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review of As the Market Crashed Feb 2010
MonkeyMarc BioMonkeyMarc is a leading producer/DJ from Melbourne, Australia known as the mastermind behind political hip hop group Combat Wombat and more recently for this eclectic solo work (album out December 2009 through Omelette Records). MonkeyMarc also initiated the Labrats Solar Powered Sound System, whose environmentally sustainable parties have impressed audiences throughout the country for over ten years.MonkeyMarc's career has spanned many genres from punk to dubstep. His musical career started at an early age after his family immigrated to Australia from Cardiff, Wales when he was 13. Starting as a lead singer in a rock band he quickly discovered a love for hip hop, funk and reggae, which lead him to DJing and running parties from the age of 15. He began producing music with a tape machine and a one-second-sampler in the late nineties when his passion for bass lead him towards the sounds of jungle, breaks and hip hop. Eventually he bought himself a drum machine because he couldnt find the records he was looking for. MonkeyMarc's electronic career debuted in 1997 when he DJd with the infamous All Funked Up Crew Sydney. His love for deep electronic music and strong political ideals lead him on a wild and adventurous track and in 1998 he co-started Labrats Solar Powered Sound System. His first produced release Combat Wombat Labrats Solar Powered Sound System (album) came out in 2001 and was soon followed by Combat Wombat Miraculous Activist in 2002 (12 inch). Both of these album where written in his veggie oil powered vehicle and solar powered caravan. In 2004/05 he produced and wrote the critically acclaimed Combat Wombat Unsound System (Elefant Traks 2005), of which the single Qwest reached number 2 on Triple Js net 50.His passion for social change and music then took him in to the Australian outback. On and off for the next 7 years he produced music and ran workshops with aboriginal people in remote communities across Australia. Within this time he produced Western Desert Mob Compilation (self released) and a range of as yet unreleased material for aboriginal community archives. He currently spends up to six months of the year running music workshops in remote Aboriginal communities. In 2006 he began to venture into his solo career and established a solar powered recording studio in a converted shipping container in Melbourne. He remixed Apocalypta The Herd (Elefant Traks) on the Trampled Compilation and later in 2008 remixed Seven Guns and Seven Holes from the DJ Solal (Gotan Project, France) Moonshine Sessions album (Ya Basta Records). In 2009 he remixed Istanbul Engloutie Rafiralfiro (Fresh Poulp Records, France). MonkeyMarc has just returned from a 3 month pre-release tour of Europe playing at Fusion Festival (Berlin), Glade Festival (UK) and La BelleVilloise (Paris). He has shared the stage with local and international luminaries such as Public Enemy (USA), Dj Spooky (USA), DJ Solal (Gotan Project, France), Anticon (USA), Dose Noun (USA), The Apostles (USA), The Percussionists (USA), Sinpare (Kenya), The Herd (Syd), Curse ov Dialect (Melb), Plutonic Lab, Morganics, Chasm, Diafrix, and TZU amongst many more. In the past MonkeyMarc has played at legendary club nights Uber Lingua and Frigid and venues around Australia including; The Forum (Melb), The Corner Hotel (Melb), The Prince of Wales (Melb), The Gaelic Club (Syd), The Esplanade Hotel (Melb), Hopetown Hotel (Syd), The Promise Land (Alice Springs), Swan Hotel (Fremantle), Crown and Sceptre (Adel), Happy Yes (Darwin) and many more. He has also featured in festivals including; The Triple Z Market Day, The Big Day Out, The Great Escape and The Peats Ridge Festival.MonkeyMarc's obsession with alternative energy and his strong desire to make a positive change for the future led him to building a solar powered recording studio out of 100% recycled materials which was featured in cult classic magazine Dazed and Confused. His radio career involved him co-hosting the All Funked Up radio show on Sydneys 2SER with Trevor Parkee and Simon Caldwell from 1997 1998, producing a featured remix on SBSs Alchemy, and co-hosted a show on Brisbanes 4ZZZ in 2002.When he is not producing fusion beats, or building recoding studios, he is a desert nomad, travelling the country working in many remote Aboriginal communities across Australia with indigenous kids creating socially conscious hip hop, conducting cultural preservation workshops and oral history recordings. This work has taken him to some of the remotest areas of Australia including, Yiyilli (WA), Nookenbah (WA), Balgo (WA), Mornington (WA), Parngurr (WA), Kintore (NT), Papunya (NT), Yuendamu (NT), Alice Springs (NT), Moree (NSW), Port Augusta (SA), Swan Hill (VIC) and many more. This work has resulted in the popular album, Western Desert Mob, which has received Australia wide airplay.
MonkeyMarc Bio
MonkeyMarc is a leading producer/DJ from Melbourne, Australia known as the mastermind behind political hip hop group Combat Wombat and more recently for this eclectic solo work (album out December 2009 through Omelette Records). MonkeyMarc also initiated the Labrats Solar Powered Sound System, whose environmentally sustainable parties have impressed audiences throughout the country for over ten years.
MonkeyMarc's career has spanned many genres from punk to dubstep. His musical career started at an early age after his family immigrated to Australia from Cardiff, Wales when he was 13. Starting as a lead singer in a rock band he quickly discovered a love for hip hop, funk and reggae, which lead him to DJing and running parties from the age of 15. He began producing music with a tape machine and a one-second-sampler in the late nineties when his passion for bass lead him towards the sounds of jungle, breaks and hip hop. Eventually he bought himself a drum machine because he couldnt find the records he was looking for.
MonkeyMarc's electronic career debuted in 1997 when he DJd with the infamous All Funked Up Crew Sydney. His love for deep electronic music and strong political ideals lead him on a wild and adventurous track and in 1998 he co-started Labrats Solar Powered Sound System. His first produced release Combat Wombat Labrats Solar Powered Sound System (album) came out in 2001 and was soon followed by Combat Wombat Miraculous Activist in 2002 (12 inch). Both of these album where written in his veggie oil powered vehicle and solar powered caravan. In 2004/05 he produced and wrote the critically acclaimed Combat Wombat Unsound System (Elefant Traks 2005), of which the single Qwest reached number 2 on Triple Js net 50.
His passion for social change and music then took him in to the Australian outback. On and off for the next 7 years he produced music and ran workshops with aboriginal people in remote communities across Australia. Within this time he produced Western Desert Mob Compilation (self released) and a range of as yet unreleased material for aboriginal community archives. He currently spends up to six months of the year running music workshops in remote Aboriginal communities.
In 2006 he began to venture into his solo career and established a solar powered recording studio in a converted shipping container in Melbourne. He remixed Apocalypta The Herd (Elefant Traks) on the Trampled Compilation and later in 2008 remixed Seven Guns and Seven Holes from the DJ Solal (Gotan Project, France) Moonshine Sessions album (Ya Basta Records). In 2009 he remixed Istanbul Engloutie Rafiralfiro (Fresh Poulp Records, France).
MonkeyMarc has just returned from a 3 month pre-release tour of Europe playing at Fusion Festival (Berlin), Glade Festival (UK) and La BelleVilloise (Paris). He has shared the stage with local and international luminaries such as Public Enemy (USA), Dj Spooky (USA), DJ Solal (Gotan Project, France), Anticon (USA), Dose Noun (USA), The Apostles (USA), The Percussionists (USA), Sinpare (Kenya), The Herd (Syd), Curse ov Dialect (Melb), Plutonic Lab, Morganics, Chasm, Diafrix, and TZU amongst many more.
In the past MonkeyMarc has played at legendary club nights Uber Lingua and Frigid and venues around Australia including; The Forum (Melb), The Corner Hotel (Melb), The Prince of Wales (Melb), The Gaelic Club (Syd), The Esplanade Hotel (Melb), Hopetown Hotel (Syd), The Promise Land (Alice Springs), Swan Hotel (Fremantle), Crown and Sceptre (Adel), Happy Yes (Darwin) and many more. He has also featured in festivals including; The Triple Z Market Day, The Big Day Out, The Great Escape and The Peats Ridge Festival.
MonkeyMarc's obsession with alternative energy and his strong desire to make a positive change for the future led him to building a solar powered recording studio out of 100% recycled materials which was featured in cult classic magazine Dazed and Confused. His radio career involved him co-hosting the All Funked Up radio show on Sydneys 2SER with Trevor Parkee and Simon Caldwell from 1997 1998, producing a featured remix on SBSs Alchemy, and co-hosted a show on Brisbanes 4ZZZ in 2002.
When he is not producing fusion beats, or building recoding studios, he is a desert nomad, travelling the country working in many remote Aboriginal communities across Australia with indigenous kids creating socially conscious hip hop, conducting cultural preservation workshops and oral history recordings. This work has taken him to some of the remotest areas of Australia including, Yiyilli (WA), Nookenbah (WA), Balgo (WA), Mornington (WA), Parngurr (WA), Kintore (NT), Papunya (NT), Yuendamu (NT), Alice Springs (NT), Moree (NSW), Port Augusta (SA), Swan Hill (VIC) and many more. This work has resulted in the popular album, Western Desert Mob, which has received Australia wide airplay.
The long awaited debut solo album As the market crashed by underground Australian producer MonkeyMarc will be released on December 1st through Omelette Records.
As the Market Crashed is the result of years spent listening, absorbing and producing forward-thinking music. Recorded entirely on solar power in his converted shipping container studio in Melbourne, mixed in Paris at Sumroom Studios and mastered in London at Transition, this album takes influence from a worldly palette exposing the listener to a diverse and eclectic musical journey unlike any Australian artist yet.
With influences reaching into the crates of hip hop, dub and dubstep this release is as much an ode to the past as it is an optimistic exploration into the future. With sounds reminiscent of early Dj Shadow, Dj Spooky, J Dilla and Flying Lotus, it is also equally influenced from further afield with more dub aesthetic acts like African Head Charge, Tackhead, Burial and Kode 9.
Underpinning the album is a strong message for social and environmental change, drawing upon samples that cover the global financial crises, the inequality of political systems and the worlds addiction to fossil fuels. These vocal insights add a dynamic layer to the massive futuristic basslines which go head to head with brooding instrumental beats and crusty old samples in a truly organic and original style.
The first half of the album draws heavily from a hip hop aesthetic. There are elements of blues, jazz and world music scattered across instrumental beats that take the listener on journeys to far and distant lands. The second half of the album ventures into deeper dub orientated territories relying on massive bass lines and shimmering stepped out rhythms. Samples of records from yesteryear come drifting in and out creating diverse and thought provoking music. This album is a truly unique contribution to the Australian electronic music scene.
The first single off the album What can I do? is a clever mix of old blues, grimy beats and funked up keys sure to get even the most relucent listener busting a move. What can I do? will be available for electronic download from October 26th in original and a remixed version by DJ Delay (Berlin).
MonkeyMarcs full album As the Market Crashed will be out through Omelette Records and available online through www.monkeymarc.com from December 1st 2009.
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