Blend Mishkin
As is often the case, Athenian (Gr) born Blend Mishkin’s musical journey starts with humble beginnings where playing bass for local bands as a teen fully cemented his passion and desire to pursue a creative career.
Blend promptly made it a mission to expand his musical horizons and after completing a production/sound engineering course in London he took employment in various record shops & distributors through the late 90’s and as the noughties (00’s) started, Blend embarked on the beginning of his illustrious discography with productions/releases for seminal labels Pork Recordings & (LTJ Bukem’s) Cooking Records under his inaugural moniker of ‘Blend’.
As the noughties (00’s) progressed so too did Blend Mishkin’s production schedule which saw him releasing albums for Shadow Records (USA), Serious (Gr) and DSofa (Gr) whilst also heavily contributing exclusive tracks to many compilations, including respected labels such as Stereo Deluxe (De) and Instinct Records (USA) alongside official remixes for esteemed artists DJ Spooky, Wax Tailor, The Hot 8 Brass Band and Featurecast to name just a few.
As the calendar flipped into 2007, Blend Mishkin took the next important and logical step in his musical development and co-founded his very own label ‘Cast-A-Blast Recordings’. This venture has stood the test of time and proven to be an incredible platform for a wealth of talented/recognised International artists & producers as well as an opportunity to release and control his own productions which along the way has included the infamous ‘Palov & Mishkin’ collaboration along with numerous singles and riddim packs with some of the most respected vocalists on the global scene. As if that wasn’t enough, there was no stopping the inspiration as in ’07 Blend Mishkin also formed both the ‘Blend Sextet’, a six piece band and the ‘Cast-A-Blast Soundsystem’ with fellow label artists BnC, Sugahspank and Palov… both projects led to extensive touring of their Grecian homeland.
The last 10yrs has seen a solid progression in Blend Mishkin’s musical remit from his original diverse approach spanning hip hop, funk and reggae but gradually refining his focus to concentrate predominantly on reggae production to great success.
This refocus has since led to career defining moments such as working with veteran Jamaican vocalist Carlton Livingston, UK dancehall powerhouse Gappy Ranks, legendary NY wordsmith MC Jamalski also remixes for the likes of Dub Pistols, the Dirty Dubsters and Grant Phabao along with DJ’ing across every corner of Europe amongst one of his four notorious European tours that have occurred since 2010.
Its been 6yrs since Blend Mishkin has last released a full length album but thats all about to change as he gears up for a forthcoming Nice Up Records (UK) release in 2015 that sees the result of many hours/weeks/months of hard work, conducting the newly formed purpose made ‘Roots Evolution’ band to lace backdrops for a host of incredible vocalists for his next album release. Who knows where this next creative chapter will lead.