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Adlib is the music-obsessed alter ego of otherwise mild-mannered Devin Kelly, who has somehow managed to become one of the many dedicated people at the core of the West Coast dance music community.

Devin started attending small underground parties across Idaho in late 1996. His first experience with a full-blown "rave" was at a free renegade warehouse party in Salt Lake City on Halloween of 1997. The event featured some of Salt Lake City's best techno and progressive DJs, several of whom later went on to be among Devin's most important influences and closest friends. The party was busted by the police at around 4:00 AM, but it was too late. Devin was already hooked. He was immediately drawn to the electronic music community and decided to dedicate a large portion of his life to musical pursuits and progressive social values embodied in the late 90s's party scene.

Devin picked up his first set of used Technics turntables free from a local radio station in the Spring of 1998. He moved to Boise for college a few months later and quickly discovered the city's burgeoning electronic music community. The scene in Boise was remarkably developed for a town of its size, owing to the influence of Kindred Connections, a promotion crew started by SF transplants in the early 1990s. Working with advice from Kindred, Devin and several close friends formed their own production company called People of Earth productions (P.O.E), the collective responsible for some of the Northwest's best and most well-known raves between 1998 and 2002.

The P.O.E. collective promoted a number of major parties, smaller events and clubnights on its own, and worked extensively with friends across the west coast on other events. The most memorable and well-known P.O.E. events were the Psyence Fiction Series, Journeys 1-3 and Unsolved Mysteries, all of which were annual affairs featuring a wide variety of electronic music and drawing partiers and DJs from across the region. It was through throwing these parties that Devin was able to cultivate lasting friendships and professional relationships with some of the most talented underground DJs and dedicated promoters in the Western US. He is forever grateful to Josh Craig and Beaker with Guardian Productions (SLC), Pete Spinning and Angela Thomson with Monkey Do Productions (LA), Mike Martin with Kindred Connections (Boise) and Bacchus with Team Cowper (Portland).

Things could not have possibly worked out better since then for P.O.E, but what about for Devin as a DJ?

In the last eight years, Devin has managed to get highly involved with the underground dance music scenes in Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Portland and Los Angeles. For how long he's been playing and for where he lives, he's had the rare opportunity to play out of state many times. He has spun records at hundreds of parties in Idaho and dozens of events across the Western US. He's worked and spun with some of the west coast's best underground DJ's; including Jon E Thin, Taj, Daemon, Matt McCoy, Moda, Tracer, Dig-Dug, Pete Spinning, Josh Craig and Beaker, Jen Woolfe, Czech, Mike Balance, Jay Tripwire, DRC, JZ, Cody Lee, CL McSpadden, Electrokid, Atomic, Kultcha, Enrie, Deafchild, Dave Epstein, and Greg Sandler.

In addition, he's also played with world renowned talent such as Captain Tinrib, DJ Dan, Dano, Max (of Alien Trax), Alice Deejay (yuck), the Head-Hunters, Doc Martin, the House-a-Holics, John Kelly, Garth and Jeno, Donald Glaude, Mars & Mystre, Daisy, Christopher Lawrence, Leonard, Joeski, Chus and others.

Devin moved to Seattle, Washington in September of 2002. It took him quite a while to break into the much larger but very contained Seattle scene, particularly given how close-knit most of the promotion groups are in the city. He started getting occasional bookings in 2003, but it wasn't until after the Element Nightclub's DJ competition in the summer of 2005 that he started getting consistent bookings in the Seattle area. He has become part of a dedicated community of Seattle DJs and promoters, and future prospects look quite bright. He was recently invited to join a new residency with Jen Woolfe and VuDU at Seattle's Trinity Nightclub on First Thursdays. He also plays semi regularly at the infamous Creme after party, along with a number of other club nights and one-shot events. He hopes that he will start expanding this new local recognition with his consistent quality mixtapes and CDs.

Devin currently plays and promotes parties regularly in Boise, ID and semi-regularly in other Northwest cities. He works extensively with prOcess and Kindred Connections in Boise, Team Cowper in Portland, and Monkey Do Productions in Los Angeles. Watch for several POE promoted events in Seattle, Boise and other Northwest cities over the next year.

Devin feels that the experience of a party is largely based on the promoter's ability to place sets and the DJ's ability to progress a set. As a promoter and a DJ, he specializes in trying to find the best experience for a given environment. That is why he tries to be as versatile as possible. He prefers to mix progressive house, acid house, and tribally tech-house, but he can also mix breaks, progressive breaks, techno, electro and funky house. He plays special downtempo, hip hop and acid jazz turntablist sets upon request.<br>

Devin started scratching about five years ago and producing using reason, acid, logic and some outboard gear towards the end of 2001. He started in both of these directions as a hobby, but is now incorporating elements of his own music more and more as he plays out.

Finally, Devin has chosen to fuse political activism with progressive music in party environments. He feels that underground rave and nightclub culture can be seen as progressive forces in society, encouraging people to be more tolerant of diversity and willing to express ideas not necessarily accepted by the cultural and political mainstream. As a promoter, he tries to make his events as informative and immersive as possible. With his crew, People of Earth, he hopes to expand on these ideas and work with promoters and DJ's across the west to create a more sustainable party culture. He would love to play out in as many new communities as possible and return the favor to talented underground DJ's/promoters in his area.

Thank you for reading up on Adlib and other P.O.E., Guardian, Tengu, Monkey Do, Team Cowper and Alien Sound System DJs!

UPCOMING BOOKINGS

07/28/06 - 07/30/06: Boise, ID - Esthetic Evolution 2 main stage

08/10/06: Seattle, WA - Jacks, Queens and Kings at the Trinity Nightclub

08/11/06 - 08/12/06: Outdoors, WA - FREE camping party. PM me for details.

08/19/06: Salt Lake City, UT - Guardian Productions presents Wonderland.

09/17/06: Seattle, WA - Special Jacks, Queens and Kings with guests Pete Spinning and Derek Andrew

09/15/06-09/18/06: Outdoors, OR - Earthdance Northwest main stage & breakbeat stage.