Marc Reck

After a meeting with Dubber the other week about the Share to Create project and 4ip, Robin (and Dubber) mentioned that he had a weekly radio show starting on Rhubarb Radio.

I can’t believe i hadn’t found these guys before, as i’ve been hoping someone in brum would setup a radio station like this. The schedule they have got at the moment is really good, and there’s so much great music from local djs in brum, i can see it taking over last fm for my out of hours music listening time.

I’m also very chuffed to say that i have been accepted to do a weekly show every friday eve from 6-8pm starting in November. I’ve wanted to find a suitable live home for Mr Elephant Radio show for ages now, and i think this could be the perfect slot for the breadth of music that it’s in it.

Expect a divers mr elephant style mixtape, a dj mix/warm up for the weekend, and live recordings/transmissions. I’m looking forward to someone mic babble and Bass6 has kindly offered to do some jingles next time hes in brum.

If anyone wants to send music (all styles welcome), feel free to drop me an email at marcreck@gmail.com

and the show starts on Friday November 21st 2008 at www.rhubarbradio.com and you can listen to the stream 24/7

Here’s this month’s breaks reviews for the Night Times. Grab a free copy from your favourite local dancing establishments

Update : Here’s the scanned in version (with additional reviews from Bensun), and the readable version is here

Blind – Cut & Run – Crisp Biscuits – First up is another killer remix from the kings of booty breaks. Cut & Run might be a little bit naughty, but they’ve made 2 of the biggest crowd pleasers in my box, and pleased many a dancefloor with their cheekiness. This one samples one of my favourite Streets tracks, with a beautiful break down, nice buildup and the trademark cut & run nu-skool heaviness.

Stanton Warriors – Shifting Gears – Plump Djs – Finger Licking – Staying on the more party breaks end of the spectrum we’ve got this remix from the Stantons. Its got a great vocal, and those trademark stanton style beats, basslines, and noise.. It might not be breaking barriers, but it is done very well.

Western Soul (Groove Diggers Remix) – Parker – Rocstar – Lee (Cut la Roc) sent this promo a while ago and it has its big release back in May, but as i wasn’t reviewing back then i thought i’d best get in quick. Probably my favourite out of the many Parker remixes, and definitely one of my favourite groove diggers remixes to date, this one build up all the way through, dropping some great techno style sounds, with a nice use of the 303 acid noise, whilst still keeping that funky breaks roll.

Loose Caboose (Bassbin Twins Remix) – The Electroliners – Twitch – This weeks classic breaks track is from 1993, and takes you back as soon as as you hear it, with its 303 acid noises, old school beats, snare rolls and horns. Reminds me of the old Raves, and early Que Club days and so one i’ll most definitly be dropping at the Atomic Jam que club return next month.

Braveheart Breaks (Scratch Record) – Dj Ritchie Rufftone – And finally this weeks “not strictly breaks track” is my first scratch record i recently bought from Jibbering. With plenty of sounds and those essential standard scratch noises, but done in an intuitive way, this is one piece of vinyl i’m trying to play with every day. Great for anyone who is getting into their scratching.

The Napt, Slyde, and Golticin & Quest reviews on the scan are by Bensun

This from our mr elephant website

We are very excited to be working with the inspiring John Mostyn and his new Consider it Done agency on their gigbeth gig @ the Rainbow pub next friday (7th November 2008) as part of this years Gigbeth Fringe festival.

Not only is it free all night (from 9 – 2), but the line up is full of really talented musicians and legendary bands!

Here’s some links if you want to have a listen for yourself :

9pm – Laura Louise (Beautiful Acoustic with footpedal and flute)- http://www.myspace.com/lauralouiseowen

9.45pm – Mama Matrix (Energetic Balkan Gypsy Jazz) – http://www.myspace.com/mamamatrix

11pm – Smiley Mic (Incredible One Man Band avec footpedal) – http://www.smileymic.co.uk/

12.15pm – Capital Letters (Legendary 10 piece reggae band) – http://www.last.fm/music/Capital+Letters

1am – Dj Marc Reck (Diverse Dancefloor 4 deck party Rockin)- http://www.marcreck.com

And if you’re on facebook and feel like telling anyone about it, the event page is – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=47795435235

Should be a great night of music, so hope you can be there.

One love

Mr E

I’m very pleased to say that we’ve been accepted for an interview for a proposal for full potential arts. Its a joint mutli artform proposal for a project with mental health patients, and would be personally my first project of this size. The project is made up of mask making and mask work from Pyn (Dramask), Performance and drama from Lucy (Dance and Drama choreographer), video editing and visuals from Liam (Blendstate) and a sound workshop and live soundtrack from me

Fingers crossed for next wednesday.

This copied from our Mr Elephant website!

Last saturday was the first elephant call to the local party rockin mammals, when we inhabited the Bulls Head in Moseley. With our resident vj Blendstate at the helm of his multi screen visuals, and our resident dj Marc Reck at the sonic controls, we expected it to go off elephant style…Quite how much though we really didnt expect!

There was so much great stuff on last week, we weren’t sure how many party rockin mammals there would be around, and with a capacity of around 100 upstairs at the bulls head, we weren’t expecting any more than that, so we were pretty astounded that around 200 people came out to rock the party!

To be fair we did also have special guest and leftfoot resident Sam Redmore playing for the first 3 hours, who warmed up the room (on a particularly cold october eve) with a very soulful selection, playing classic and re-edited funk, soul and reggae cuts.

While it got many asses in motion, and was the perfect diverse build up, Party Rockin was the calling of the night, and as the name implied was what many of the guests were shouting for. Straight into the breaks with the classic Higher State of Consciousness, our resident dj Marc Reck took to the decks, and with his first solid outing of scratching, he built up the energy with every track, dropping tech house, party breaks, techno and nu school breaks, alongside Liam Blendstate multi screen visuals, until unleashing the last 45 minutes of drum and bass to a very responsive crowd.

It was a great atmosphere and paved the way nicely for the 2nd Party Rockin Mammal Sessions to be held on Saturday 6th December 2008, with a very special old school guest joining our dj and vj residents.

Heres a few video clips of Vj Blendstate & Dj Marc Reck courtesy of Liam D’authreau (and stuck together in quicktime).

This just in from the Jibbering team, so thought i’d blog it

©2008 Jibbering, 136 Alcester Rd, Moseley, Birmingham, B13 8EE.

was where it all started for me back in 1995. (Well actually it was the House of God event 2 weeks before, but still, both events have inspired, (for better or worse), much that was to follow.

Now Atomic Jam is back at its birthplace, just in time for its 13th Birthday celebrations, and i’m most chuffed to have been asked to play!

Suffice to say i’m more than excited, and thankfully now have time once again, (now the big events have died down), to be back on my djing in time for something special / worthy of the Jam.

I fortunatly have had lots of great gigs since the start of this year, but since the end of 2007, i have really wanted to take my djing up a level and use the capabilities of 4 deck Traktor scratch, plus have the time to develop other elements with people i’ve been working with, (like the new Vjamm 3 with Vj Blendstate, or the percussion side with Paulo)

This years Mr Elephant events, the recent Project X, and a host of other projects have left me with little time other than to practice normally (and in some cases not at all), but now they have died down to manageable levels it feels like there is a break in the clouds and what a perfect opportunity to return to where it all started with something new!

More information is available on the site and tickets are available here

P.s if anyone has the first atomic jam flyer, please drop me an email.

I recently started a role as breaks reviewer for the Night Times, where i get to review 5 or 6 of my favourite breaks tracks around at the mo. Here’s the first one for the Aug / Sep Issue.

Update : Here’s the scanned in copy and the readable version is here

Apocalypse VIP, Artist : Screwface vs The Autobots, Label : Broke Recordings

A welcome re-rub of a massive classic, well timed with the Dark Night still showing on some big screens. The original Apocalypse was a huge orchestral track with heavy breaks and that extremely cool batman hook, which destroyed dancefloors in 2005/6. This remix has been re-edited with some nice fills, intelligent changes, and a cool ragga style vocal that thankfully hasnt been over used.

If you haven’t got the original, i suggest you check em both out, but if you have then this is definitely worth a look.

Frequency (Miles Dyson Remix) Artist: Slyde Label: Finger Lickin

Ok, so this isn’t technically breaks, and the Napt remix is all over the breakbeat scene at the moment, but for me, that rocket up your arse breaks style bass line coupled with those driving Miles Dyson rhythms, delivers a dancefloor bomb that will set off breaks, techno, and electro house headz alike, and one which generated a huge response at our recent Project X Presents gig.

Take The Weight, Artist: Plump DJs, Label: Finger Lickin

Not a new release as such, but i’ve only just bought it, and it rocks! Still on the rocket up your arse type tip, this is fast becoming one of my new favourite tracks, with the plumps phat rolling beats taking us up to a huge siren based breakdown, which literally has the crowd screaming for the massive drop. Essential for all you people who like to set it off, and another one that rocked the PXP big style.

Drop the Bomb, Artist: Plaza De Funk, Label: Brighton Breaks

Best breakthrough dj at Breakspoll, Plaza de Funk has been riding high in the breaks charts for sometime now with this. With a fingerlickin party style to it, and a nice tempoooo slooowww breakdown taking us to chemical brothers style hip hop bridge, this has all the makings of a classic party breaks roller.

Woppa, Artist: Bassbin Twins, Label: Bassbin

I bought two tracks from the Bassbins this month. One on Cool and Deadly called Pigpen, and this one on Woppa. Both have that nice dirty grimy feel to them, with this one just edging in front to set those monkey arms a-swinging. If you not heard them before, the twins have a very distinctive sound, and are another artist that fit well with a range of genres from dubstep to breaks. This Woppa track is one of my favourite with it’s rolling break, phat bass, and choice edits. Definitly one to raise the anticipation on the floor.

Tamborzao Con Scratchy (Original Mix), Artist : MC Gringo & DJ Beware, Label : Man Recordings

A nice cut up scratchy party style breaks track, with some nice edits, choice scratches, and live fills. One that is likely to get the asses shaking, and leave you plenty of places to go in your set.

Today i also got invited to a website/service i’ve been after for quite a while, (but interestingly especially this week!)

The site is called soundcloud, and it was recommended by my friend at EMI, who uses it to send his new lovely breaks goodness.

The service allows users to quickly and easily send files to each other,and has an intelligent web 2.0 interface and a nice round feel to it all.

The site looks perfect for getting my unfinished stuff out there, and (hopefully) get the tracks and ideas moving forward with comments and collaboration from people with more honed production skills that I.

I also wanted somewhere to host my dj mixes, but i think this may infringe on the copyright a bit too closely, so maybe i should find something else for that.

Either way I cant wait to use it, and there’s about a week until it launches properly.