̸BIOGRAPHY
DJ/ Producer
Founder - 20/20 Vision Recordings
director - inner city recordings
Ralph Lawson is best known for his highly acclaimed 20/20 Vision record label and productions. Alongside 20/20 Vision he was a co-founding resident DJ at the legendary back to basics club in Leeds, where he played the very first record in November 1991. Lawson has helped the club win 5 major industry awards so far (DMC, Muzik, DJ Magazine) for Best Club and been personally nominated for Best Breakthrough, Best DJ and Lifetime contribution by DJ Magazine.
Lawson learnt his trade as a true resident DJ, playing every week at back to basics. He became musical director at the club bringing many of the most important electronic music artists in the world to Leeds for the first time. These included Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Danny Tenaglia, Francois Kervorkian, Derrick Carter, Derrick May, DJ Harvey, Chez Damier & Ron Trent, Stacey Pullen and many others. Playing long sets alongside the greats helped Lawson learn and develop his own DJ skills.
Ralph’s reputation spread from his Basics residency with guest appearances at the legendary Hacienda, Sub Club, Flying, Full Circle, Venus and Shindig as well as early excursions around Europe. Ralph become one of the first UK DJs with a residency in Barcelona at The Moog club and began playing in Ibiza at Ku, Space and Amnesia from the mid nineties. Touring started to extend across the world into Australia, Argentina and Japan. The USA became a firm favourite with shows at Red Dog and Smart Bar in Chicago, The End Up in San Francisco and The Sound Factory Bar, Limelight, Tunnel, Cielo and Studio B in New York. In NYC Lawson was invited to open for Danny Tenaglia at his ‘Be Yourself’ parties and even ended up producing music for the ‘De La Guarda’ show on Broadway.
Alongside long-term production partner Carl Finlow, the pair produced a series of respected releases including the classic ‘Raptures of The Deep’. 20/20 productions forged ahead with notable remixes for David Bowie, Arthur Baker, Josh Wink, Felix Da Housecat. They also started a long running series of remixes for Blaze, most notably ‘Lovelee Dae’, ‘Funky People’ and ‘Wishing You Were Here’. Lawson also produced alongside Chez Damier as Chuggles on Prescription Underground and further projects included work for Soma, Pagan and Get Physical.
Lawson founded 20/20 Vision Recordings in 1994, which has gone on to become a highly influential and pioneering record label. The record label roster grew to include a wealth of international artists including; Maya Jane Coles, Crazy P, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Audiojack and Paul Woolford.
In 2003 Lawson started the live electronic band 2020Soundsystem. The band successfully toured the world for the following decade, releasing the albums ‘No Order’ and ‘Falling’ and ‘Live at Sonar’ in the process. 2020Soundsystem became firm festival favourites with appearances at Sonar, Glastonbury, Exit, Lovebox, The Garden Festival, Creamfields, Kendall Calling, Beatherder, Rockness, T in the Park, Camp Bisco and many more.
Throughout these times Lawson always continued to be first and foremost a DJ, adding long running residencies at We Love Space Ibiza, The Loft in Barcelona alongside the ever faithful back to basics.
Lawson released several mix albums including Fabric 33 for the famous London club, having been a regular guest since the club’s inception. The album was warmly received and Lawson found himself back on major festival stages at Sonar, Love International, Electric Elephant, Hideout, Festival No.6, Eastern Electrics, Gottwood and many others.
After playing at Burning Man festival in 2012 he was invited to headline Robot Heart in New York City. The same year Lawson played for the first time at Circo Loco at DC10 in Ibiza and continued the relationship the following year on the terrace.
In 2014 the 20th anniversary of 20/20 Vision was celebrated with the album ‘Content’ featuring a DJ Mix including exclusive tracks from Herbert and Maya Jane Coles and series of international tour dates.
The next project created was ‘Lost in Time’ featuring a return to collaborating with original production partners Chez Damier, Carl Finlow and Tuccillo. Spanning over three years the project featured 10 singles including ‘Hold Over Me’ licensed to Art Department’s No19 record label and ‘Lost in The Storm’ which enjoyed heavy support from DJ Harvey, Seth Troxler and Ben UFO.
In 2018 Lawson continued his output with a compilation series celebrating 25 years of his residency at back to basics. The ‘rare classics’ compilation featured a selection of hard to find tracks from the club’s history and included artwork from Jamie Reid, the graphic artist who defined the punk era with his album covers for the Sex Pistols. A truly timeless project created by a DJ who has lasted the test of time.
Also in 2018 Lawson co-founded inner city electronic festival in Leeds continuing his work as a musical director and curator. The festival has been greeted with universal acclaim and hosted international heavyweight artists including Floating Points, Peggy Gou, Nina Kraviz, Octave One, KiNK, DJ Stingray among many others in it’s opening editions.
Looking forward 2020 will be a big year for the label and Lawson with a new album and series of events called exit planet earth.
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SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
Bassic EP (12", EP) Serious Grooves 1993
Classic EP (12", EP) Serious Grooves 1993
Sheltered EP (12", EP) 20:20 Vision 1995
Shielded EP (12", EP) 20:20 Vision 1995
Live In Moscow (CD, Comp, Mixed) So Dens 2000
Visionaries Volume One (CD) 20:20 Vision 2000
Back To Basics - Mixed By Ralph Lawson & Dave Beer (CD) DJ Magazine 2002
All Systems Go EP (12", EP) 20:20 Vision 2003
Fabric 33 (CD, Comp, Mixed) Fabric (London) 2007
Fabric 33 (CD, Promo) Fabric (London) 2007
Ralph Lawson's 2020Vision (CD, Promo) 20:20 Vision 2007
Ralph Lawson's 2020Vision (CD, Comp, Mixed) 20:20 Vision 2007
Remixes:
The Back In Time EP (12", EP) Ciao t:me 1993
Based (12") Based (Wulf's Wax) Back To Basics 1995
Deja Vu (2x12", Promo) Deja Vu (Back 2 Basics... Cowboy Records 1995
Deja Vu (12") Deja Vu (Back 2 Basic ... Cowboy Records 1995
Come On (12") Come On (20/20 Remix),... Milk n 2 Sugars Recordings 2000
Remixes Part 1 - Believe (12") Believe (20:20 Revisio... Serial Records 2002
All In The Head (12") All In The Head (Ralph... Stompa Phunk Music 2004
Full Body Workout Vol. 1 (2x12", Promo, W/Lbl) The Galactic Ride Get Physical Music 2004
Liptrick EP (12", EP) Liptrick (2020 Soundsy... 20:20 Vision 2004
San Francisco Sessions Vol. Five (2xCD, Mixed, Comp) All In The Head OM Records 2004
Fabric 20 (CD, Comp, Mixed) Won't Bother Me Fabric (London) 2005
The 2005 Annual (2xCD) All In The Head (Ralph... Ministry Of Sound (Australia) 2005
Elektr-O-tech Experiments (CD) The Galactic Ride Freeze (Magazine) 2006
It's Here It's Now (Remixes) (12") It's Here It's Now Low Pressings 2006
DJ Mixes:
Cut The Crap (3xCD, Comp, Mixed) Back To Basics 1996
Cut The Crap (3xCass) Back To Basics 1996
Live In Moscow (CD, Comp, Mixed) So Dens 2000
Visionaries Volume One (CD) 20:20 Vision 2000
Kwality Album (2xCD, Mixed, Comp) FAMILIES 2002
Ralph Lawson - Stars On 33 (CD) Fat City 2003
Fabric 33 (CD, Promo) Fabric (London) 2007
Ralph Lawson's 2020Vision (CD, Comp, Mixed) 20:20 Vision 2007
Appears On:
Percussion Obsession (12") Soma Quality Recordings 1993
Thank You / Feel The Rhythm / Dancin Music (12") Thank You Prescription 1993
How's The Music (2x12") How's The Music Back To Basics 1995
Journeys By DJ Volume 7 (CD, Mixed, Comp) Thank You 1995
Lifeforce EP (12", EP) Lifeforce 20:20 Vision 1995
DJ-Kicks (CD) Raptures Of The Deep Studio !K7 1996
Emelia (12") Soma Quality Recordings 1996
Emelia (12", W/Lbl) Soma Quality Recordings 1996
20:20 Vision (2x12") Pagan 1997
Pagan Presents 20:20 Vision (12") Pagan America 1997
Presents The Future Remembrance EP (12", EP) Soma Quality Recordings 1997
The Hustle (12") Pagan 1997
The Hustle EP (12") Pagan America 1997
Pagan Offering (CD, Mixed, Comp) Wormhole Pagan 1998
Sonar 98 (4xCD) Akira So Dens 1998
Northern Strollin' EP (12", EP) Pagan 1999
Slightly Different Volume 02 (CD) Body Music Revisited 1999
Chuggles Revisited (12") Kid Dynamite Inc. 2000
Thank You (12") Thank You Back To Basics 2000
Chuggles Remixes Revisited (12") Kid Dynamite Inc. 2001
Kwality Batofar (2xLP) FAMILIES 2002
Ralph Lawson Presents 2020 Revision (Disc Two) (12") Era (6400 Crew Remix) 20:20 Vision 2002
Soma 10 Anthology (2xCD, Ltd) Future Remembrance Soma Quality Recordings 2002
Detour Limited Life In Bars Detour Recordings 2003
Ralph Lawson - Stars On 33 (12") Fat City 2003
Slip 'N' Slide Ibiza 2 (CD) Wishing You Were Here Slip 'n' Slide 2003
Experience (12") 20:20 Vision 2004
Full Body Workout Vol. 01 (2x12") The Galactic Ride Get Physical Music 2004
Future Now (12") Future Now 20:20 Vision 2005
The Liaison (12") 20:20 Vintage Visions 2005
Can't Stop The Crew (12") 20:20 Vision 2006
Diamonds For Her (12") Diamonds For Her Lafessé Records 2006
Grey Clouds (12") 20:20 Vision 2006
Tape (12") 20:20 Vision 2006
Tape (Vinyl, TP, 12) 20:20 Vision 2006
Tape (Prins Thomas Remixes) (12") 20:20 Vision 2006
Digitize (The Emperor Machine Remixes) (12") Digitize 20:20 Vision 2007
High (The Llorca Remixes) (12") 20:20 Vision 2007
Psycho (12", Ltd) 20:20 Vision 2008
Secretsundaze Volume 2 (2xCD, Comp, Mixed) Montana Freight Train Secretsundaze 2008
Tracks Appear On:
Serious Grooves In The Mix (CD, Comp, Mixed) A Dedication To Joss Serious Grooves 1994
Space Volume 1 (CD, Mixed, Comp) A Dedication To Joss Slip 'n' Slide 1998
Secretsundaze Volume 2 (2xCD, Comp, Mixed) Montana Freight Train Secretsundaze 2008
United Kingdom