No matter how you look at it, DJ Lil' Tony, born Toni Rantanen, is the central character in Helsinki club scene. A member of the prestigious Nuspirit Helsinki collective and his new electronic music project called Future Beat Investigators. For a decade, he has amazingly been continuously on the top of the game, running the only Helsinki venues that are up to international club standards. First it was Kerma (1997-2004) and sOda (1996-2003), Rose Garden (2005-2007), and today it's Redrum - his latest club with massive Funktion One soundsystem and Kuudes linja, which is a live venue. In addition to all this, he is also one of the people behind Flow, the annual electronic/urban music festival in Helsinki, and the owner of the trendy Helsinki music bars Porvoonkadun Baari & Siltanen.
Toni's roots lie in the early days of underground warehouse parties and he has not to date lost his commitment to the underground and uncompromised musical culture. As a DJ, Lil' Tony is probably best known for his deep and soulful house/techno sets – Detroit/New York/Chicago house music was his first love after all – but he is remarkably unprejudiced and eclectic in his approach to music, be that for his personal listening pleasure only, or what he plays when out DJ'ing. On the other hand Toni's got strong jazz/soul/latin background. So be not surprised if you hear the man throwing in some soulful disco, afro-cosmica italo stuff, balearic rareties, disco not disco record or even twisted jazz track. Lil' Tony's main musical influences – in addition to extensive traveling – are UR, Harvey, Ron Hardy, Ron Trent, Chez Damier, Daniele Baldelli, Theo Parrish, Marvin Gaye, Moodyman, Fela Kuti, Carl Craig and Basic Channel.
