John was a legend even before he died; a free jazz drummer with a hard swing and an amazing polyrythmic understanding. He was a driven educationalist, who in his own words had 'no choice'. He was "in this for life". He explained some of his rhythmic concepts as 'Deep Structure' and the 'Fundamental Rhythmic Equation'. Having sat next to him playing bongos to his drums, holding down a 20 piece improvising orchestra, I can testify not only to his drive, but to the consequence of what it was he was actually talking about. I flew; I absolutely flew, in the slipstream or rather in the hurricane he created.
Ramjac pioneered the live performance of technology inspired music in the days of the Atari and the Emulator. Mentored by Mixmaster Morris in the late 1980’s and touring with Orbital and The Shaman, Ramjac developed his own unique style of idiosyncratic funky & bass heavy dance tunes, music that was perfect for cult label Irdial Discs who released “Cameroon Massif”, the quintessential Ramjac classic in 1990. The vibrant and volatile live version released on Brainiak’s “Live at the Brain” album became a deejay favourite on both sides of the Atlantic, copies of which are now rare and highly valued. Ramjac is back with live shows as well as deejaying sets of pure Ramjac originals.
Following on from the Rave scene, Ramjac focused on studio work in the mid 90's, helping others put their statement forward, and with live work too, making appearances as an electronic and acoustic percussionist and samples. He has played, engineered, programmed and produced with diverse artists including Juno Reactor, Herbie Hancock, Coldcut, Jeff Wayne, Holger Hiller, Laurel Aitken, Irresistible Force, Kicks Like A Mule, Chip-E, Freq Nasty, Gilad Atzmon, Dj Face, Asian Dub Foundation, State Of Bengal, Mark Stewart, Dr Das, Visionary Underground, Ardisson, Filthy Dirty Rich, Zoe Richardson, Paban Das Baul, Dhol Foundation, Recycler and lately with Dub Colossus and U-Cef.
“A lot of music that we’re into now are distant relatives or cousins of House music. What Ramjac does well, is show up the relationships between different musics and the routes they have taken. Actually, more than a lot of people, Ramjac is the missing link between house, acid house, breakbeat, jungle and dub and percussion based musics.” Dr Das
“The funkiest player on the live House scene.” Kodwo Eshun, 1991
“History mate, history.” Tony Marcus
“What drugs are you on?” Richie Stevens
You can hear the material alongside tunes from Ramjac’s friends on Ramjac Radio, streaming 24 hours at
Every time that we listen & write music... play an instrument... dance... act in a play... or work in some audio/image/video engineering process... something is healing inside...
When we share it with friends... something is healing all over...
cada vez que escuchamos o escribimos musica... tocamos un instrumento... bailamos... o trabajamos en procesos de ingenieria de audio/imagen/video.... algo se sana por dentro...
Cuando lo compartimos con amigos... algo se sana en todas partes...
El Amor puede conducir... de manera simple... todo...
