REVIEWS IN THE BAG!
In the bag....
MRK1
When you absolutely, positively, have to obliterate every bass stack in the goddamn room,
MRK1 is the man to call. The Manchester DJ/producer (real name Mark Foster) first rose to
infamy as one of grime’s foremost innovators, stretching the genre to its limits with early
underground smashes like ‘Proper Tings’ for Immunity Recordings and ‘Turn It Up’ for Texture
Records (both 2002). Later, he began to sculpt futuristic, razor-sharp beats for his deadly MC
squad Virus Syndicate, bringing a raw sampladelic hip-hop edge to grime’s militant space-
age pulse on albums like ‘Work Related Illness’ (2005) and ‘Sick Pay’ (2008).
While the grime competitors struggled to keep up, MRK1 was already moving on, his
expansive, city block-levelling basslines and roughneck instrumentals purpose-built for the
incipient dubstep scene. He’s since carved a niche as one of dubstep’s baddest lieutenants,
with a DJ schedule almost as formidable as his back catalogue of bass-splurging, gully
wobble steppers on labels like his own Contagious, forward-thinking experimental stamp
Planet Mu, and Pinch’s revered Tectonic.
MRK1’s recent series of cuts have tended towards the outright sick, designed to demolish the
dance, and new single ‘Move Your Soul/The Electrician’, out now on his Contagious imprint,
precedes new MRK1 and Virus Syndicate albums this year.
“My album is gonna be the best-selling releases I’ve had out on Contagious, with a couple of
newer tunes, and tracks and remixes from Skream, Marlow, Chimpo and Jack Sparrow,” said
MRK1. “There’s the new Virus Syndicate album coming in March or April, too. It’s sounding
really good, it’s just finished now.”
These are his latest club bombs…
Jakes Doctor P
‘War Face (Remix)’ ‘Sweetshop’
Hench Dub Police
“It’s a high energy tune, with a military-style “It’s quite different to what I would normally
intro, with a sample taken off some old war play. It’s got a kind of hardcore rave intro, with
film. It’s got a lot of screaming in it! It’s also a ‘take me higher!’ vocal sample, and people
got a very powerful drop, a big bassline — it are like, ‘what the fuck is he playing?’ And then
smashes it every time. Jakes is on my AIM, it drops into this disgusting bassline, with a
so we send each other tunes quite a bit, I get high-pitched, Joker-esque sort of feel. That
all his new stuff off him. That’s one of the always gets massive reactions. It makes a tune
outstanding ones at the moment. I think it’s stand out if it’s got something a big different
a VIP mix, though, which makes it that much about it. I remember when I used to go and buy
more special!” tunes, and say, ‘I don’t know what it’s called but
Benga vs Virus Syndicate
it’s got this sample in’, and then instantly the
‘Untitled’
guy would be like, ‘yeah it’s this one’, and you’d
be buzzing, thinking, ‘yeah I’ve got it!’”
Dubplate
“This is another big one. It’s on dubplate at
Virus Syndicate
the minute, not sure what we’re doing with it. ‘Crazy’
It’s one for the clubs, jump-up style, with the Dubplate
usual Benga sort of feel, his trademark. It’s “When I play this out it gets one of the best
like ’26 Basslines’, with catchy lyrics from Virus reactions from the crowd. This one is slightly
Syndicate.” different to my usual productions. It’s got the
heavy bassline, but the vocals, because of the
MRK1
way they’re mixed down, stand out on top of
‘Move Your Soul’
it, so I’ve been trying to mix it up a bit with a
Contagious
grime element. It’s a skippy beat, with a bit of
“One of my most recent tunes. It’s got a big
bounce to it.”
orchestral, eerie ensemble string breakdown,
and then it goes quiet, before you’ve got a big
MRK1
crowd sample of people screaming. If you’re
‘The Electrician’
in a club, people think it might be the person
Contagious
next to them making noise, so they might feel
“This is the flip to ‘Move Your Soul’. It’s an
obliged to make some noise too!
uptempo dubstep tune, sort of in the Caspa or
“I’ll go with a certain sound for two or three
Rusko style, with a screaming bassline. Instead
tunes, and then get a new piece of equipment
of being a wobble, it’s a straight sine synth, a
and drag out some new sounds. I’m trying to
mixture of a synth and a sub. It’s getting quite
update all the time. This has got a drum & bass
a bit of play, people like Diplo are playing it as
feel to it, this tune in particular goes back to a
well.”
track called ‘The Pulse’ by Bad Company.”
www.djmag.com
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DJ482.in_the_bag.indd 75 7/1/10 17:41:09
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