Resident DJ at Habitat Living Sound in Calgary, partner in Substation Recordings & founder of Canada's longest running female DJ collective, "Girls on Decks". Isis Graham has been at the healm of dance music in Western Canada since 1999.
As the modern era of dance music dawned in the mid 90s, a teenaged Isis Graham glued herself to MuchMusic's Electric Circus and absorbed every beat of the house music boom. Every instant moved her to the core of her being: the rainbow of lights, the writhing bodies, the headphoned maestros on the decks. And most of all, that beat. That relentless roll and cycle of kick and snare, hat and keys, bass and vocal, elevating her soul and moving her body in her bedroom all alone.
That same teenaged Isis still lives on in the body and mind of one of Calgary's stalwart hubs of community and music. If she ever reflects on that first tentative moment gracing the decks in a warehouse in 1997, does she feel the circle closing? Does she know that the local scene ringleaders she looked up to then, pulling together musicians and artists to create communal spaces of communication and expression, are now her?
Music is one thing, and community another, but for Ms. Graham the two are mutually and irrevocably linked. As an ardent believer that progress for one means progress for all, Isis spends as much time tweaking EQs as she spends meeting, collaborating and planning with her musical peers. Ten years of promoting women in dance music as one engine behind Girls On Decks are already behind her (with another lifetimes worth of years ahead), residencies and relationships from gay bars to raves notch her belt, and a current residency at Habitat Living Sound includes not only a monthly night of soulful, techy, deep house, Nu*Movement, but a groundbreaking collaborative music production and networking effort called Studio Social.
At the root of it all is the music. The hypnotic, spiritual, relentless music. After collaborating with Western Canadian mainstay Neighbour in 2008, the releases have been coming fast and furious, and only barreling faster as she takes up a leading spot at recently revived Calgary label Substation Recordings. Her sounds are widely strewn across the spectrum of house and independent music – techno and bass are as likely as intimate songwriting fare, and her samples and vibes range from the funky to the deep and back again. The music that drives Isis feeds her soul, and vice versa, and that interplay of perpetual motion will keep this dynamic woman a key piece of Western Canada's musical puzzle for as many years as she can muster.
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SUB046 - esette - Calibrate EP - Substation Recordings 2016
SUB043 - You Single - 2015 - Substation Recordings
SUB042 - The Number Line Feat Piper Davis Fever "Dream" Remix - Substation Recordings
SUB041 - Matt Caine - Crime Boss Remixed - 2015 - Substation Recordings
SUB038 - The Remixes EP Vol 2 - Remix - Haakonsen - Fekete - 2015 - Substation Recordings
Isis Graham & Matt Caine - Plucked - Free Track - 2015
SUB034 - Best of 2014 Compilation - That Thaang - 2015 - Substation Recordings
Matt Caine & Isis Graham The Rendezvous - Free Track
JGR081 - Greg Saint - House All Night - Remix - 2014 - JG Records
SUB030 - Isis Graham & Haakonsen EP - 2014 - Substation Recordings - 2015
Everybody Loves the Sunshine Free Track - Substation Recordings
M003 - Soulier – China Life Remix – 2014 – Soulier Music
MLR012 - Love Me Remix/Krystle Love B – 2014 – Moonlight Records
SUB027 - Monochrome with Piper Davis – Single – 2014 – Substation Recordings
10071301 - You’re Free Single – 2014 – Flavorite Music
Kane Garden Bay Remix – Terrace – 2014 – Technofunk Records Bandcamp Release
MLR011 - Thelma & Louise EP w/Krystle Love B – 2013 – Moonlight Records
NRR001 - Release Yourself – The Launch EP – 2013 – Northroc Records
Sanctums - Truth Lifting It's Head Remix - 2013 - Bandcamp Release
Isis Graham & Krystle Love B - Back to the Groove - Free Track
Truth Lifting it’s Head Remix – Sanctums – 2013 – Bandcamp Release
Dhalsim - Delphium Spring Remix - Dhalsim - 2013 - Bandcamp Release
00E - Neighbour & Isis Graham – The Color Crush EP – 2008 – Alphabet Music