A producer who draws from footwork, bass, and post-dubstep, as well as root electronic music forms such as house and techno, Slava (last name: Balasanov) was born and raised in Moscow until the age of 12, when he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois. Along with friends and fellow producers Garo and Lokua, he established a digital download label, Moment Sound, and debuted the same year (2008) with the nine-track release Sunflower. After another Moment Sound release (Neon Life, 2009) and a 12" for Future Times (Dreaming Tiger, 2010), he linked with Software. The Soft Control EP was released in February 2012. Slava followed in April 2013 with the jittery, footwork-inspired full-length Raw Solutions, another Software release. ~ Andy Kellman