Mark E is the master of the gradual build; producing low-slung house grooves that begin at full
fathom fi ve before breaking the surface in waves of euphonious overlapping details. Which is
also similar to how Mark’s own career has developed since beginning deep in the underground
fi ve years ago, except that his ascendance seems to lack as much of a design as his fi nely-honed
records.
“I can’t believe the way that everything has come together for me right now,” he admits, although
getting the right elements to work together has been Mark’s trademark since the fi rst re-edits
which made his name.
His rework of Womack & Womack’s ‘Baby, I’m Scared Of You’ surfaced as ‘Scared’ on Jiscomusic, in
2005, after Mark struck up a friendship with the guys behind the imprint at eclectic Birmingham
nights like Leftfoot and Jigsawmusic. It was when Gilles Peterson began caning it on his Radio
1 show and in the clubs that things really started to snowball, with Mark hearing his heroes like
Ashley Beedle, Metro Area and Theo Parrish all playing a track he’d knocked up in his bedroom.
Further re-edits like Janet Jackson’s ‘R ‘n’ B Drunkie’, and original productions such as ‘Slave’
and ‘Freakin’ Shriekin/Formed’ on labels like Running Back and Under The Shade cemented his
rep, and he’s also just established his own MERC label, primarily as a vehicle for his own new
productions.
But despite a bulging international DJ diary with tours of Australia and Japan pencilled in for
2010, Mark hasn’t forgotten his roots, with his recent ‘Codsall Juniors/Gunstone’ 12” on Endless
Flight named in tribute to the area of Wolverhampton he grew up in.
“I just love the fact that it came out on a Japanese label,” he laughs. “Wolverhampton probably
sounds really exotic to people over there.” PAUL CLARKE
mark E
Frazzled, fl oppy, sun-dazed funk is The ‘Spatio Temporal EP’, out 1st
dEbruit’s modus operandi. The French February, soars all over the atlas in its
producer, aka Xavier Thomas, may search for recondite infl uences, thieving
get lumped in with wonky hip-hop Afro-beat percussion and Iranian synth
trailblazers Flying Lotus and Hudson lines, and squidging them into a freaky
sigha
Mohawke, but dEbruit lollops to his own mulch of unconventional beats, fi zzing
bruk-up, bad-boy beat. keys and humungous b-lines designed
Born in Brittany, resident in London, to do maximum soundsystem damage. Forged in the fi res of techno’s industrial
and signed to Civil Music (home to As a DJ, dEbruit has been making a past, and rising from the fl ames, phoenix-
fellow rabble rousers Kotchy and Reso), name for his electro, dubstep and hip- like to claim his place in the pantheon,
Thomas’s toxic, day-glo rhythms thump hop collisions, and with a debut album Sigha (pronounced “Sire”) is a different
with prime-time boom-bap drums, due later in the year, this ain’t the last kind of DJ/producer. In his world, German
but drop all manner of unexpected you’ve heard of him. BEN MURPHY minimal wizards Ben Klock, Marcel
ingredients into the mix. Dettmann and Redshape sit side by side
with dubstep stargazers Ramadanman and
Pangaea, all united under the umbrella of
intense, deep machine music.
Of course, techno and dubstep have
been getting cosy for a while now, but
never with such seamless, chrome-plated
majesty. Mixing hissing, black smoke
clouds of techno hum and 4/4 drums, with
disembowelling, dub-heavy bass heft,
DJ sets at his London club night Medium,
taking place bi-monthly at Plastic People,
have joined the dots between underground
forms of electronic music, forging exciting
new hybrids in the process.
Releases on the fresh-to-death Hotfl ush
(‘Rawww/Hold My Heart Up To The Light’)
and alongside Spherix on Immerse
(‘Separation’) have got tech and dubstep
d
EbrUit
heads equally excited, and drawn props
from Mary Anne Hobbs to the mighty
Dettmann himself. BEN MURPHY
Pic: JIMMY MOULD
032
www.djmag.com
DJ481.shooting stars_feature.indd 32 10/12/09 14:14:42
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