Ariel

Ariel Belloso (born 14 September 1967) is an Argentine, UK-based DJ and record producer.

He began his career playing new wave and disco music at clubs in the city of Rosario during the early 1980s, later in Buenos Aires; and moved to London in 1991, after spending 8 months in Ibiza, where he was influenced by the early house and acid house sounds.

On New Year's Eve, 1985, Ariel ended his residency at the nightclub Dimension with a set performance of 17 hours.

Ariel's early musical influences include early new wave music and the disco sounds of Talking Heads, Blondie, Kat Mandu, The Clash, The B-52's, Flash and the Pan, and Gino Soccio, as well as Latin American rumba.

After completing secondary education top of his school Ariel attended Rosario University of Economics, studying for 2 years before making the decision to leave for Europe.

While DJing in London and throughout the world during the 1990s, he developed a personal unique style, combining the sounds of hard house and trance, influenced by the rhythms of his Latin music background with main focus on polyrhythm grooves and energy flow.

This sound proved to be an integral and vital element for the evolution of London's hard house and trance scene throughout the early 1990s.

He was also the first Argentine artist to enter the UK Singles Chart top 40 with his single, "A9".

He abandoned the hard house and trance of the 1990s for a new, Latin-influenced house and techno sound, which he produced and performed through his 7-year weekly residency at London's cutting edge club, Fabric.

Ariel was born into a nightclub owning family known as Katanga in the city of Rosario, Argentina.

He arrived in Europe in the spring of 1991, more specifically in Ibiza.

In a short amount of time he discovered the newly established rave scene, house music and the Balearic Beat and met the Pacha resident DJ Alfredo, also from Rosario.

Soon after Ariel played his first European set at club Pacha in Ibiza, this was followed by guest spots in Lola, Es Paradis, including one gig at the recently launched terrace at Space.

As his reputation grew so did the bookings and during 1993, after basing himself in London, he began his residency at Kudos and Crews Bar in the heart of Covent Garden.

Regular sets at Tribal Gathering, The Limelight, Club UK and Heaven together with an arduous touring schedule saw Ariel become a pioneer of the international DJ circuit.

During these years Ariel was photographed by art designer ‘Trademark’ making him a pin-up on the London scene and adding to his public profile.

While playing at Browns Club in London's Covent Garden in 1994, Ariel met late musician Prince.

It's not the first time Ariel DJed for Prince, but on this occasion Prince was the only person on his dancefloor.

Prince had the habit of giving Ariel CDs of his own music to play.

The story became so widespread that was featured on an issue of GQ magazine in the UK.

In 1996 Ariel decided to try something new, a weekly residency in London where he could play all night instead of two-hour regular guest slots.

Very soon he was offered a ten-hour-long set in the second room of London's largest venue, Bagley's Studios in Kings Cross (now renamed Canvas) for the weekly Saturday night named "Freedom".

Three months later he moved to the main room, where he performed for 8 hours, from 11pm to 7am playing a fusion of hard house, trance and techno rhythmically inspired by his Latin roots.

For that period, Freedom was one of the busiest Saturday nightclubs in London.

Over the next 5 years (1996–2001) many music magazines and websites started labeling Ariel's 8 hour sets at Bagley's Studios legendary.

Enhancing the above notion was also a phenomenon observed in many music related virtual communities and internet forums such as Harderfaster.net and Dancemuzik.com which consisted of a sequence of numerous nostalgic posts discussing the night

and praising it as London's Biggest Clubbing Landmark along with reunion messages by fans and lovers of the Freedom club and Ariel's 8 hours sets.

In 1997, BBC's Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong described Ariel as the most underrated DJ in the UK.

In Friday, 21 August 1998, The Evening Standard newspaper in London ran a 2-page article citing Ariel's “Techno set at Bagley’s” as the main responsible cause of Class A drug consumption in the King's Cross area of London.

In 1999, Ariel was invited to appear on BBC London for DJ John Peel's 60th birthday celebration; an interview that was broadcast on BBC Knowledge for the UK.

John Peel was an early supporter of Ariel's music and played many of his productions on his legendary BBC Radio 1 show.

Ariel has been a resident DJ at London's Fabric since its opening in 1999; furthermore it was the first place he showcased his new Latin tech house sound, playing many of his own productions and performing with live instrumentation provided by percussionists and various musicians.

Inspired by his older brother, he followed in his steps and before long had taken up his first residency in ‘Dimension’, Rosario, a 2000 capacity nightclub.

More residencies followed, including Mengano, Metro, Lager and Damasco.

Since 2001–2002, Ariel had moved on musically.

This Freedom reunion-comeback desire was ignited a few years after the club ceased in 2002.

However, as of May 2007, those attempts were unsuccessful.

Keeping in mind London's influence on the musical evolution of the electronic dance music scene, many of the period's crossover tracks exposed on Ariel's dance floor became worldwide hits while being played repeatedly over a long period.

Records such as DJ Sandy Vs Housetrap “Overdrive”, Latin Thing “Latin Thing” and Groovezone “Eisbaer” were first heard on Ariel's dance floor.

He was at the forefront of the trance and hard house scene of the nineties.