martin ikin was born in liverpool, raised in london, and has been making records since 1991. he was seventeen when the first one, damage, went out on basement records under the name dj mayhem. the training came first though. he is a fully qualified studio engineer and a jazz pianist who led jazz funk bands, and he still does session work and teaches piano.

he spent years under other names, soul purpose, indigo and migrant among them, and in 2003 he started Soul Purpose Records as a home for his own productions. it drew in vocalists including juliet roberts, elisabeth troy and angie brown. in 2005 he retired the mayhem tag and began releasing under his own name for the first time.

Just the love of the music. If you have that, it keeps you going forever.

martin ikin to edm identity, 15 august 2025

the tech house run that made his name is tight and easy to date. How I Feel with hayley may went to toolroom on 12 july 2019, Hooked followed on catch & release on 4 october 2019, and Headnoise (Get Hype) with dope earth alien arrived on cr2 records on 1 november 2019. three records, one year.

beatportal, beatport's own editorial arm, ranked him fifth on its ten best selling tech house artists in a piece published 15 october 2021 covering the preceding six months. he takes remix work too, and his version of Armand Van Helden's Give Me Your Loving came out on parametric records in 2020.

in 2024 he started a second label, KNOW WHERE RECORDS, and put Out Of My Head with grant nelson on it on 29 november 2024. toolroom stayed the main outlet. Rush with hayley may landed there on 15 august 2025, and Control It with winnie ama turned up in a 7visions mix on toolroom ibiza 2026, dated 22 may 2026.

no upcoming bookings are published. his RA page shows an empty upcoming column, and songkick, bandsintown, skiddle and edmtrain all return nothing. the run behind him was busy. he played wake up at egg london on 20 march 2026, and on 27 june 2026 he took a martin ikin and guests billing at unveiled in brooklyn.