Lee Purkis, the DJ known to many as In Sync, has died at the age of 54.
Purkis was regarded as one of the earliest DJs in the UK to support, promote and play house music and techno. He formed Insync vs. Mysteron with Chris Hartley and David Manuel, and together they founded the 10th Planet label in 1992. It was these releases, as well as his solo releases on labels including Plink Plonk, Fragmented Records, Peacefrog, and One Way Static, for which he was best known.
In 1989, he was involved in the opening of FatCat Records in his hometown of Crawley, East Sussex, which became renowned for its stock of dance records that Purkis largely found through trips to Detroit and Chicago.
In 1992, Purkis released the track ‘Storm’, which would stay popular on dancefloors for years to come. He then launched another label, Fortune8, in 2006, returning that same year with new music and archived material recorded in the late ‘90s.
Kirk Degiorgio, a close friend of Purkis, told Resident Advisor that Purkis was one of the “trailblazing music heads who first went to Detroit to seek out the makers of the early techno records”.
“In 1991, he came to my place and played me a poorly recorded but stunning cassette master of the…
