Submitted By: 2fjeff

Genre: Electronic

Date of Set: Feb 5th, 2008

Filesize: 76.52 MB

Total Downloads: 5

Trevor Jackson began a convoluted career in music by designing record sleeves. Fresh out of art college in north London, he met the legendary owner of Champion Records and offered to design a cover free of charge. In the next few years he designed classic, instantly identifiable sleeves for Raze, Todd Terry, The Jungle Brothers, Eric B & Rakim and a host of lesser lights. Then came his trademark cover designs for the Stereo MCs, the distinctive logo and cover art for Neil Rushton's techno label, Network, and, after a chance meeting at the Wag Club, Mark Moore's first S-Express single. He was one of the main featured designers in Cynthia Roses's best selling Club culture/Design book 'Design after dark' and went on to have work published in numerous other publications and had his work shown in many exhibitions worldwide.

Originally a fan of Soft Cell, Human League and ABC, he started venturing out to New Romantic nights, moving through the Colin Faver/Eddie Richards nights at the Camden Palace, hip-hop at the Electric Ballroom, hearing Afrika Bambaataa mix Prince's 'When Doves Cry into 'Shout' by Tears For Fears and feeling things click into place, experiencing Jay Strongman's funk sets at the Mudd Club, Dave Dorrell and CJ Macintosh's eclectic selections at Raw, The Watson Brothers mix of Hip Hop into House at Delirium, The London classic warehouse parties organized by the Mutoid Waste Company, Family Function, Shake and Fingerpop and Soul II Soul, The birth of Balearic with Paul Oakenfield at Spectrum, Danny Rampling at Shoom, and the enormous outdoor raves at Sunrise Raindance, & Biology 'The most important thing was being inspired by the music,' he says. 'I've never taken a tab of E in my life. 'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On the Wheels Of Steel' was like an adventure in sound to me. I'd put my headphones on listen to the Art of Noise and it was a journey, I would dance to Phuture's 'Acid Trax' and would be taken somewhere else. That was my release. I was always stimulated by the dynamics of music and sound. Excited by Double D & Steinski's collage records, Martin Rushent's extended pop mixes, the electro of John Robie and Arthur Baker, Razor sharp Latin Rascals edits, Marley Marl productions on the Pop Art label and the maniac bonus beats that came with every New York 12 inch single during the early 1980's, Jackson started making his own mix tapes, using the pause button on his cassette machine.

Next came a Commodore 64 computer and a little sampling program, finally a 4 track recorder. T hen in 1990 Morgan Khan, notorious owner of the Streptolysins label, ran a British Hip Hop talent competition.

'These friends of mine round the corner,' says Jackson, 'Had formed a hip hop crew called the Brotherhood'. They knew I had a 4 track. We worked on some tracks and entered the competition' Nothing happened but we had enjoyed working together, and began to create more music.Trevor decided to start a label called Bite it! (Named after his design company) specially to release the bands first E.P. After releasing two more records on the label his production work began to gain attention from major labels who began to commission him to remix their most important acts.

Striking up working relationships with Massive Attack, New Kingdom, Shara Nelson and even U2, Underdog remixes began highly anticipated as well as respected. Via his remix work, the Brotherhood eventually signed to Virgin in 1996. Once signed Jackson spent nearly two years of his life creating the music for their first album 'Elementalz'. Striving for originality Trevor scoured the racks of Europe's 2nd hand record stores for undiscovered music to sample. Once released the albums reception was astounding, Cited by many as 'The greatest UK rap album of all time'. But eventually tensions between backroom producer and frontline vocalists surfaced. The band split and Jackson embarked on another long term project, producing The Emperor's New Clothes for Acid Jazz.

Fired up by the band's live performances, he was reminded of the records by, Can, Gong, Nucelus and Soft Machine he discovered whilst searching for samples for his Hip Hop creations. A year in the making the groundbreaking album never saw the light of day due to problems with the band's label. Trevor's taste in music was becoming more eclectic, with both his productions and remixes notable for their unusual choices of sample sources. For his first remix he had used KRS-One along with Sting and for one of his label's early releases, raided Julian Priester's electric ECM jazz rarity, 'Love Love'. Hanging out in Honest Jons in Portobello Road, talking music with James Lavelle, buying obscure European progressive jazz records and weird electronics, hearing PIL and Material, his perspective had gradually changed.

The Bite it! label grew, but he found the business dynamics of hip-hop too fraught. Whilst giving birth to UK rap stars such as Lewis Parker, and the Scientists of Sound, the narrowmindedness and backstabbing of the Uk rap scene eventually caused Trevor the shut down the label. But in it's demise a series of influential record sleeves, designed by Trevor and Photographer Donald Christie broke all preconceptions of how UK rap should be marketed. Stark black and white photography devoid of any typography, look as powerful today as they did nearly 10 years ago, After the collapse of the Brotherhood, The Stress of running a UK Hip Hop label, The disappointment of the Emperors New Clothes album never being released, and worse of all the sudden death of his close friend and manager Marts Andrups, Trevor took time out to decide what to do next.

In 1996 he decided to start a brand new record label Output, free of any preconceptions or expectations and now able to release any genre of music he wished Trevor felt inspired again, the label has released over 40 releases to date. Keiran Hebden's Fridge and Fourtet projects both began on Output, Electro duo 7-Hurtz and New wave pop siblings Sonovac, Paris Nu-wave Goth's BlackStrobe, Prolific Atom Heart's LB project, and the gentle electroacoustic melodies of Boy Lucas have all released outstanding eclectic records which equally excite and intrigue as they do confuse and perplex. The majority of Output sleeves are still designed by Trevor along with Photographer's such as Jason Evans, they continue to appearin publications and exhibitions around the world.

His also rekindled his remix career and constructed some of his the best works of his career from Peshay, Data, and Unkle tracks featuring Ian Brown and Thom York.

Djing since the mid 80's starting at Oxford's Caribbean club with Tony from Attica blues, Trevor became a regular at the legendary Mo Wax Blue Note sessions 'Dusted' and as well as playing many other club's in europe, he still throws his own highly anticipated parties. He was asked to DJ on Massive Attack's 1998 European tour and any excuse he gets to be invited to a city with second hand record shop's to search through he'll be there.

An avid collector, Trevor has a huge collection of records, books, comics, toys and 20th century icons. ' I have a strong fundamental belief in the power of ideas beyond, style and fashion, I am convinced that the simplest well executed innovative ideas and concepts will outlive those transient market based creations, the strongest of ideas live on, and hollow concepts soon fade. That applies to video games, comic books and pop records as much as serious literature, and high art. I share an equal love of low brow culture and high brow culture and detest snobbery and narrow mindedness on any level'.

http://www.myspace.com/playgroup

Submitted By: 2fjeff

Genre: Electronic

Date of Set: Feb 5th, 2008

Filesize: 76.52 MB

Total Downloads: 5

Kieran Hebden (born 1980 in Putney, London, England, United Kingdom) is a post-rock and electronic musician. Hebden first came to prominence as a member of the band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist in his own right under the moniker Four Tet.

Hebden's music typically eschews the traditional pop song format in favor of a more abstract approach - his rich, organic sound and harmonious melodies incorporate elements of hip hop, electronica, techno, jazz, and folk music with live instrumentation. His work as Four Tet shares some stylistic similarities with other musicians, such as Prefuse 73, who use computer editing techniques that give the music a staccato, cut-up feel[citation needed].

Alongside recording his own material, Hebden has also performed remixes for a number of artists including Aphex Twin, Super Furry Animals, Radiohead, Matthew Dear, Nathan Fake, Bloc Party, Andrew Bird and Black Sabbath. Hebden's recent work includes a number of improvisational collaborations with veteran jazz drummer Steve Reid.

Kieran Hebden began releasing material as Four Tet in 1998 with the 36 minute and 25 second single Thirtysixtwentyfive on Trevor Jackson's Output Recordings label. Later that year, he released a second single, the jazz-influenced 'Misnomer'. 1999's Dialogue, again on Output, was Four Tet's first full-length album release and fused hip-hop drum lines with dissonant jazz samples. This was followed by the double A-side single 'Glasshead'/'Calamine', which was to be Four Tet's last release on Output.

In late 1999, Warp Records released Warp 10 + 3: Remixes, a tenth-anniversary compilation of remixes of Warp tracks; Hebden contributed a remix of the opening track of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II. This relatively high profile exposure attracted a lot of new interest in Four Tet from fans of electronica and IDM, genres in which the Warp brand has a preeminent status[citation needed].

In 2001, Four Tet's second album Pause was released on Domino Records and found Hebden using more folk and electronic samples, which was quickly dubbed 'folktronica' by the media and press[citation needed] in an attempt to label the style (often also applied to artists such as Isan and Gravenhurst). The acoustic guitar track 'Everything Is Alright' is the theme music for the National Public Radio talk show On Point, produced at WBUR in Boston, Massachusetts.

Rounds was released in May 2003. It was Hebden's most ambitious album to date[citation needed], incorporating diverse samples such as the mandolin on 'Spirit Fingers', and even a rubber duck on the closing track 'Slow Jam'. Three singles were released from the album: 'She Moves She', 'As Serious as Your Life', and 'My Angel Rocks Back and Forth'. This last single was released as an EP featuring remixes by electronica duo Icarus and Isambard Khroustaliov along with additional Four Tet tracks 'I've Got Viking in Me' and 'All the Chimes'. An accompanying DVD featured all of Four Tet's videos to date. In addition, the closing track 'Slow Jam' was featured in a U.S. Nike commercial in 2001 and 2002; Hebden edited the track on the back of the bus with his laptop while on a tour with Fridge[citation needed].

At the beginning of 2003, Four Tet opened for Radiohead on their European tour. A remix of the song 'Scatterbrain' from Radiohead's sixth studio album Hail to the Thief was included on their 2004 EP COM LAG (2plus2isfive). Furthermore, Hebden was among the people thanked by Radiohead in the booklet accompanying their 2007 In Rainbows 'discbox' release.

A live album named Live in Copenhagen 30th March 2004 was released in April 2004 as a limited edition, available only through the Domino Records website.

In March and April of 2005, Four Tet performed two shows of improvisational music, in collaboration with jazz drummer Steve Reid, in Paris and London. He also appears on Steve Reid Ensemble 2005 album Spirit Walk. This collaboration was extended into a series of international tours, and the release of two albums, The Exchange Session Vol. 1 and The Exchange Session Vol. 2 over the course of 2005 and 2006.

His fourth studio album Everything Ecstatic was released on Domino on 23 May 2005. The video for the lead single, 'Smile Around the Face', features actor Mark Heap. The album brought with it another shift in style, leaving behind the breezy 'folktronica' of Pause and Rounds for a darker, more complex sound[citation needed]. On 7 November 2005, Domino has released a DVD version of Everything Ecstatic featuring video clips for each track of the album plus a CD with new material.

Hebden has also remixed, under the Four Tet name, tracks by a wide range of artists including Madvillain, Andrew Bird, Bloc Party, Super Furry Animals, Beth Orton, Badly Drawn Boy, The Notwist, Boom Bip, Kings of Convenience, Steve Reich, Lars Horntveth, Bonobo, Rothko, Thom Yorke and Radiohead.

On 25 September 2006, Domino Records released Remixes, a two-disc compilation of Four Tet remixes. The first disc contains twelve Four Tet remixes selected by Hebden, with the second disc comprising of every official remix to date (both by Hebden himself and by other artists) of Four Tet tracks, many of which had previously been available on vinyl only.[1]

Hebden has also produced two tracks on Chrome Children Vol. 2 for Guilty Simpson and Aloe Blacc.

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