Mat Silver & Tony Burt

Mat Silver & Tony Burt
Background information
Origin	Germany & New Zealand
Genres	Trance, Hard Trance, break beat, progressive house, Electro
Years active	1997 - present
Labels	various

Mat Silver & Tony Burt are a German & New Zealand dance music production team, composed of Matthias Scheffler (born May 1, 1977) and Tony Burt (born October 25, 1970).

History

Silvers and Burts main contribution has been to the trance music scene but they have also produced other varied electronic music styles. They became increasingly well known for their hard and euphoric productions between 2000-2004 which were supported by some of the world’s leading DJ’s.

Matthias Scheffler originates from Bickenbach^{[disambiguation needed ]}, Germany while Tony Burt lives in London but is originally from Auckland, New Zealand. Since meeting while DJ’ing at Electrowerkz, London back in April 2000 they decided to spend more time producing their style of trance music. Matthias was already producing in the late 1990s under the guise of Endymion, Mat Silver, Silver & Chrome and Stoker. Tony was running his own label full time as well as a specialist online music store for trance, progressive house, techno and break beat music.

The label featured artists such as Martin Eyerer, DJ Hinx, Mat Silver, S.H.O.K.K, Ferry Corsten, Ralph Fridge, Apoptygma Berzerk, Kuffdam & Plant, Shane 54, Alphazone, Audiowarp, Hiroshi Okada, Progresia, Octagen, Mike Shiver, Menno de Jong, Pervading Call, Informers, Alex M.O.R.P.H., Airbase, Timeok, Danjo & Styles, Global Interference, Passiva, Sonicvibe and Abert Vorne.

All Mat and Tony's productions happened in Matthias’s basement studio called B.Beach – a loose translation or a play on words from the name of their home village Bickenbach^{[disambiguation needed ]}.

Their music arguable defined a new style of trance, particularly in the UK where the softer trance sound of the late 1990s had become increasingly unfashionable and commercialised to the underground club scenes.^{[citation needed]} Hard house was increasingly popular with clubs like Trade and Frantic but lacked a lot of the sound production qualities found in trance. Matthias and Tony incorporated harder sounds and more complex percussion arrangements with soaring sythn lines. A fair reflection of their combined musical roots which was as varied as Jean Michel Jarre, detroit house, 80’s electro, Frankfurt techno and rock.

Their remix of Shane 54 - Equinoxe 4 peaked at number 12 in the Spanish Charts when it was released in 2003.

All of their original work appeared on Above the Sky Records. A label originally set up by Tony but then later A&R’ed collectively between Tony and Matthias.

The harder trance sound was to spread throughout early 2001 and German/Swiss artists such as Flutlicht, S.H.O.K.K., Scot Project and DuMonde were also seen as pioneers. (S.H.O.K.K. was to later remix Mat Silver vs. Tony Burt – Teardrops)

More recently

Matthias and Tony took a break from trance production after the release of their final single ‘Waimea’. This was to be Above the Sky Record’s 18th and final release due to financial problems of the label.^{[citation needed]}. It was at this time that they decided to step back from the trance scene, decline remix work and concentrate on exploring a new style and sound.

Discography

Singles

• The Perfect Wave (12") Above The Sky 2001
• The Perfect Wave (12") Everlasting Records 2001
• Teardrops (12") Above The Sky 2002
• Teardrops (12") Everlasting Records 2002
• Ultimate Wave (12") Above The Sky 2003
• Ultimate Wave (12") Above The Sky 2003
• Ultimate Wave (CD, Maxi) Above The Sky 2003
• Ultimate Wave (12") Bit Progressive Music 2003
• Ultimate Wave (12", S/Sided, Pro) Above The Sky 2003
• Waimea (12") Above The Sky 2004
• Waimea (12") Above The Sky 2004

Remixes

• Shane 54 - Equinoxe 4 (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) DTF Recordings 2002
• Shane 54 - Equinoxe 4 (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Temprogressive 2002
• Shane 54 - Equinoxe 4 (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Above The Sky 2002
• Andora - Follow You (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) I Drop The Bomb 2002
• Apoptygma Berzerk - Kathy's Song (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Above The Sky 2002
• Endymion - Running Again (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Above The Sky Limited 2002
• Next Exit - Rise Of Nations (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Resistance 2003
• Alphazone - Rockin' (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Waterworld 2003
• Alphazone - Rockin' (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Dreams Corporation 2003
• Alphazone - Rockin' (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Nukleuz 2004
• Barber - Adagio For Strings (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Above The Sky Limited 2004
• Bass Enchanters - Golden Moment (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Elevation Records 2004
• JX - Restless - Restless (CD, Maxi) (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Tidy Two 2004
• JX - Restless - Restless (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Tidy Two 2004
• Shane 54 - Equinoxe 4 (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) Addicted Music 2005
• Shane 54 - Kippenvelmeter (12") (Mat Silver & Tony Burt Remix) DTF Spain 2005

External links

• Tony Burt @ MySpace
• Mat Silver’s homepage
• Tony Burt music mixes
• Above the Sky Records and 020 Records at Discogs