Push

Mike Dierickx, formerly known as Dirk Dierickx, and most commonly recognized under the aliases M.I.K.E., Push or Plastic Boy, is a Belgian DJ. Best known for the song "Universal Nation", he has also released other singles including "The Legacy" and "Strange World". His style is primarily progressive trance.

Producing and DJing under the name M.I.K.E., he has been releasing records under the guises: Solar Factor, M.I.K.E, The Blackmaster, Return Of The Native, Plastic Boy, Šand, and last but not least, Push. However, there are around 85 different aliases that span through his career, and have accumulated as a result of either collaborations with other artists, or adapting new aliases simply to suit the nature of a particular track–covering the trance, techno and house scenes. As a DJ, Mike's style is very similar to the music he makes–progressive trance with a techy-edge. He is at the forefront of Europe's new sound, regularly topping the dance charts in several leading countries.

The story begins of an 11 year old boy discovering the potential of samplers and keyboards. A boy who preferred knobs and backlight displays instead of child games. At the age of 18, Mike handed his first demo tape to the Antwerp based record company, 'USA Import'. Shortly after, his first record, 'Vision Act' was released on the Atom label in 1992. Mike released a series of successful records before he signed up with Lightning back in 1996.

M.I.K.E's became very popular and, in 1998, although a commercial crossover had never been anticipated, 'Universal Nation' won several dance awards, and undoubtedly being recognized as one of the classic dance-records of the trance era until this day. Poll positions in worldwide dance charts were soon putting the Belgian dance scene firmly on the map. His Push follow-up single 'Strange World' had hundreds of clubs in a frenzy across Europe, in the same vein as 'Universal Nation'.

This was followed by another blockbuster, 'The Legacy', once again topping all dance charts across Europe and entering the British National charts at #21. Over the years Mike received several music awards including best club singles and best dance-producer, and entered 6 times the national top 40 in the UK.

Mike also teamed up and did remixes for Sinead 'O Connor, Moby, Mauro Piccoto, Bom Funk Mc's, Oliver Lieb, and Ian Van Dahl. This kind of success did not go unnoticed as M.I.K.E. was asked to DJ at some of the best venues in the world, including 'Gatecrasher' and 'Godskitchen]' in the UK, 'Fura' and 'Vel Farre' in Japan, 'Dance Valley' and 'Trance Energy' in the Netherlands, and 'Spirit' and 'Spundae' in the U.S. Mike still holds residencies in Godskitchen and The Gallery in London.

In 1999 he decided to start-up his own label, and Scanner-Records was born. The music stands for minimal electric dance. Scanner's back-catalogue can be found on www.scanner-records.be, where it's currently postponed as Mike is concentrating on his new label Club Elite. The label will boost tech grooves and the better electro-trance.