Comprised of Tony McGuinness, Jono Grant, and Paavo Siljamaki, the foundation for the English dance music group Above & Beyond was laid when Grant and Siljamaki began releasing tracks under a variety of aliases. Then in 1999, McGuinness joined the group, which garnered its name for a slogan used by promotional trainer. Above & Beyond went on to release a number of mixes of tracks by various big-name artists, most notably Madonna’s “What It Feels Like for a Girl”, who liked the remix so much that she elected to use it for the music video rather than the album version.
In 2006, Above & Beyond released their first full length album, Tri-State, which received a five-star review from DJ Magazine. Two singles from the album, “Air for Life”, were voted Tune of the Year by listeners of Armin van Buuren’s radio show, and other tracks received recognitions such as Best Underground Dance Track at both the Miami Winter Music Conference and the International Dance Music Awards.
Above & Beyond’s second album “Group Therapy” was released in 2010 to rave reviews. It hit No. 1 on the iTunes dance album charts, Mixmag called it Album of the Year, and DJ Magazine hailed the trio as “the biggest DJ/Production group the UK has ever produced”. They are the only group to have won the BBC Radio 2 Essential Mix of the Year Award twice. As of 2012, they ranked No. 8 on DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJs, and in the past they have placed as high as No. 4.
