Submitted By: tanzmaus

Genre: Ambient

Date of Set: 2005

Filesize: 242.00 MB

Total Downloads: 10

Ask Mixmaster Morris to pin a description down on ambient music and you won't get the neat and simplistic answer you might have been looking for. 'You mean put ambient into a little bag? But it's a wild animal that likes big, open spaces. It doesn't like to be put in a little bag...it's indescribable music...radically beautiful music...'

Morris Gould began his life as a DJ around 1982, while studying organic chemistry at London's Kings College. He found himself spinning for a variety of punk and indie rock bands, including a then little-known band called The Smiths. The music he played wasn't dance music ('I'm not a disco bunny, I never was...') - quite often it was much more adventurous and new than that of the bands he was supporting. His sets were indicative of a kind of transformation he was making in his musical tastes. He had outgrown rock music and turned on to various forms of head music, fancying artists such as Sun Ra, Captain Beefheart, Miles Davis and many varieties of non-Western music.

A bit earlier, Morris began hosting one-man electronic shows, experimenting with a Copycat tape loop echo machine, patterning endless tape loops after examples set by Robert Fripp and Terry Riley, among others. He also found London's active pirate radio scene and signed on with rebel station Network 21, where he worked with such DJs as Matt Black and Jonathan More of Coldcut fame and was given the nickname of Mixmaster Morris. To date he has played on dozens of radio shows with such electronic luminaries as Derrick May and Future Sound of London.

After university came several years of working as a computer systems analyst and a continuation of both DJing and making music. By this time it was 1985, and he was known as the Rhythm Method (no relation to the current band of the same name). He met up with Des de Moor in 1987 and became the Irresistible Force. The duo organized a live techno event called Madhouse in 1988, one of the first of its kind. After completing a tour with Meat Beat Manifesto and recording the rare single 'I Want To,' Morris departed from the partnership (retaining the name) in 1989 to head down a different pathway, both musically and philosophically. To pay the bills he took on a gig as the supporting DJ for The Shamen's Synergy Tour, traveling the UK and abroad.

On breaks he would return to London and play chill-out rooms at underground parties. In 1990 he took over The White Room, the chill-out room at Heaven started by Alex Patterson of the Orb. A typical set for Mixmaster Morris would be evenly divided between live music and DJing, and would last for up to twelve hours at a time. At Telepathic Fish, London's first big underground ambient party which he helped organize, Morris played with the Aphex Twin for an unbelievable sixteen-hour stretch.

1992 marked the release of Irresistible Force's Flying High on the UK Rising High label, still regarded as one of the most ground breaking ambient albums. The Underground EP, the lauded Dreamfish project with Pete Namlook, appearances on various compilations and several remixes followed, including work for The Shamen, Barbarella, Rising High Collective, Higher Intelligence Agency, Aural Expansion, Transform and Coldcut.

1994 saw the completion of Global Chillage, now making its way onto American shores via Astralwerks. Where Flying High was created over a stretch of several months in Rising High's appalling studio (complete with leaky ceilings), Global Chillage was completed in just two weeks, mostly at home on his own computer. It's a trend he will be continuing, moving away from studios and concentrating on what can be done on the home computer.

Global Chillage documents a positive time in his life, fresh from two years of touring and playing worldwide. Serving as a global ambient cheerleader, he has been able to spread the message of the movement and see appreciable results: 'It's pretty wicked to go into a town and come out of the town feeling like you've changed the culture of that city. It's a great feeling.' he says with pride. Among the most notable of events that he has participated in are the past 3 Love Parades (Berlin's annual techno extravaganza), UK's Glastonbury Festival for the past four years, and numerous Universe events in both the UK and Germany. He has helped break down barriers in the live arena by appearing with 'hypnodrone rock' artists Seefeel and Spiritualized, and awaits a forthcoming tour with Experimental Audio Research.

''I've always loved techno but wanted something BETTER,' says Morris. Outspoken on the subject of 'corporate dance crap,' Morris has often put his money where his mouth is and taken it upon himself to find that something better. In addition to his own music, he has been helpful in breaking the careers of several acclaimed purveyors of intelligent dance music, including Aphex Twin, Pete Namlook, Black Dog, Mu-Ziq, Spacetime Continuum, Global Communication and Wagon Christ. Presently you'll find him singing the praises of ambient jungle and watching the news catch like wildfire all over the world.

When Mixmaster Morris isn't spinning or making music, you're likely to find him on the Internet. Whether elevating the dialogue on ambient or other music by educating the net.community on new or hard-to-find sounds or playing around with his informative homepage on the World Wide Web, it's probably a good bet that you'll find him lurking about.

Hopefully this has shed some light on Mixmaster Morris: ambient evangelist, DJ, musician and educator. Need to know more? It's all in the music.

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