Solardo at The Foundry Torquay

SOLARDO Hailing from Manchester, production duo Mark Richards & James Eliot, collectively known as Solardo, are continuing the city’s rich heritage in house music. The prolific duo’s meteoric rise is testament to their hard work in the studio and their infectious energy in the club. A slew of releases via imprints like Viva, and elrow helped rocket them to their first Beatport Number 1 with their breakthrough record on Hot Creations, ‘Tribesmen’. Since then, the pair have catapulted into the public eye, remixing tracks for the likes of Duke Dumont & Gorgon City, MK, and Nicole Moudaber & Carl Cox. Having released EPs on Toolroom Records, Lee Foss’ Repopulate Mars and Green Velvet’s Relief Records, they launched their own imprint, Sola, which has so far housed productions from the likes of CamelPhat, Secondcity, Mason Maynard and Will Easton. After selling out The Warehouse Project at the end of last year, the pair kicked off 2018 with their second sold-out Solardo Sessions UK tour which also included European dates in Barcelona, Milan and Rotterdam. Following this, they completed a relentless stint of shows in the States, which included sets at Movement Detroit and EDC Las Vegas. Over the past 12 months, they have also completed successful tours worldwide, across the likes of Australia and South America, alongside countless festival shows at Glastonbury, Lovebox, Tomorrowland, Hideout and Parklife, the latter seeing the pair play two shows this year, including being one of the headliners on the Hangar stage in front of a crowd of 14,000 people. Not stopping there, Mark & James contributed to Pete Tong’s career-defining Essential Mix series on BBC Radio 1, before landing an acclaimed residency alongside Eric Prydz at Hï Ibiza, ticking off another Balearic superclub having previously performed at Circoloco and Paradise at DC-10. Starting in July, the 12-week residency sees the likes of Pirate Copy, Lauren Lane, Monki, Huxley, and Secondcity play in the club room alongside the Mancunian duo every week, and follows Solardo’s recent accolades, which have seen the duo crowned DJ Mag’s Best Breakthrough DJs of 2016 and Best Duo of 2017. Touring and music aside, the duo have even found time to start their own radio show named ‘The Spot’ which has seen special guests come through such as Claude VonStroke, Nicole Moudaber, MK, Skream and many more. The support for Solardo has been consistently across the board and as solid as the bass weight their tracks possess.