Joe Babylon

Joe (Babylon) Marougi started off as mobile DJ since 1986 doing house parties in LA. After gravitating more heavily towards house/techno music, he took a leap of faith along with his good friend and DJ partner Allen Avanessian in 1994 when they bought some recording gear and started Plug Research (record label). Soon after launching the label, they both became more involved with the underground scene in LA by putting together warehouse parties and other events while hiring Detroit artists such as Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance, Claude Young, Rob Hood and Kenny Larkin to perform as an attempt to bring more awareness of techno’s roots to southern California. Venues for such events ranged from empty warehouses to county fairgrounds and everything in between including the Shrine Auditorium.

Joe handed Plug Research over to Allen in 1998 shortly after getting married and moving to northern california (San Jose). Allen picked up the ball and ran with it “big time” by making Plug Research one of the most respected independent record labels in the electronic scene. Meanwhile, Joe never stopped shopping for records and continued sharpening his music skills. As a result, he has recently put together a promising new label (Roundabout Sounds) with an attractive lineup of tracks and remixers such as Rick Wade, Mike Huckaby, Rick Wilhite, Theo Parrish, Aaron-Carl, Frits Wentink, Orlando Voorn, Soulphiction, John Tejada and XDB just to name a few.