MixMaster Morris
UK house guru, who arrived in the early '90s at the height of hardcore techno's domination (he titled his own music weirdcore), and whose name has subsequently graced dozens of releases, both as a producer and remixer. Morris' first live performances were at the ICA Rock Week in 1980, before he began to work with samplers in 1983. He has since claimed the honour of being ‘the first to play a house set in the UK', at the Fridge in London in 1987 at his Madhouse nights. He also prepared pirate radio tapes for his Mongolian Hip Hop Show, and worked with experimental pirate TV. He met Colin Angus of the Shamen via mutual Psychic TV acquaintences, and began DJing on their Synergy tours. His musical style was certainly unique, often building a set to the centrepiece section, which would as likely be a This Heat track as anything more conventional. He also stressed the importance of providing DJ's with label information, not just bpm's but also the key a track was played in. In addition to his sampling and rhythmic wizardry, he has gone on to record in his own right. The first such release was Space Is The Place on the Rising High label, a relationship with whom prospers to this day. Following late '80s singles Freestyle and I Want You, his debut album arrived, also credited to The Irresistable Force, in 1992. It boasted a splendid holographic label, and was filled with samples taken from obscure and obtuse sources. A more detached, ambient based project, after a brief Kraftwerk parody on the intro it branched out into seamless ‘chill-out’ territory. This was the man, after all, who invented the phrase ‘I think, therefore I ambient’. He has gone on to record with the new king of chill, Peter Namlook, as part of the latter's Dreamfish project, and remixed for Spiritualized among others.