As we move into the final months of 2008, Simon Baker can look back on a year that has defined his ascent to the electronic music elite and established him as a true global player.

After honing his craft from the early 1990’s, firstly as a DJ and more recently as a producer, (of what could be called Detroit infused Tech-house), the last twelve months have contained a string of smash 12”s and his increasing profile has taken him well beyond UK shores, with DJ tours of North America, South America and Australia under his belt dates in Asia about to commence.

Simon scored his first hit back in 2004, released with a production partner under the alias ‘The Liptrick’ with the track of the same name. After initially surfacing as a white label single, The duo were spotted by Ralph Lawson’s 2020 Vision and he instantly signed to an album deal, and later re-released The Lip Trick as a full EP.
It made its way onto the compilations of Damian Lazarus, Tiefschwarz and Dan Ghenacia to name but a few. The bar had been set, however The Liptrick were soon to go their separate ways, as Simon pursued a solo sound which he chose to present on his own Infant Records label, which launched in 2005.

These initial forays, such as 'Footprints’, ‘Aerosol Games’ and ‘The Headrow’ EP gave Simon the freedom to experiment in the studio throughout 2006 and the tremendous reaction from the dance music press, DJ’s and the dance floor set the tone for his later success. The label has since gone from strength to strength with more releases from Simon alongside Paul Woolford, Burnski, TG, Anthony Collins, Sian, Rekleiner, Jamie Jones and more.

Summer 2007 proved to be the making of Simon with three key releases taking him to the next level. His huge hit ‘Confused’ on Viva, ‘The Fly’ on Connaisseur, before the ubiquitous ‘Plastik’ on Playhouse capped things off in amazing style, eventually being voted #4 single in Resident Advisor’s tune of the year award.

So to 2008 and the challenge was to rise to the standards already set. Already in demand as a DJ through residencies at two of the UK’s most acclaimed underground nights (Asylum in Leeds and DDD in London), he now toured Europe’s finest clubs – Weekend, Watergate, Robert Johnson and Cocoon, Germany; Studio Martin in Bucharest, Droog (LA), The EndUp in San Francisco and Sullivan Room (NYC), Nitsa in Barcelona, The End and Below (UK), the Piknic Electronik festival in Montreal; Unit (Tokyo) and many more.

Despite this relentless touring schedule, the hits keep coming. Sven Vath hand-picked Simon for his ‘H’ compilation on Cocoon - the resulting offering ‘U’ was unanimously declared an album highlight and won him many new fans from the labels devout following. Also coming through was Simon’s huge re working of Simian Mobile Disco’s ‘Sleep Deprivation’ as well as his own ‘X,Y and Z’ on the UK’s Leftroom imprint.

And there is still more to come this year! Simon has remixed Radioslave’s ‘Bell Clap Dance’ along with Slam, a new collaboration with Jamie Jones for Get Physical, plus there are forthcoming releases with the newly resurrected R&S and his own label Infant amongst others.