Diplo
The Martinez Brothers are an American DJ and production duo from the Bronx, New York, consisting of brothers Steven “Stevie” Martinez and Chris Martinez. Their music grew out of the New York house tradition, but over time absorbed elements of tech house, techno, disco, soul, Latin music and hip-hop. The duo are especially known for their extended DJ sets, their decade-long association with Circoloco at DC10 in Ibiza, and their own label Cuttin’ Headz.
The Martinez Brothers belong to a generation of artists who connected the legacy of classic New York house with Ibiza club culture of the 2010s. Their reputation is built less around a single commercial hit than around their DJ career: from teenage performances in New York to long-running Ibiza residencies and major club projects of their own. Among their best-known original productions are My Rendition, H 2 Da Izzo, Tree Town, Stuff In The Trunk, Let It Go, PAP (Pendiente Al Paso), KILO, Rizzla, Pleasure Peak and TAKE YOU HOME.
The Bronx, Church and the Music of Paradise Garage
Stevie and Chris grew up in the Bronx in a family of Puerto Rican heritage. Their father, Steve Martinez Sr., played a central role in their musical upbringing. He was a pastor, but in his younger years he had also visited the legendary New York club Paradise Garage and retained a deep interest in dance music. At home, the brothers heard jazz, funk, salsa, Latin music, house and recordings connected with the culture of an earlier generation of New York clubs.
Their musical practice did not begin behind DJ decks. The brothers played in a church ensemble alongside older musicians. Their father introduced them to Herbie Hancock, Jamiroquai and other material that went far beyond church music. Later, hip-hop, salsa and reggaeton were added to the mix — a natural part of the musical environment of the Bronx and a Puerto Rican family.
Over time, they became increasingly interested in DJing itself. The brothers first experimented with computer mixing software, before their father bought them their first proper setup — a Numark CD player and mixer. Weekend trips to buy records became a regular ritual, while home experiments gradually developed into their first small parties.
New York Clubs as Teenagers
In the early 2000s, Stevie and Chris began attending New York house parties long before they had reached the typical age of a club audience. DJ Mag notes that their first serious encounters with club culture came when they were around 13 and 15 years old. One of the key venues was Shelter, where they heard DJs such as Louie Vega and Timmy Regisford. Their father accompanied them and explained to promoters that his sons were there primarily for the music.
This environment formed the starting point of their taste: soulful house, disco and the classic New York school. Later trips to Europe introduced the brothers to minimal, techno and other forms of underground electronic music that were especially strong in Berlin and Ibiza at the time. As a result, their DJ language gradually became much broader than the music they had grown up with.
Dennis Ferrer and the Debut Release My Rendition
One of the decisive figures in their early career was New York producer Dennis Ferrer. Chris contacted him through MySpace at a time when social networks were beginning to change the way young musicians could reach established artists. Ferrer replied and gradually became a mentor to the brothers. He helped them understand studio equipment, provided software and taught them not simply how to get a finished result, but how to understand how a track actually worked.
In December 2006, Ferrer’s label Objektivity released their debut EP My Rendition. Chris later explained that the original version had been created on a Roland Fantom workstation because the brothers did not yet have a fully equipped studio. Ferrer helped them bring the material into its final form.
Their age made the release especially remarkable: in a 2007 review, Resident Advisor noted that the producers were only around 15 and 18 years old. Yet the publication focused less on their youth than on the unexpectedly mature house sound of such inexperienced producers.
Over the following years, releases including Don’t No Yet and The Causeway / Issshhh! appeared. The brothers later openly acknowledged that, in the beginning, much of their learning involved trying to understand how the music of their favourite producers — from Âme to Radio Slave — was constructed. Gradually, those influences merged with their own rhythmic approach.
Ibiza and Ten Years Around Circoloco
New York gave The Martinez Brothers their musical foundation, but the decisive international stage of their career is closely connected with Ibiza. In 2011, they arrived on the island and were given an opportunity to play at DC10 during Circoloco. According to the duo, the trip had originally been linked to another booking that fell through; DC10 booker Elliot Shaw then offered them an open slot.
That chance opportunity turned into one of the most important professional relationships of their career. Stevie and Chris spent around ten years closely associated with Circoloco, gradually moving from lower positions on the bill to prime-time slots. They not only played regularly at the club but also visited on nights when they were not performing, watching other DJs and becoming part of the same environment as Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, Apollonia, Loco Dice and other figures from the Ibiza scene of the period.
Ibiza helped unite their original love of soulful New York house with a more minimal European club aesthetic. In later Martinez Brothers sets, these two lines coexist naturally: vocal and soulful house can sit next to rolling tech house, stripped-back percussion tracks and Latin rhythms.
H 2 Da Izzo
One of The Martinez Brothers’ most important original productions is H 2 Da Izzo, released in 2012 on the French label Real Tone Records. The B-side featured Two Much (For Me). H 2 Da Izzo combined dense house percussion, vocal fragments and references to classic New York house, including a recognisable motif associated with Hardrive’s Deep Inside.
Over time, the track became one of the duo’s most enduring club records. Seven years later, Resident Advisor was still using H 2 Da Izzo as a reference point when reviewing their newer releases. In 2025–2026, the track gained a new life through a reissue on Defected and remixes by Peggy Gou, Butch and Josh Baker. Defected directly described the original as a 2012 record that had grown into a sought-after club classic.
2014: Mixmag, Cuttin’ Headz and a New Career Level
2014 became one of the key years in the duo’s history. British magazine Mixmag placed The Martinez Brothers at number one on its own list of the year’s best DJs, highlighting their distinctive position within the house scene and their close relationship with DC10.
At the same time, the brothers launched their own label, Cuttin’ Headz. Its aesthetic was closely tied to New York from the start: house and techno existed alongside visual references to graffiti and hip-hop. Even the label name refers to an Ol’ Dirty Bastard song.
Cuttin’ Headz gradually grew from a platform for the brothers’ own music into a fully fledged international label. It released music by AJ Christou, Fleur Shore, Jaden Thompson, Art Department, Guti, Loco Dice, Mochakk, K-Lone, Jackmaster and other artists. DJ Mag noted that by its tenth anniversary, the label had already passed fifty releases, while the brand later expanded into its own event series.
Tuskegee and Seth Troxler
In parallel, The Martinez Brothers collaborated with Seth Troxler on the Tuskegee project. The label was conceived as a platform highlighting the African-American roots of house and techno and drawing attention to artists whose role in electronic culture might otherwise have remained undervalued. One of the early releases was the joint Martinez Brothers and Troxler track Space & Time.
For this reason, the occasionally seen title Space & Time Mixtape 2019 is incorrect: Space & Time belongs to the period when Tuskegee was launched in the mid-2010s and exists as a collaborative club release, not as a later Martinez Brothers mixtape.
Stuff In The Trunk and the Growth of Cuttin’ Headz
In 2016, Cuttin’ Headz released Stuff In The Trunk with French electronic artist Miss Kittin. The track became one of the better-known releases from the label’s early period and clearly illustrates the brothers’ move towards a drier, more mechanical tech house sound without losing their characteristic New York groove.
The Cuttin’ Headz catalogue was never limited to one strict subgenre. The brothers themselves repeatedly said that they had no interest in creating a fixed formula; instead, they followed whatever interested them at a particular moment. That is why minimalist club instrumentals sit alongside vocal house tracks, hip-hop and Latin projects throughout their discography.
Givenchy and the Intersection of Club Music and Fashion
The Martinez Brothers also made a notable impact outside the traditional club industry. After meeting designer Riccardo Tisci in Ibiza, they began creating music for Givenchy fashion shows. For several collections, the brothers did not simply select existing tracks: they composed, mixed and arranged original musical accompaniment specifically for the runway presentation.
Their relationship with fashion later continued through campaigns and projects involving New Era, DKNY and Carolina Herrera. In 2016, the brothers also signed a modelling contract with IMG. However, their work with Givenchy remains most closely connected with their activity as musicians because it involved creating original sound material.
Let It Go and a Return to Soulful House
At the end of 2019, The Martinez Brothers joined one of their musical inspirations, Louie Vega, for Let It Go featuring Marc E. Bassy. Resident Advisor highlighted the track as one of the duo’s strongest productions since H 2 Da Izzo.
Musically, Let It Go is considerably softer than many of the brothers’ harder tech house releases: warm chords, rich percussion and an obvious connection to the tradition of soulful New York house dominate the track. It later received several remixes, including versions by Vintage Culture and Dom Dolla.
fabric presents The Martinez Brothers
Also in 2019, they released fabric presents The Martinez Brothers, an official DJ mix for the famous London club and label Fabric. The release featured 23 tracks and ran for more than an hour, presenting the brothers in the form on which their international reputation was built first and foremost: as selectors capable of connecting different shades of house into one continuous club narrative.
This distinction matters when looking at The Martinez Brothers’ discography: their catalogue is not built around a sequence of traditional studio albums. A major part of their creative legacy consists of singles, EPs, remixes and curated DJ mixes, which suits a career in which DJing has always remained at least as important as studio production.
Puerto Rican Roots and a New Line of Collaborations
In the early 2020s, the Latin component of the brothers’ music became especially visible. This was not a sudden image change: salsa, Latin jazz and reggaeton had been part of their musical environment since childhood, while their Puerto Rican heritage had always remained an important element of their family history.
In 2020, The Martinez Brothers appeared on Química by Puerto Rican artist Rauw Alejandro. In 2021, they released PAP (Pendiente Al Paso) with Fuego. The brothers described this direction as a natural continuation of their own roots and as an opportunity to connect club house with music they had also grown up around.
KILO, Rizzla and Moving Beyond the House Scene
In 2022, they released KILO with Dominican artist Tokischa. The release later received several remixes, including a version by Major Lazer and Ape Drums. The same year brought Rizzla with Gordo and Nigerian singer Rema.
These collaborations show that in the studio, The Martinez Brothers are far less genre-conservative than their connection with DC10 might suggest. Afro-pop, reggaeton, rap and house can all exist within the same catalogue because rhythm, rather than allegiance to one particular electronic subgenre, remains the central unifying element for the duo.
From DC10 to Their Own Hï Ibiza Residency
After a decade around Circoloco, a new chapter in The Martinez Brothers’ relationship with Ibiza began. In 2022, they launched their own residency at Hï Ibiza. By summer 2024, it had reached its third consecutive season, followed by a fourth in 2025.
The residency allowed the brothers to move from being regular guests at someone else’s party to programming an entire night under their own direction. Over the years, guests have included Black Coffee, Dennis Ferrer, Loco Dice, Seth Troxler, PAWSA, Chris Stussy, Eliza Rose, Apollonia and others.
Their connection with Circoloco did not disappear, however: The Martinez Brothers continued returning to DC10 periodically even after launching their own residency. The move to Hï is therefore better understood not as a break with their former scene, but as an expansion of their presence on the island.
Pleasure Peak and PFW
In 2023, The Martinez Brothers teamed up with British singer and DJ Eliza Rose on Pleasure Peak. Around the same period, they released PFW (Paris Fashion Week) with Canadian rapper Tommy Genesis. Both tracks once again underlined the brothers’ interest in working with vocal artists rather than remaining confined to traditional instrumental tech house.
Cuttin’ Headz Ten Years On
In 2024, Cuttin’ Headz celebrated its tenth anniversary. Over that period, the project had grown from a small independent label among friends into one of the enduring brands of the contemporary house and tech house scene. A major anniversary event took place at London’s Drumsheds, where The Martinez Brothers played B2B with PAWSA.
The label’s curatorial role proved especially important. Cuttin’ Headz released early work by artists who later developed significant international careers of their own, including Jaden Thompson, Fleur Shore and AJ Christou. Alongside them, the catalogue also featured established producers such as Loco Dice, Guti, Jackmaster and others.
Juice and TAKE YOU HOME
In March 2025, the brothers released Juice with Loco Dice and American rapper Trinidad James. For artists whose history had long intersected with the European underground scene, the track became another bridge between house and hip-hop.
That summer brought an even more unusual combination. TAKE YOU HOME united The Martinez Brothers with producers Mike Dean and Apex Martin and New York artist SASH. DJ Mag described the release as a meeting between the brothers’ signature house sound and Mike Dean’s hip-hop elements.
In the same year, DJ Mag ranked The Martinez Brothers at number 43 in the Top 100 DJs. In their own description of their style, the duo used the phrase “high-energy New York house and techno with a soulful, rhythmic edge,” highlighting their marathon sets and the sound of Cuttin’ Headz.
The Return of H 2 Da Izzo
More than a decade after its original release, H 2 Da Izzo returned to circulation. Defected prepared a new edition featuring the original track alongside remixes by Peggy Gou, Butch and Josh Baker. A vinyl reissue followed in 2026, reinforcing the track’s special status within the duo’s legacy: few of their early productions maintained such a consistent presence in club culture for so many years.
Órbita and a New Live Format
In 2026, The Martinez Brothers developed a new live project called Órbita. Unlike a standard DJ performance, the concept is built around its own visual and spatial identity, allowing the brothers to control not only the music programme but the overall environment of the show. Their official website presents The Martinez Brothers Present: Órbita — Live From ReFrame Studios, Los Angeles as a standalone project.
Órbita represents a logical development of their long-standing work with extended sets and independently curated parties. If the early career of The Martinez Brothers depended on clubs such as Shelter and DC10, they had by this stage gained the ability to carry their own concept of a club night between different venues.
Impressions
On 24 July 2026, the brothers released Impressions with British singer-songwriter Stevie Appleton. The track appeared through The Martinez Brothers / EMPIRE and continued the vocal direction of their later discography.
By this point, the brothers’ catalogue could no longer be described simply as tech house: minimalist club tracks, soulful house, Latin projects, hip-hop collaborations and more song-oriented vocal recordings all exist side by side. In their DJ sets, however, the fundamental rhythmic framework remains house.
The Musical Style of The Martinez Brothers
The foundation of the duo’s sound is New York house. From the Paradise Garage and soulful house tradition, they inherited an interest in vocals, funk, disco and fluid live percussion. From the European scene of the 2000s and Ibiza came a more minimalist structure, repetitive groove, tech house and techno. Their Puerto Rican heritage added salsa, Latin percussion and contemporary urbano influences.
Their best DJ sets are rarely built around a constant succession of big “drops.” Instead, the music develops through sustained groove, gradual shifts in percussion, bass patterns and transitions between deeper and more energetic tracks. This is one of the main reasons The Martinez Brothers are especially known for long and marathon performances.
In the studio, their approach is broader. My Rendition reflected the deep/tech house of the mid-2000s, H 2 Da Izzo looked back towards classic New York house, Stuff In The Trunk was much harder and more minimal, Let It Go returned to soulful house, while KILO, Rizzla and TAKE YOU HOME moved the brothers into Latin, Afro-pop and hip-hop territory.
Selected Discography of The Martinez Brothers
- My Rendition — 2006, EP
- Don’t No Yet — 2010
- The Causeway / Issshhh! — 2011
- H 2 Da Izzo / Two Much (For Me) — 2012
- Space & Time — 2014, with Seth Troxler
- Tree Town — 2014, EP
- Stuff In The Trunk — 2016, with Miss Kittin
- fabric presents The Martinez Brothers — 2019, DJ mix
- Let It Go — 2019, with Louie Vega and Marc E. Bassy
- Química — 2020, with Rauw Alejandro
- PAP (Pendiente Al Paso) — 2021, with Fuego
- KILO — 2022, with Tokischa
- Rizzla — 2022, with Gordo and Rema
- Pleasure Peak — 2023, with Eliza Rose
- PFW (Paris Fashion Week) — 2023, with Tommy Genesis
- Juice — 2025, with Loco Dice and Trinidad James
- TAKE YOU HOME — 2025, with Mike Dean, Apex Martin and SASH
- Impressions — 2026, with Stevie Appleton
The main discography of The Martinez Brothers consists primarily of singles, EPs and DJ mixes, so artificially turning it into a list of “albums” would be misleading. Apple Music separately classifies numerous live and club recordings, including mixes from Hï Ibiza, Kappa FuturFestival and ReFrame, but these are not conventional studio albums by the duo.
The Martinez Brothers and Contemporary House Culture
The significance of The Martinez Brothers is defined in large part by the rare continuity of their musical story. They were introduced to house through someone who had directly experienced the Paradise Garage era, began performing while still teenagers, received mentorship from Dennis Ferrer, developed into international artists through Circoloco and later became label owners and curators of major club events themselves.
At the same time, they do not try to recreate New York’s past literally. In their music, classic soulful house coexists with European tech house, Puerto Rican rhythms and contemporary urban sounds. Cuttin’ Headz became a natural extension of that philosophy: the label maintains a connection to the Bronx and house history while releasing music by new generations of producers.
It is precisely the combination of these different cultural lines — the Bronx, Paradise Garage, Puerto Rican musical tradition and Ibiza club culture — that has become the defining feature of The Martinez Brothers. Their career shows how the legacy of classic New York house can retain its own identity while continuing to evolve within the contemporary international club scene.
