, film people and
fashion lovers, records from Matt Bianco, Grace Jones, Quango
Quango and The Cure were the order of the day as it soon became
the hottest spot in town.
In February 1988 DJ Vibe was asked to open the Lisbon Club
Alcantara Mar, named after a nearby train station. Boasting
a capacity of 1500, Alcantara could usually be found rocking
until 9 to 10 am, a first for Portugal at that time.
Vibe also became caught up in the acid-house explosion and
music trends happening in London at the time as tracks from
artists like Phuture, Adonis, and Fast Eddie were first introduced
to Portugal audiences. Some classic, unforgettable moments
were when Vibe would drop stuff like Nina Simone's "My
Baby Just Cares For Me", Nina Hagen's "African Reggae"
or Eric B and Rakim's "Paid in Full" before finishing
later in the morning with the newer more progressive sounds.
In later years at this club, the underground smash hit,
Underground Sound of Lisbon's "So Get Up" (co-produced
with Rui da Silva) would be heavily championed by Lisbon DJ
Luis Leite, who turned this record into the club's biggest
record. It was also the final record played there before the
venue was closed down and demolished.
In the summer of 1988, the "Summer of Love", Vibe
joined the Kremlin in Lisbon where he would hold his longest
ever residency for almost 7 years. Open every night of the
week except Sundays, it was here DJ Vibe developed a love
for marathon sets since he was required to play all-night
long. The first ever club in Portugal to run an Afterhours
party, Kremlin would close at 4am before re-opening at 6am;
crowds on the streets sometimes served drinks while waiting
for it to re-open.
"Bombs" that Vibe would often drop at the Kremlin
included "Age of Love", Joey Beltram's "Energy
Flash"and Snap's "The Power"to name but a few;
the first edition of Muzik Magazine dubbing DJ Vibe and the
Kremlin as "The Paradise Called Portugal".
Already Vibe's excellent mixing abilities and unique style,
playing a wide range of dance Music within his set was beginning
to set him appart from so many of the run-of-the-mill DJs
who were scared to try something diferent.
In the beginning of the nineties Vibe became a member of
Portuguese Indie Pop Rock band LX 90, playing the guitar and
live samplers. It was at this time that he also launched the
Underground Sound of Lisbon project with Rui da Silva.
Underground Sound of Lisbon's biggest record, the massive
"So Get Up", reached No.1 in dance and club charts
around the world, selling over 40,000 singles in addition
to grabbing the attention of hundreds of thousands of others
who discovered the track on the Tribal America compilations.
Shortly after USL found their tracks being remixed by DJs
in the league of Danny Tenaglia and Junior Vasquez; Vibe,Tenaglia
and DaSilva also collaborating on the NYLX project with vocals
from Lula to produce the track "Goosebumps"in 1996.
The USL single "Are you looking 4 me(in the backroom)?"
introducing Celeda went straight into the No.35 spot on the
US Billboard Chart in March 1998 and was ranked as one of
the top 75 singles of that year by Muzik Magazine. In the
year 2000 the USL single "The Lights" caught the
attention of those at the Miami Winter Music Conference, featured
in a Top 10 Tunes chart in DJMag and was voted 'Single of
the Month' by Mixmag in its April edition.
On the airwaves since 1994, DJ Vibe started the "Dancefloor"
show on national radio station Antena 3 (www.antena3.pt) with
a 2-hour saturday night mix. Now called the "DJ Vibe
Mix Show" and running for 1-hour, it is still broadcast
today on the same station every saturday and replayed the
following friday. The "DJ Vibe Mix" show has also
been played abroad on English radio stations and on the websites
of CarlCox and John Digweed.
Since 1998, Vibe has also been a resident DJ at Lux Fragil
in Lisbon playing all night in the Club Disco. Now a monthly
Friday residency, the night has become an institution drawing
huge crowds coming from all over Portugal.
DJ Vibe's list of previous gigs around the globe reads like
a comprehensive list of the best clubs in the world, both
past and present. Twilo, Tunnel, Space Miami, Spundae, Stereo
Montreal, Ministry of Sound, Turnmills, Code, Redlight, Womb,
Space Ibiza, Pacha Ibiza, Zouk Singapore and so on.
In November 2004 Vibe became a resident DJ at Stereo in Montreal;
the club considered by many to be the best in the world and
have the best sound system. Originally set up by Angel Moraes
it's now owned by the legendary New York and Def Mix DJ, David
Morales.
By the end of 2005 Vibe will have finish his latest single
"Moskito Polen" under the name Casagrande which
will be released on Carl Cox's 23rd Century Records. His co-production
with Lisbon DJ To Ricciardi named "Sonic Hunters"
will also be released on Kaos Portugal and a brand new studio
collaboration with New York's Victor Calderone is also in
the pipeline.
