MARK E Vinilo y CD

Review: Swiss label Visions Inc returns with The Evolution: Phase Four. On the A side, you've got label chief Alex Attias who appears with the emotive nu-jazz journey 'Magical Feeling' (feat Sohan Wilson) followed by Life Recorder who gets some real proper house vibes happening on 'Eternal Tones 'reaching near spiritual moments. Over on the flip, June Jazzin gets those early noughties UK vibes (think Bugz In The Attic, Kaidi Tatham et al) in effect on 'Sikhanyiso' and Mark E is in fine form as always on the deep contemplation of 'Tracer'.

Review: A warm welcome back to Brummie deep house don Mark Evetts, who resurfaces after 13 months away via a predictably pleasing Delusions of Grandeur label debut. He's in fine form from the off, peppering a squelchy bassline and soft-touch drums with sweet melodic motifs and tactile synthesiser chords on 'Swimming Through a Diamond'. He doffs a cap to his own hypnotic productions of old on the immersive, warming and analogue-rich 'Compact Object', before opting for a slightly jazzier and more organic sound on the locked-in, sun-speckled deepness of 'Heartaches'. 'Leading Into The Light' is marked out by gorgeous chords, bubbly electric piano motifs and mazy solos, while 'Mirrored Cube' is a pleasingly colourful and saucer-eyed slab of mid-tempo goodness that sounds like it was tailor-made for sofa-bound morning after listening sessions.

Review: Mark E, it's been a while... After a short break, the Wolverhampton wanderer returns behind the wheel of his Merc for his first three originals of the year. As always with Mark, they're a beguiling, hazy and dense brew of sounds, feelings and ideas; From the dusky introspection and unhurried twinkles of "Twilight Fade" right the way through to the juicy loopy bass bites that's harmonised by strange machine chirps on the title track finale "First Thing", it's clear Mark E is back and he's not budging from the driver's seat anytime soon.

Review: Mark E has spent the last few years re-tracing his loopy edit roots with the E Versions project, while exploring Balearic pastures with brother-in-law Nat Woodcock as Project E. Those who've always enjoyed his more peak-time productions will love this new two-tracker for Futureboogie, as it sees him applying his love of loop jams to suit darker, sweatier dancefloors. "Basement Trax 1" sets the tone, looping vintage, Twilo-era organ motifs over a tactile but chugging, nine-minute groove. "Basement Trax 2" is a little more musically expansive, with dreamy chords and similarly ear-catching organ motifs slowly building over a punchy house rhythm and undulating synth bassline.

Review: Mark Evetts, or simply known as Mark E under his production moniker, has certainly travelled the world throughout his house expeditions over the last ten years, stopping off at imprints such as Golf Channel, Spectral Sound and even Gerd Janson's Running Back. This time he's back on his own Merc outlet with a ricking one-tracker split in two different versions. The instrumental mix of "Who Do You Believe In?" takes over the A-side and it's a melodic house affair with plenty of synth goodness and low-end gluttony, whereas the vocal mix adds in some sultry female vocals to add a little bit of ambience and a whole load of soul. Beautiful.

Review: After a few recent dalliances with UK labels like Futureboogie and Needwant, Mark Evetts answers the Spectral Sound call and returns to the Ghostly Intl offshoot with the sublime Avion EP. Eschewing the chance to merely repackage material from his LP for Ghostly earlier this year, Avion actually features two new productions from the Midlands house don and is ably backed by remixes from White Material's Alvin Aronson and Lazlo Dancehall. Both "Molyneaux" and "Avion Central" are quite wonderful, less concerned with gripping a dancefloor as gripping your headspace. On the flip, cuts from the Mark E LP are reworked by Aronson and Lazlo Dancehall pair Leon Vynehall and Christian Viers, with the former's take on "Bog Dance" coming across like a subaqueous Galcher instrumental. Nice work Spectral Sound!

Review: Three years on from his debut album Stone Breaker, Mark E returns with a second long player for Ghostly offshoot Spectral Sound that finds the house producer look to his homeland for inspiration. Product Of Industry takes it's name from Evetts upbringing in the UK industrial heartland of the West Midlands, and how the current global financial situation led to him losing his job, an occurrence which resulted in Mark E the producer "Here I am, a product of industry, both currently and historically" as the producer himself has stated. Musically, the nine tracks offer a considered development from Evetts debut album, and suggest he's eminently comfortable working within the confines of the all analogue hardware used to create Product Of Industry.

Review: Mark E has a rich history with Gerd Janson's Running Back label, issuing a series of records over an intermittent period that includes one of the Midlands born producer's most memorable edits in the shape of "Slave 1". After an absence of some three years where Evetts has released a debut LP and started his own label, Black Country Roots signals his return to the Running Back catalogue. Described as "a tribute to the UK's Black Country and an ode to the Industrial Revolution" the four tracks here nonetheless build and bump in a fashion that will please Mark E fans. The way the organ is introduced on lead track "The Kings Heath" is particularly charming, whilst those looking for a dramatic set opener are well served with the self explanatory "SirensFX".

Review: Never have the words "hotly anticipated" been so apt. Ever since Ghostly International announced that they'd signed Mark E's debut album the hype has been steadily building. So is Stone Breaker any good? On the whole, yes. For starters, it's a very Mark E album. All the Wolverhampton producer's trademarks are present throughout - think loopy grooves, dark atmospheres, vaguely Balearic slow-house, sly disco samples and cute nods to long-forgotten Chicago house tracks. But there are also signs of development - see the ragging acid of "Belvide Beat" or the epic deep-jack of "Got To Get Me There" - and enough subtle changes of mood, tempo and melody to please all but the most cynical of critics.

Review: Founded by the Roots Unit duo of Piers "Soft Rocks" Harrison and Chris Galloway with the mission statement of formulating another way to lose money alongside their vinyl and alcohol habits, the inaugural Vibrations release will prove very successful in doing anything but that. Formed of two heavily pressurised dancefloor moments from Mark E and an additional remix from Roots Unit themselves, this twelve proves to be an auspicious debut indeed. "Escape" throbs across the A Side with a compressed menace that the Merc impresario hinted at on his EP for Running Back. Ethereal vocal harmonies are slowly teased through the viscous mist of bassline frequencies before a heavy duty disco sample locks in and rides the groove out towards an shimmering finale. "Midnight Fares" flips the sonic script for a more spinal techno beatdown washed with phased vocal swirls and scattergun percussion that would make Four Tet jealous. Roots Unit end this fine release with their refix of "Escape" which turns the steam down via plenty of Basic Channel style dub technoisms.

Review: Yes! We've been eagerly anticipating for Mark E's return to Running Back since the news was announced a couple of months back. The five track Nobody Else EP is the producer's third release on Gerd Janson's always impressive imprint, and kicks off with the rolling tribal drums and cheeky cowbells that adorn the title track. Flip over for "The Wolf", which floats magnificently on the line between disco and house. A siren noise that is submerged deep beneath the rolling groove is soon brought to the fore on the two beatless tracks that round off another superb EP for the Brummie.

Review: To draw a line under the last five years of superlative edit work, Mark E has compiled this second volume of the Selected Tracks & Edits series which will please the edit obsessives no end. Both tracks from Mark E's debut release, the 2005 Scared EP on Jiscomusic, are present here in all their glory and it's a mark of the producer's talent that they sound just as fresh some five years later. "Scared" in particular is pretty much the blueprint for a successful slo mo disco house edit, with the groove of Womack & Womack's "Baby I'm Scared of You" being extended over some ten minutes Theo style, with Mark E adding elements of instrumentation with a guile not matched by some of today's edit cowboys. "Formed" occupies the space marked "End of night set killer" on this CD that "Sun Shadow" the superlative reimagination of Labelle's "Moon Shadow" did on the first volume. Elsewhere unreleased secret weapons such as the opening "Often Think To Myself" or "Darker" where the brooding chug is transformed into a glorious piano led 80s soul instrumental make this a worthy conclusion to some four years of edit dynamite.

Review: Disco edits are a bit of controversial subject at the moment, and anyone owning a personal record collection plus an impersonal computer can knock out a version of an old classic or the latest so called cosmic craze. Birmingham's Mark E is a different animal. His parents got him a reel-to-reel for a Christmas present when he was eight years old and together with his beloved razor blade (which he had to steal from his father's shaver) and a bit of glue, little Mark immediately started to edit all the tunes, his older brother religiously collected on recordings from legendary WBLS, New York. Seriously, his re-works of Womack & Womack's "Baby, I'm Scared Of You" and Tata Vega's "Give It Up For Love", seemed to have pushed the edit phenomenon to new levels, adding new elements to the production and that little uncertain niceness that separates the wheat from the chaff. A fact that led gentlemen like the mighty Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay (MBE), the dynamic Unabombers duo and Norway's Prins Thomas to champion released and unreleased Mark E productions and edits. With "Déjà vu/Beat Down", Running Back is very proud to present Mark E's first release that is not an edit, but an original production. Both tunes held their head up high to the loopy production aesthetic from previous adventures of the Birmingham boy (check Jiscomusic, please) and we all won't be able to live our lives without the Balearic bounciness of "Déjà vu" or the straight up and downtempo mesmerising "Beat Down". To put an end to that idle and silly promo talking now; listen to the music and always remember: guilty feet have got no rhythm!

Review: Prins Thomas, Mark E, Bulgari and Ultra City all feature on Epic Disco Vol 2, the long overdue return to the twelve inch game from the Rollerboys imprint. Label supremos Ultra City aka Elias & Yourhighness open proceedings in excellent fashion with the resplendent "Delta" a richly rewarding exercise in effervescent Chicago house based around instantly uplifting piano tones and loose cascading Roland 707 patterns - instant dancefloor uplift guaranteed on this one. Merc boss Mark E follows with the deeper sounds of "Walk With Me" utilising a familiar vocal refrain amidst a musical arrangement that pairs subtle elements such as heart warming chords with the more intense synths. Flip over and Prins Thomas introduces a lesson in the art of infinite build via the primal, stripped down 303 jam "Stockholm Express" which has us rather excited for his forthcoming new album. Rollerboys regular Bulgari eases down the tempo to finish with a echo laden electro boogie future classic in the shape of "I Was On".