Artist Profile – DJ Mugshot – (UK)

From left to right: Mr Rukus, DJ Kella, Mugshot, MC Conrad, Cheshire Cat MC

DJ Mugshot is old skool. He’s been around the block a few times and is a steadfast member of the midlands drum and bass scene. One of the original ‘Eclipse’ ravers and there since the advent of the early hardcore sound, he has also spent his time since those early days carving out a space in the musical stratosphere.

We’ve been fans since we first heard his music, and as he celebrates the release of his ‘Arcade Rollers’ EP today on Tyke’s Holographic Audio, we thought it was about time we garnered some words from the man to accompany the premiere we’re proudly presenting today.

Step up, DJ MUGHSOT.

DJ Mugshot! Welcome In!!

Thanks!

You’re a Coventry boy, and you’re also of an age to remember that Coventry was a massively important area for the UK early hardcore scene. In fact outside of London, it was probably in the top 5 most important places in Britain. What are your memories of The Eclipse?

Yes, absolutely. I was fortunate to grow up with The Eclipse on my door step. I was a reluctant visitor to the club for my first event. I was 17 in 1991 and at the time thought of myself as a dedicated hardcore UK hip-hop fan. I certainly did not appreciate the early dance scene. I was busy buying on sight, any UK hip-hop I could find in stores and via mail order. I remember describing the acid house and early rave scene in derogatory terms such as soulless ‘bleeps and bloops’ music.

Everything changed in my outlook when I attended an event called ‘Energy’ in May 1991 at The Eclipse. Two friends had been before and talked me into going. There was a strange ritual due to the fact The Eclipse team exploited a legal loophole which made the venue a private members club. Before you could gain entry membership and tickets had to be purchased at a record shop opposite The Eclipse called ‘Moonshine Records’.

My first Eclipse experience changed everything. That first night I heard a DJ play a UK hip-hop track instrumental (Son of Noise – Masters of Menace- Kold sweat records) at 45rpm instead of 33.3rpm.

I was immediately hooked. The blend of my earlier music tastes (fast UK hip-hop) and the fast drum breaks of this new style of “UK Hardcore” felt like I’d found my musical home, and this included tracks released on Ibiza Records, Reinforced and the varied breakbeats of Bay B Kane tracks. As UK hardcore evolved into jungle (or jungle tekno as it was first known) and beyond, I was always attracted to the 160bpm+ breakbeat sound. While I also respected the emerging happy hardcore sound, it wasn’t really for me.

The Eclipse was the place I’ve compared other clubs to ever since. Yes, it was a bit of a dump, but the energy vibe and music were incredible. Nights like Amnesia House would (and still do) bring DJ’s from across the world to Coventry.

 

I’m guessing this helped shaped you as a youngster? We never made it there, but we certainly had a bedroom wall full of Eclipse flyers, and remember ‘The Hitman and Her’ footage very well. (The Hitman and Her was a TV programme featuring Pete Waterman from Stock, Aitken and Waterman and then PWL Records – responsible for many, many well known UK and Euro pop acts – and Michaela Strachan, a well known TV presenter in the ’90s)

Ah yes! That was my last visit to the club as it was then named. A few months later it was re-labelled as ‘The Edge’, and then it became ‘The Planet’ in the late ’90s,  where I was lucky enough to play a DJ set thanks to Coventry based promotions ‘Gamma Funkula’. The Hitman and Her night was a strange one – I’d never seen that many people in the place – it usually held approximately 1600 people and there seemed to be more like 2500 there that night.

I must admit the actual filming for TV happened over the space of a few hours, and despite watching the footage I’ve never found myself. I’m in there somewhere though, sporting a ’90s Stussy fisherman’s hat and a Nervous Records T-shirt. It’s interesting to note that at the time the UK had Rage at Heaven in London attracting around 1600 people every weekend and also Manchester had the Hacienda around the same.

The Eclipse was at least as busy as that every week but doesn’t appear to be held in the same esteem. It was certainly an important introduction to dance music for a lot of people in the Midlands and beyond, with promoters such as Amnesia House, New Age, Omen, Bangin’ Tunes and Energy all earning a place in the history of this music.

You’ve been making music for around the last twenty years, which puts the start of your production journey around the early 2000’s. This was a period of quite intense change for DNB?

Yes, I’ve always been skulking about in the background and I had shows on Midlands Pirates (MIX FM and REAL FM) in the late ’90s early 2000s. I released a vinyl EP in 1998 back when everyone relied on outboard sampler technology, but in around 2005 I started moving my studio ‘into the box’, so I rely much less on out board equipment these days. I’ve got mad respect for those keeping the analogue spirit alive in the Amiga, Atari ST and Akai scenes but personally I’d rather move with the times.

I spent some time around 2010 re-thinking my methods and developing different DNB approaches and this came to fruition around 2017, when I started more regular digital releases. I’ve been lucky to have tracks signed to Holographic Audio, Zombie Recordings, Formation Records, SikkaBrain Records and few others. The Doncaster based producer Sikka has been a big supporter of mine for many years, providing much needed feedback and releases on both his Inna Rhythm and Sikkabrain labels.

Who would you say were your influences in those early years?

In 1993 I got hold of a Kenny Ken tape from Quest (Wolverhampton) and that tape was the first time I heard the highly influential track ‘Valley of the Shadows’. I’ve been a Kenny Ken fanboy ever since, and for me he is the sound clash king, a world class mixer and his track selection has always been amazing, so hats off to King Kenny. ‘Valley of the Shadows’ is the perfect track for me – so simple and effective and still sounds fresh today.

I’ve always bought a huge amount of vinyl but in particular I’d search out Bay B Kane and any of his aliases. I always found I could rely on Bay B Kane for my favourite breaks and beats.

This latest track ‘Lucky Pusher’ that we’re premiering today is part of a 5 track EP called ‘Arcade Rollers’ on Holographic, and you’ve had a number of releases through them. Tell us about the track.

I find if I work too long on any given track I’ll over do it, it’ll become overly complex and difficult to balance. With this track “Lucky Pusher” I was trying to go for a minimalist vibe, something that was very clean sounding so it would work in a hard set as well as a more atmospheric set. I’d noticed that other DJ’s playing my tracks often had the first drop obscured in the mix with the previous track, and only when the second drop arrived would the track get full attention in a DJ’s mix.

So with this one I made the second drop very different to the first in the hope that I might get some more playtime in other people mixes! Tyke, Laura and the crew at Holographic Audio have been really supportive of my recent work, and the new 5 Track EP will be my second release on the label with a 3rd EP (as yet untitled) finished and being released on Holographic later in 2022.

Your style is an almost perfect blend of old skool vibes and new skool sounds. You can hear the history coming through without a doubt. Do you have ‘go to’ sounds or structural rules that you employ to keep that ‘Mugshot’ sound flowing?

It’s all about the breakbeats and those throw back sample snippets for me. If a 3 second clip of drums from an old record had something special back then, something magical that made people want to dance, then that ‘quality’ is still there today, it didn’t go away. That’s why legendary breakbeats (such as Amen, Think and Apache) still have such value. It’s the energy they bring.

I found there was a low point around 2005 where a lot of tracks had simple kick and snare formulas and a lot of that felt lifeless to my ears. In recent years DNB in general seems to have got more of it’s ‘funk’ back and that’s thanks to the breakbeats in my view. I was recently invited to play a DJ set for MC Conrad’s Resonance (and Con-natural) label event in Birmingham (you can read all about MC Conrad and the Resonance Records Story here!)

I really enjoyed mixing my harder styles with some of the smoother tracks for that event, so I do like to play across the DNB genres. My releases to date have been harder rollers, but I also have some smoother projects that I’m trying to progress with in the background.

We’re fans of your music here at INSIDE HQ, and can definitely feel a full interview coming, but for now, good luck with the EP and hit us with a bit of DNB philosophy before we say goodbye for now.

I think the music biz in general has changed so much in the past few years (vinyl to digital to streaming) that it’s a challenge to keep up. Equally it’s never been easier to setup a Bandcamp label and do it all yourself, so it remains as exciting as ever just in different ways. I worry about the shrinking clubland space, and time will tell what the real impacts are, but no matter what I can’t see DNB shrinking, only growing in new directions (NFT / block chain art etc). Thanks to you for the boost and big love to all the DNB crews in the Midlands and Globally.

FIND OUT MORE HERE:

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