Artist Spotlight: Gemini

Name: Thomas Slinger
From: United Kingdom
Age: 22
First release: 2011
Genre: Dubstep, Hardstyle Electro
Has Collaborated With: Feed Me, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Ray, and Emeli Sande.

Review: A few weeks ago I started a quest to find ‘beautiful electro’ and the first artist who came to mind was Gemini. After listening to nearly a hundred other producers, I kept coming back to him. His tracks are soulful, sexy, melodic journeys through sound that will literally live on your playlist. He is one of the few artists whose first EP was just as gorgeous as his next, and every remix he does carries his signature style… And that style is best described by the word beautiful. The best thing about Gemini’s sound is that it isn’t girly, and it’s not ‘soft.’ This is hardstyle electro and dubstep – balanced with gentle, feminine lyrics and sweet rifts. He is absolutely one of our favorite producers at EDMSauce, so give him a listen.

[button link=”http://soundcloud.com/thisisgemini/gemini-bbc-radio-1-mistajam/download”]Download Gemini’s BBC Radio 1 Mix[/button]

Editor’s note: the original embed here was a mycloudplayers.com playlist widget, a third-party embed tool that’s now defunct. We’ve removed the dead embed; the BBC Radio 1 download link above is still live.

Gemini Was Carving Out A Genuinely Different Lane In Dubstep

Most dubstep in 2012 was chasing maximum aggression — filthy bass, wall-to-wall drops, as much low-end weight as a track could hold. Gemini going the opposite direction, leaning into melody and emotional songwriting instead of just brute force, was a real risk in a scene that rewarded intensity above almost everything else. Landing a BBC Radio 1 guest mix with Mistajam this early in his career is a solid signal that risk was paying off — Radio 1 wasn’t just handing out guest slots to anyone, and getting flagged by a station that big meant Gemini’s more melodic approach was resonating beyond just the underground blog circuit.

Being 22 with a debut EP already generating this kind of buzz, and getting compared favorably even to his own follow-up work, also says something about how quickly the dubstep scene could elevate an artist who found a genuinely distinct voice. A lot of producers spend years trying to differentiate themselves within a crowded genre; Gemini seemed to land on his “beautiful electro” identity almost immediately, which is part of why blogs like this one were so eager to spotlight him this early.