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Play label Artist Profiles
WHO’S PLAYING?

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DEPTH CHARGE

J. Saul Kane started DJing at the tender age of 16, and a few years later, in 1989, released his first record, the self-titled ‘Depth Charge’ from London's Vinyl Solution label. Fusing heavy hip-hop beats and dubby basslines, with humorous snippets of film dialogue frequently sourced from westerns & martial arts films.

1995 saw Kane establish from the Vinyl Solution office, his DC Recordings label, releasing the music of artists he personally rates, like The Deadly Avenger, Dual Tone, and Tom Tyler in addition to his own unique productions. Unlike the film-sampling tracks he is well known for ("Bounty Killer", "Death by Dawn" etc) Akira is in its own way a moody soundtrack.

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QUANTE JUBILA

Quante Jubila feature two core members, PLAY label A+R director Jeff Hammond and Takuya Matsumoto, who met in a Tokyo club in 1998.

"Young Jeff" has 10 years of club DJ experience, starting out playing dub and chill-out as a member of the fledgling OHM SoundSystem ( now Subculture Soundsystem ) in his native UK before re-locating to Japan in 1992. While continuing to dub-up Japan on the decks, he also writes about music for various publications - regularly for "Tokion" magazine, and freelance elsewhere. Matsumoto has played bass in jazz, dub and hardcore bands for a number of years.

Though both dub fanatics, (their name is taken from a Prince Far-I track) the music takes in a wide range of influences from Latin rhythms & funk through to electro.

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QUIRO PRO

Takehiko Ichimura began his musical career in 1990 as a guitarist, playing solo and in various acts, the last of which was a dub-funk band which he left in 1998 in order to concentrate on making his own tracks.

Influences include Curtis Mayfield, Public Enemy and Mantroniks through to the experimental electronic sounds of Holger Czukay and the Orb. His electronic style is based on a strong element of groove yet retains a melodic undercurrent

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THIEVERY CORPORATION

After meeting at Eighteenth Street Lounge in May 1995, Rob Garza and Eric Hilton soon discovered a shared passion for the same music, principally 60's bossa nova, and then soundtracks, jazz, and dub. Within a matter of weeks they had become a busy production team - Thievery Corporation. After several early 12" singles, the album "Sounds From the Thievery Hi-Fi" was released on ESL Music, followed by a remix compilation and a DJ Kicks session.

August 2000 saw the unveiling of their new long player, "The Mirror Conspiracy", expressing more subtleties in their sound than ever before and received wide music press acclaim. New track "Guide For I and I " on The Stone is one of their more dubby affairs, featuring the vocals of Plejah.

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TAKAYUKI SHIRAISHI

Influenced by German experimental rock and inspired to make his own music by the energy and independence of the punk and new wave, Takayuki Shiraishi started releasing his own material in the early eighties. Sensing a similar independent spirit in Detroit techno and acid house, the later part of that decade saw his music shifting in that direction. Around 1992 he started DJing -his early style, focusing on Detroit techno, gradually gave way to a more free-form style mixing hip-hop, house and techno with jazz and breakbeats. With this approach he has found not only his own niche but a receptive audience in the Japanese club scene.

In 1995, he released a single on R&S subsidiary APOLLO, followed by the albums "Photon"(Syzygy) , Musica Nova ( ns-com), and the 12" single "Smoky Quartz"(L5) which included a remix by As One. 1999 saw the release of his first full album for two years, Reach For The Sun (Ns-Com), which received very favourable reviews in magazines such as Muzik, and radio play by John Peel and Giles Peterson.

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SUBCULTURE SOUNDSYSTEM

Members of Subculture Soundsystem have been involved in various aspects of the UK underground music scene since the early nineties. Starting out as promoters and DJ's, they have played alongside Mad Professor, Eat Static, Zion Train, Asian Dub Foundation, etc.

More recently, as DJ and live unit Subculture Soundsystem, they have been responsible for both chilled-out second room vibes for various London club nights and also their own full-on, unique mix of breaks, beats & basslines. Subculture Soundsystem put together the well-received compilation album "21st Century Ska", from tracks tried and tested at their club nights, and plan future compilations & their own limited edition 12" releases.

Members of Subculture also produce material as part of Dubhead Records act ‘Urban Dub’, and have been commisioned to write tracks for release on UK electronica label Law & Auder.

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KHUV+HARVIK

Khuv began his DJ career in 1992, while Harvik has a background in studio engineering. Khuv's dj style has developed from the staple of On-U sound, dub, jazz, and indie-dance of his early days, to incorporate rare groove, jungle , drum and bass with a freestyle flair of his own. He has shared a stage with Dego (4 Hero/2000 Black), Patrick Forge, Photek & Mixmaster Morris. Harvik has used his experience producing for major artists as a base to go out on his own. The Japanese breakbeat unit made their decks & samples live debut in 1998 at the major event, RIP in Yokohama, playing alongside DJ Krush, Global Communications etc.

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SPIRIT JACK

Spirit Jack is the solo project of Tetsuya Hirano. Tetsuya left the space- rock band in which he was playing guitar and along with the bass-player named Genshi together formed Higher Self, who released one track on the compilation "Strong, Sun, Moon" compiled by party -organisers Equinox. Like all his tracks, his first solo release GATE no.18 demonstrates a playful, off-kilter approach to music making.

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THE MIGHTY QUARK

The Mighty Quark are Walter Baecklin, a Swede, and Mark O' Sullivan, a soccer-crazy Irishman living in Sweden. Mark also runs the label King Syndrome Sounds from which The Mighty Quark have released a number of 12" singles and the album "IAN HENDRICKS DISCO", and gained fans in Leftfield, Andy Weatherall and The Orb.

Mark also produces as Bacuzzi with Andy Bell, and their first 12", Sundays Child has received widespread acclaim.

Check out our interview with The Mighty Quark

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MAYA

Pianist & music graduate, Maya went on to form the act Sha'cho Mouse with female vocalist Tomo,( who also appears on "Crazy Clocks") and released the album Photo-Synthesizer on Ns-Com in 1998. In the same year they also played live alongside 4 Hero, Global Communications and Fila Brazilia at the Big Chill in the UK, and contributed a track to the Big chill compilation album. Maya has also released a number of solo tracks on various Japanese labels.

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TSUTCHIE ( SHAKKAZOMBIE/ROPES )

Since the formation of SHAKKAZOMBIE in October, '94, Tsutchie has been working as the "nervous system" of the group - as producer for the unrivalled leaders of Japanese hip-hop. Both their first maxi-single,"Tenohira Wo Taiyou Ni" ("Feel The Sunshine In Your Hands") and their first full album "Hero The S.Z." captured the imagination of the Japanese youth.

He has gained a high reputation both in and outside of the hip-hop scene , and has strong ties with scenes as diverse as hardcore, ska-core and the so-called "Shibuya -style" artists like Kahimi Karie of Trattoria, and Kenji Takimi and Eri from the Crue-l Records.

Through his own solo tracks , and numerous collaborations with a wide range of artists, he has relentlessly striven to push his own creativity.

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NATURAL ESSENCE

Natural Essence are Yoichiro Ito, Go Sato whose tracks featured on various compilations and film soundtracks, before releasing the mini-album "Unnatural" on File records in 1996 which put them in the eye of the media.

The "remixoverdose" single followed including a remix by Howie B and a jacket designed by Simon Taylor of Tomato. Additional releases have included 12" single for cutting-edge UK label Sirkus (1997) , and a track on the 1999 compilation "Temple Of Dub" via Japanese label, Speedstar.

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