Quick Facts
TaurusBiography
Rui da Silva (born 25 April 1968) is a Portuguese producer and DJ, whose single "Touch Me" went to number one in the United Kingdom in 2001. At the time, he was the only Portuguese musician to have a hit in Britain, and hence was the first to score a chart-topping hit there.
Career
Silva started producing house music in 1992, just as club culture was getting established in Lisbon. Noticing the lack of dance music labels in Portugal, he teamed up with DJ Vibe to form Kaos Records, the first label in Portugal specialized in house and electronic music.
His first major hit (and Kaos' first release) was "Não", a track that sampled vocals from a Xutos & Pontapés track, released under the alias Doctor J. With DJ Vibe, he also formed the Underground Sound of Lisbon project in 1993. A year later, their track "So Get Up" (which featured spoken word vocals by rapper Ithaka) achieved worldwide fame after getting picked by the Tribal America label and support from Danny Tenaglia. Tenaglia also remixed the track.
During his years at Kaos, Silva also worked with other artists, namely Luís Leite (under the guise of LL Project, creating the song "Khine #3") and Alex Santos (with whom he released the garage house track "The Sax Theme").
In 1999, he left Lisbon for London, in order to move from producing to DJing, and also to start working under his own name. Silva left Kaos Records, and produced his final collaborative effort as Underground Sound of Lisbon in 2001. In the UK, he founded Kismet Records, where he began producing a more progressive sound. He has released a number of tracks under his own name, as well as collaborative efforts with Chris Coco and Moshic.
Silva has achieved some fame as a remixer, creating his own versions of Jennifer Lopez's "Play", Lighthouse Family's "Happy" and Yoko Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice".
Discography
Albums
- 2002 Produced & Remixed
- 2006 Praying Mantis'
Singles
Rui da Silva
- 2000 "Touch Me" (with Cassandra Fox)
- 2001 "Fire/Earth" (Kismet Records)
- 2002 "Feel the Love" (with Victoria Horn)
- 2004 "Pacman/Punks Run Wild" (64 Records)
- 2005 "So Move Closer"
- 2005 "Dance.Come.Feel.Exe"
- 2005 "Lixuneanos"
- 2006 "Amidar"
- 2007 "Spreading Isolation/The Regressors"
- 2007 "The Whole Room Dematerialized"
- 2007 "Escaping My Mind"
- 2008 "On My Mind" (with Ben Onono)
- 2011 Dada & Rui Da Silva ft One – Crazy Love (Destined Records)
Doctor J
- 1993 "Não", as Doctor J
- 1994 "The Sax Theme", as Alex S & Doctor J (with Alex Santos)
- 1995 "Human Soul", as Doctor J Presents Mata Hari
The Four Elements
- 2000 "Earth/Water"
- 2002 "Fire"
- 2002 "The Fifth Element"
- 2003 "Matrix/Stoned"
Coco da Silva
- 2000 "Coisa Nossa/Close My Eyes"
- 2001 "Lost"
- 2001 "@ Night"
- 2002 "Saudade" (Kismet Records)
- 2002 "This Time You're Mine"
- 2003 "The Shiva Chant"
- 2011 "Dont Say Nothing (Say Something)"
Other aliases
- 1993 "So Get Up", as Underground Sound of Lisbon
- 1995 "Work in Progress", as LL Project (with Luís Leite)
- 1996 "Khine No. 3 (The Remixes)", as LL Project (with Luís Leite)
- 1996 "Fat Beat/Bossa Nova", as Gum Club
- 1999 "Matrix", as Morpheus
- 2001 "Obeah Dance", as The Obeah Men (with Terry Farley)
- 2001 "Riding", as Teimoso (with Shelly Preston)
- 2003 "Radar House", as Hyper da Silva (with DJ Hyper)
- 2003 "Deep as the Rivers", as Moshic da Silva (with Moshic)
- 2003 "Gibberish", as Moshic da Silva (with Moshic)
- 2003 "Cosmic Mind", as Sound Projectors
- 2004 "Dark Love, as The Downloaderz