Me, myself, my brainbox and the ghost of Martin (Zero) Hannett
Influences
Jes (Pod) without you I would never have been anything, I owe you more than I could ever mention! Mum, Dad, Sister. John Peel, Suburban Knight, Blapps Posse, Break the Limits, Tommy Musto, Lenny D, Frankie Bones, Derrick May, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Transmat, Reinforced Records, Metalheadz, The Meters, Nirvana, The Stooges, Mudhoney, The Pixies, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Booka Shade, Elliot Smith, Tomita, Phillip Glass, John Williams, John Barry, David Axelrod, Roy Budd, Serge Gainsbourg, Dj Shadow, Jonny L, Dj Krust, Wax Doctor, Photek, Source Direct, Ed Rush, Optical, John Holt, Max Romeo, Hijack, Silver Bullet, KRS1, Scott La Rock (RIP), Ultramagnetic Mc's, Eric B & Rakim, De La Soul, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, The Beatles, Napalm Death, Andy Votel, Twisted Nerve, David Shire, Nigthmares On Wax, Hospital Records / Med School, Marcus Intalex, Calibre, Duo Infernale, High Contrast, Underground Resistance, Van Morrison, Blur, Radiohead, Tom Yorke, John Coltrane, Horace Andy, Max Romeo, Rave, Hardcore, Chicago House, Acid House, Detroit Techno, Ambient, Jungle, Drum and Bass, Punk, Funk, Soul, Hip Hop, Rock, Metal, Folk, Electronica, Spoken Word, Old Skool Hip Hop-Rave-Jungle-Hardcore, UK Hip Hop from the early 1980's upto 1990, Studio 1 Records, Joy Division, Martin (Zero) Hannett, Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton, The Fall, Mark E Smith, The Smiths, Morrisey, Dj Fallout, Debussey, Vaughn Williams, Wagner, David Bowie, Velvet Underground, The Bamboos, The Sonics, ICR - (A DnB Visionary), Goldie, Commix, Saul Williams, EL-P, Afrika Bambatta, DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Cold Cut, EPMD, Neil Landstrumm, James Brown, Phil Spector, Schooly D and DJ Code Money, Dj Cheese, Cash Money and MC Marvelous, The Kills, Digital, Dom and Roland, Basement Records, >> more to come when I remember and my swiss cheese brain makes connections!
Sounds Like
Epic Soundscapes doing battle with At-At's (Star Wars - All Terrain Armored Transport).
My 12" vinyl / download release on Hospital Records twisted sister label Med School is out now and available from all the usual online record shops and download stores.
Many thanks to all the team at Med School / Hopsital - Tony Colman and Ash big props!
Also huge shouts and thanks to all the Dj's, press and radio that have been supporting, playing, writing about and broadcasting the musical creations released from my labyrinth laboratory.
More Minotaur Newness (Aug 08)
I have now added a widget player courtesy of those brilliant people at Reverb Nation - www.reverbnation.com so in addition to the fixed myspace player I can also add loads more of my tracks, remixes and mash ups such as, ICR - Almost There (Minotaur Remix) - Influence Records and a mash up remix of the Total Science classic Squash with Barons remix of Nosher to make my version called with Mash Up Get Squasher. There are also some more of my own tracks which I thought deserved an airing. Please go and have a listen and let me know what you think
Knowledge Mag review my 12" release (Aug 08)
Minotaur – Don’t Worry / Torn Between (Med School)
Med School’s horned beast Minotaur serves up some highly impressive jack-of-quite-a-few-trades dancefloor skulduggery with ‘Don’t Worry’, the follow-up to World’s Beyond from earlier this year. Nucleus & Paradox-esque soothing whispered vocals meet stiff resistance from some unrepentant drums and delicious new-skool corkscrew squiggle-bass, while on the flip, ‘Torn Between’ administers a rather bracing assault with chopped-up hip hop vocals, bleepy hysteria and titanium-grade beats which place both feet on the proverbial neck and stomp repeatedly! Knowledge Magazine
Planet DnB: Minotaur release news
The drum and bass online resource that is www.planetdnb.com have news about my forthcoming 12" release on the mighty Med School. Many thanks to Planetdnb for the support and review.
New Minotaur Shot
On a recent break from the studio and a journey out of the labyrinth (which I am normally chained up in) I went up to Liverpool (birthday celebrations too) and a new shot was taken of me featuring one of Banksy rats in the background. Have a look at my silly mug at:www.hospitalrecords.com/medschool
and at: www.www.myspace.com/medschool
Minotaur solo 12” release on Med School (Aug 08)
After my debut release ‘Worlds Beyond’ on the mighty Med School double pack ‘The New Blood EP’, I have my first solo 12” for the label. The release features the A-side ‘Don’t Worry’ which melds warm clouds of bass over carefully chopped breaks all garnished with subtle vocal samples and trippy float off into the universe atmospherics.
The AA-side ‘Torn Between’ is a heavy smash your head and chest romp, where the misleading intro of vocal snippets and drifting tones give way to pressure squashing bass and militant skull shaking beats. The release is scheduled for a July / August 2008 and will be Med School 010. Track clips are available here on my myspace and at the Hospital Records website www.hospitalrecords.com/medschool and at the Med School myspace site too www.myspace.com/medschool
Many of you out there have been extremely supportive and complimentary about the tracks – so thanks for that, much appreciated.
Minotaur Remixes : ICR – Almost There (Influence Records)
I have finished my remix of ICR – Almost There (influence Records) the label set up by Fabio’s Swerve resident DJ Aaron Jay.
If you are DJing and interested in getting your hands on an upfront mp3 for playing out please contact Aaron Jay either through his myspace www.myspace.com/djaaronjay or his aim |DJ Aaron Jay|. You can also contact me here or through my aim at: MinotaurNo1
Minotaur Remixing Frenzy
I am just about to remix a killer 1980’s influenced DnB track that I would describe as sounding like early Jonny L via Optical / Matrix – Metro Recordings. I will let more out
of the bag when it has been executed and sussed as to its release home.
Finally on the remix front I will be remixing a hotly tipped artist from Austria. The track will bring the summertime feel good factor and enough dancefloor dirtyness to satisfy frazzled raver and the dnb connoisseur alike. Again as this is only at the early stages I will give more info when I can.
Tracks clips of all of the above remixes will be available soon.
Forthcoming New Minotaur Tracks
I am currently working on lots of new drum and bass and what I can tell you is that Im combining old with new, bright with dark, heavy with light, fun with frenetic and doing my best to polish these within an inch of their life. Big on vibe and hopefully will hit dancefloors and thought junkies in equal measures. Expect the unexpected!
Minotaur in Knowledge Mag (May 08)
The big news is that I am featured in the May 2008 issue of Knowledge Magazine (Andy C on the cover)! I am stoked to be in the magazine that I have been reading since it was a free fanzine back in the day. The Q & A on page 54 features a little insight into what makes me tick and a photo of me taken at the Cold War exhibition at RAF Cosford (coincidentally I was also born there - that's
where all the freaky experiments took place and they ended up with me).
DJ Support
I have had some wicked DJ support with headz such as London Electricity, many of the DJs at Hospital / Med School, Bailey, Flight, Blu Mar Ten, Mark OD, Huw Stephens and Bethan Elfyn.
Radio Play
Radio exposure is becoming a regular thing, which has surprised me, as my tracks do not compromise in any way shape or form! However Radio One and 1Xtra have been giving me support, through DJs diverse as Huw Stephens, Bethan Elfyn and Bailey. Radio 1 has also asked for more tracks to feature on various shows in the future. I would be seriously happy if any of the internet radio shows got in contact and wanted my tracks to play, so if you read this and want to feature any of my tracks please get in touch.
Remixing
I have some remix work in the pipeline - the one I’m currently doing has got me really excited and I can’t wait to be able to shout about it once its finished - imagine classic Good Looking, Wax Doctor and Source Direct in a blender brimming with the deeper and deadly Drum and Bass vibes of right now. Remixing is something I love to do. I want to show a killer new angle, a different take, but without going so far that the original is unrecognisable.
New Tracks
There is a good selection of my new tunes on these pages - Eternal Life, Torn Between, Everything Is Secret, some signed and some as yet unsigned. I am also working on more new material which, along with the newbies featured here, should be emerging from the labyrinth and into the light sometime soon.
Collaborations
There is much interest in collaboration work which will take the form of remix exchanges and fresh tracks too. I hope the first of these will be with the very talented Kiat (DnB Jedi if ever there was one!). This is something I am keen to do much more of so contact me to get things rolling, it doesn’t just have to be Drum and Bass either.
Hospital / Med School / Blu Mar Ten – Big Thank You
All the guys at Hospital / Med School have been great, lots of support and the most professional approach too. They also give me the freedom to do whatever I want in the studio, the rules are there are NO rules. I don't want to forget that none of this would have happened without Chris (Blu Mar Ten) who was kind enough to send my tracks over to Hospital without me even knowing and I think I would be right in saying that he has done this for quite a few DnB headz over the years, so Chris please take a bow and big up your chest – thank you very much, I won't forget sir!
ATM Magazine Review
The New Blood EP on Hospital Records' sister label Med School, featuring my Worlds Beyond track, has received a great review in the March/April 08 issue of ATM Magazine. A huge big up to Martsman, Infiltrata, Randomer feat. Reds and everyone at Med School and Hospital Records.
Mixmag Review
The New Blood EP has also received a good review in this months Mixmag. Big congrats to everyone but especially Martsman who gains much love for his killer track.
Minotaur Biography
I got into music through being a graff artist and collecting Hip Hop vinyl in the 80s and through making pause-button ghetto blaster mix tapes from the radio which also got me listening to the sounds engulfing England in mid 1980’s/early 90s - namely Acid House, Chicago House, Detroit, Euro, Ambient techno/rave, and early breakbeat tracks from people like the Blapps Posse, Break The Limits, Shut up and Dance, Reinforced Records, Frankie Bones, Lenny D, Tommy Musto, and all the emerging new Jungle sounds. But before I was cool! ha ha I remember messing about with a little Fisher Price record player I had, I was about 8 or 9 and me and my mates would laugh our heads off listening to records at the wrong speed (how ironic that I ended making a form of music which some would say is too fast or at the wrong speed)!
From going to raves in the early 90s this drove a passion for both record collecting (all forms of music) and dj-ing but the DJ side of things was more to try and cobble together rough tracks through lots of bits of other peoples records and then recorded onto cassette.
Following many crappy jobs, a brief stint promoting, then back to college and onto university, gaining a BA Hons in graphics, Minotaur and a friend started putting together jungle tracks brimming with ideas but poor on sound quality due to insufficient and old equipment all held together with gaffer tape.
After university by the mid 90s, chance meetings with various musicians with studios and a shared love of all things jungle/drum and bass gave birth to many unsigned tracks.
I have loads of influences (see influences for boring list detail) from film to music to art to books to comedy and the scenic landscape I live in, however I would like to name check John Peel (RIP) and Suburban Knight's The Art of Stalking track - as hugely important influences.
After many years of trial and error music production but with great advice from all sorts of people along the way (thank heavens for aim - Minotaur No 1), Ive got to a stage where I am reasonably happy with my tracks and through the limits of having a very old computer with hardly any ram (only a bad workman blames his tools) but being able to execute imagined soundscapes the boundaries of sound are constantly getting pushed.
My tracks are starting to get noticed in the drum and bass scene with many DJs picking up on the unique sounds I brew in my labyrinth.
Cool Stuff
Oh yeah - take a look at this if you love Star Wars and haven't seen it already Troops..
My dad was at cosford and i was born on a Base while my dad was in the RAF in norfolk, i didn't know that, good you are getting back in Knowledge mag erm I think I was found in a field among the cabbages
