Chris Coleman is known for his wide range of musical styles…from private garden parties where blunted-beats and tripped-out psychedelic guitars intertwine with the hot summer breeze… to deep house stylings that move, groove and soothe… from pulsing tech-funk club sets that bump & jump… to the warm washes of a deep hypnotic trance set. He has a knack for being able to play the right tunes, at the right time… a knack that many say is getting harder to find in DJ’s these days.

“I’m a purveyor of quality tunes…whatever the genre!” he laughs, “I just love good music.”

It was during the spring of 92 when Chris had his first taste of underground dance music; but it wasn’t until the summer of 93 that he experienced firsthand just how large this scene was in the US, courtesy of Dave Cannalte…Orlando’s “Godfather of House” and founder of the legendary “Aahz” Saturday nights at Orlando’s Beacham Theater. These were nights that sparked many a creative candle in the Southeast, and Chris was one of those. When he returned to Atlanta, the search began for music stores that carried this new form of music. He found it in the way of a specialist DJ shop called Let The Music Play. It was here that he bought his first pieces of vinyl…at that time simply because many songs weren’t available on CD! “Looking back on it now, buying that vinyl was really a stroke of luck because there were so many classics around during that time period. Songs like Bump’s “I’m Rushin” or Jam & Spoon’s “Stella”…they came in handy years later when I started DJ’ing out.”

He started playing out at his first large scale club nights in 95 after he passed along his first mix tape to the Atlanta promotion group Liquid Groove (now Liquified.) Playing several of the Liquid Groove parties alongside such greats as Dave Cannalte, Doc Martin, Kazell, Steve Loria, and a host of others allowed Chris to raise his profile significantly during this time period.

In the spring of 1996, Chris was invited to the studio of good friend and fellow DJ Billy Justi. Well respected throughout the Southeast, Billy was renowned for his heartfelt DJ sets. In the studio, Billy was tuning into yet another avenue of artistic expression only he was looking for just the right element to join him… he quickly welcomed Chris along for the ride. The production duo spent the rest of the year producing tracks and in 1997 they gained the attention of several music luminaries with their unreleased songs… the group Expressed Soul was born, and Just One Recordings was created as an outlet for their work.

In 1998, Expressed Soul’s first release “No Confusion” / “Body Roll” garnered 4.5 Dancing Men (Out of 5) in the prestigious DJ weekly Mixmag Update, and was a firmly waved flag that helped to put Atlanta on the progressive house map… it was followed up quickly by their next release “I’m Waiting” / “On Two”.

If the first release by Expressed Soul was a firmly waved flag, then their second release took that flag and planted it with force. “I’m Waiting” / “On Two” received a whopping 5 (out of 5) Dancing Men in Mixmag Update, received major rotation by Chris Fortier as he opened up for Sasha & Digweed on their UK Northern Exposure tour, and just narrowly missed inclusion on an Australian Ministry of Sound compilation…getting nudged out by a BT track. Not bad for a second release!

It was during this time period that Chris and Billy became more in demand, playing more gigs than ever throughout the Southeast. Chris set forth to the UK to promote their singles, and found a renewed appreciation for dance music as he experienced the UK’s dance culture…and then (in turn) Europe’s dance culture, when he flew to the Netherlands for a brilliantly stunning 6 hour set, deep in the heart of Amsterdam.

In December of 1999 Chris and fellow DJ friend Dave Elliot started talking about their next move forward… one that would eventually lead them both to take the music back underground as they began presenting a series of monthly ‘invitation only’ gatherings under the name Microclub. Word of these nights quickly spread and it was not uncommon to hear of fellow music lovers from all locations up and down the East Coast making a beeline into Atlanta for the fort-nightly celebrations. “We even brought back the famed Atlanta - Orlando connection, that I loved so much in the early years, back into effect…” Chris says, “...as we presented two special nights where we flew Dave Cannalte into town to rock our private parties along with us.”

In the summer of 2001, Chris joined forces with the rapidly expanding website www.djsinbox.com, a promotional & informational website founded by DJ Mark Kovach. Their mission is to help promote new up-and-coming talent in the form of recording artists, record labels, and DJ's. In addition to the site, Chris submits mixes for the website’s Internet broadcast named "Solid Sounds". You can catch Chris’ mixes alongside other reputable DJ names such as Chris Fortier, Trendroid, Kazell, Marcelo Castelli, Barry Gilbey, MV (Martin Villeneuve) and others. It’s brought in association with Proton Radio, and is broadcast the first and third Tuesday of every month, from 6 - 8PM Eastern Time.

2003 brings with it a renewed vigor for the music, as Expressed Soul’s “I’m Waiting” track has been signed for re-release on Chris Fortier’s Fade Recordings. Featuring a brand new remix by Luke Fair (which has already seen airtime by John Digweed on his Kiss FM show, and received heavy play from Deep Dish) and a forthcoming remix by Fortier himself, this looks to be a wicked release!

“Being able to go out in clubs now, and play another artist’s remix of a track that you wrote years ago… that’s a really cool feeling.” And with this, it brings us full circle back to Chris’ mixing…wiretight rhythms, sexy slamming beats, and music to throw you hands skyward or even pump your fist… Chris sums it up best when he says “You can really boil it all down to two words that can describe my style… Good Music!”

Ahhh…good music indeed. And in the end, isn’t that what it’s really all about?