May 26

A busy djing schedule this bank holiday, starting with Grassi Roots at the cross, which is a journey through hip hop, funk, and then breakbeat across the board alongside local spinsters Muz & Feva from Munch Break, and Dj Cro from New Style Radio, and one of the early breaks pioneers. Mr Cut La Roc.

Sunday i’m playing a chilled selection for the secret garden bbq, and then on the night a rockfall (breaks) vs subvert (punk) mashup in the name of friends of the earth.

Hope to see you there :)

May 25

Here’s a lovely review from online birmingham clubbing magazine The Blaggerz Guide, from their clubbing editor Jo about Mr Elephant Presents 2!

“A day of silly fun and phat funky breaks began with the mask making during the hot sunny Saturday afternoon. We gathered at the skate park at 2pm and sparked our creative brain cells into action, with attaching all sorts of sparkly, shiny bits and pieces to our mask shapes producing some weird and wonderful creations. There was plenty of fun had all round and it’s fair to say that the best masks were created by the youngest minds.

Mask WorkshopAfter an afternoon bbq at the Prince, we met up later on that night back at the skate park for the Mr Elephant carnival experience.

Gary and Brian in the Mr E Prince BBQ

Mr Elephant had thought of everything possible for a fun carnivalesque evening. Upstairs, in the early stages of the night, guests could help themselves to the free Indian vegan buffet on offer, the samosa’s were definitely the tastiest and quite obviously the most popular, as they weren’t available for long. While guests were stuffing themselves on the food, Jibbering records spun a vast array of tunes from all corners of the globe.

Rockfall Belly DancersDownstairs, in the main room, the DJ’s of the night, gave outstanding animated performances. Everyone in there seemed to be having a fantastic night, with the atmosphere and vibe was becoming more a more fun-filled as the night went on. The DJ’s were feeding off the emotions of the crows and the crowd in turn were feeding off the emotions of the DJ’s, with everyone seeming to be having as much fun as a 6 year old at a funfair! The phat breaks were accompanied by live percussionists Mooncup and Mylo and friends, who gave the funky breaks an almost 3d audio quality as they drummed along to the tempo and rhythm of the tunes. Visual entertainment was supplied in 2 parts, the crowd were joined in the main room by belly dancers whose hypnotic movements and colourful costumes kept many folks attention whilst they were dancing. Behind the DJ’s, Chromatouch’s visuals were a mix of joyously eclectic animations that he amazed the guests with how harmoniously they were mixing with the tunes.

Visual dancingOutside the main room was even more entertainment. Some of the guests watched some of the selection of videos supplied by Indymedia on the 20ft screen, whilst others had loads of fun making themselves a carnivalesque mask (or 3).

Performance art

Mr Elephant Presents was a brilliant day. He had thought of everything possible for a fun event and more… luckily there’s not too long to wait till the next one as it’s on August 4th.”

N.b Unfortunatly the next Mr Elephant Event wont be at Epic on Aug 4th, as Epic have lost their drinks license following the constant harrasment of one neighbour with obsessive compulsive disorder. He will be back with a new venue in the near future.

May 25

Part two of the Mr Elephant show was the fear and love mix which you can find further down, so the third hour was 2 exclusive recordings from our first Rockfall Event at the Custard Factory back in February 2006, from Floridian Deck Maestros, J-Break & Agent K, when they headlined the launch party. First mix is heavy breaks. 2nd mix is heavy drum n bass! It was, in the words of Boogie Dave,….”heavy!”

Because they are exclusive recordings i can’t post them to download, as they can only be streamed. Instead however here is a video of the night, starring all the Rockfall headliners, and Barnard Hobbit :) Check this Video link to view. Comments as always are most welcomed.

May 25

Welcome to Mr Elephant’s 1st Radio Show.

This first section is the mixtape for friends, and features an hour of the some of the best music i can find, put together in the most beautiful way i can.

Mr Elephant Radio Show 1 Part 1 - Marc Reck

Show the love to any of the artists with these album/artist links

Tracklisting :)

1. Sissy - ALL UNDER - Global Underground - (from the album “All Under“)

2. The Orb - LITTLE FLUFFY CLOUDS - Big Life - (from the album “Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld“)

3. Nitin Sahwney - NOTHING - V2 International - (from the album “Prophesy“)

4. The Cinematic Orchestra (feat. Roots Manuva) - ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN - Ninja Tune - (from the album “Every Day“)

5. Juliette Lewis - BORN BAD - (from the soundtrack “Natural Born Killers“)

6. Dj Shadow Live - THE NUMBER SONG - Mowax - (Original from the album “Endtroducing“)

7. Dj Shadow Live - ORGAN DONOR - Mowax - (Original from the album “Endtroducing“)

8. The Muppets - MAHNA MAHNA - Video

9. Queen Latifa - WHEN YOUR GOOD TO MAMA (Chicago Soundtrack)

10. Bjork - SO BROKEN (unreleased) - One Little Indian - (Original from the album Joga)

11. Django Reinhart - Les Yeux Noirs

12. Rich Batsford - LYNDALL - (from the forthcoming album “Valentine Court“)

13. Massive Attack - DAYDREAMING (Virgin) - (from the album “Blue Lines“)

14. Bob Marley - ROOTS (Island Records) - (from the album “Rebel Music“)

15. Rich Batsford - GUDONYA - (from the forthcoming album “Valentine Court“)

May 24

Who’s Mr Elephant? - Here i am
Having been selected from a shortlist of 3 million monkeys, i’ve found a new project hosting the new Mr Elephant Radio Show. After two weeks of finding hearing and mixing all sorts of music, I’m now getting pretty excited about putting it all together.

The show is in 3 parts. The first section is a “mixtape for friends” type ride, through one hour of really quality emotive music which hopefully encourages a listener’s narrative, (and interest in the artists).

The 2nd section, is a live dj mix hosted with a mic, playing and promoting the best new breaks i can find. A lot of fun to do have definitly missed it. (Synchronistically enough, it seems a funder has come through for Influx radio, so it will be returning to the airwaves in the near future.. My mics on the loose, so i will have to substitute the fear and love mix, until i get it back.

The last hour will feature exclusive recordings from local gigs and events. For this one, i thought it’d be a nice idea to feature our headliners from the Rockfall launch party last year those Floridian deck maestros - J-Break & Agent K, with a heavy peak time hour of half breaks, and half drum n bass.

Check it out :) We really welcome feedback, and i’m sure the artists featured would appreciate a click.

One love :)

P.s The Mr Elephant Site will be hosted on my server, so drop me an email if any of the music or images take a while to load. No need to be waiting while we surf the web.

May 23

…have just called and said they are going to use 3 sections of our recent Peace Not War Set, for a dance piece they’ll be performing next month. They’re a really talented dance collective, who are very open to exploring new territory. As i wont be playing live, it means re-editing the tracks so the samples sit within them, and remixing the sections they want onto a cd in order to still get the narrative across, but the performance is definitly going to be a new arena for phat breaks!

May 21

After a relentless week, it was lovely to walk into Mark and Shona’s Custom Made event @ the Rainbow last night. Mixmaster Morris was playing his beautiful blend, and there was a real nice vibe there of friendly faces, and comfy seating.

When the sun went down i stepped up, and explored some of my record collection that i dont normally get chance to play at the peak time slots. Unfortunatly it was dark and i had no torch, so ended up not playing at least 75% of them, but lots of nice feedback and dancefloor business anyway :)

Boogie Dave played a quality dubstep set, and converted quite a few headz to the sound, including me.. and props must most certainly go to Vj maestro’s MASH, who blew everyone’s minds with their visuals. Tribal dances, and travelling journeys. Brilliant. Mixmaster Morris was of course…fantastic :)

May 10

1. Bionik Phunk - Once in a lifetime feat. Sugar Caine [Slopshop Records]
2. Nu Breed - Subtronic [Original Mix] - [Shiznit Recordings]
3. Brothers Bud - Feel Like Dancing (Micky Slim’s Extra Wrong Mix) [Finger Lickin Records]
4. Bosch - Rattlesnake (Nick Thayer Mix) - [Finger Lickin Records]
5. DJB - The Drop - [Clutch Records]
6. Merka - The Steam Room - [Fat Records]
7. G-Force - The Oven is Broke - [Dedkob Records]
8. Speedometer - Take a Chance -[Freestyle]
9. Bassnectar ft Persia - Kick It Complex [Om Records]
10. Baobinga & I.D pres Big Monster - Recognise (Vandal Remix) [Fat Records]

May 6

1. Bionik Phunk - Once in a lifetime feat. Sugar Caine [Slopshop Records]
2. Nu Breed - Subtronic [Original Mix] - [Shiznit Recordings]
3. Brothers Bud - Feel Like Dancing (Micky Slim’s Extra Wrong Mix) [Finger Lickin Records]
4. Bosch - Rattlesnake (Nick Thayer Mix) - [Finger Lickin Records]
5. DJB - The Drop - [Clutch Records]
6. Merka - The Steam Room - [Fat Records]
7. G-Force - The Oven is Broke - [Dedkob Records]
8. Speedometer - Take a Chance -[Freestyle]
9. Bassnectar ft Persia - Kick It Complex [Om Records]
10. Baobinga & I.D pres Big Monster - Recognise (Vandal Remix) [Fat Records]

May 6

Big Ups to Becca, and the Peace Not war crew, and to Boogie and the Drop Beats crew, because it all once again looked amazing. I spent most of my time in the peace not war room, and was most blown away by Bass 6, Mc Angel, One Eye, Sammy B-Side, though i missed the destroyers, and d-force which i was looking forward to seeing..Oh and the rub…was he even there? And of course the people i had the fortune to perform with - Vj Chromatouch, Birmingham Dance Collective, with the pink wigs, Lisa wetton dance and friends, and of course Dawn and the belly dancers. After Jehst had finished we were about an hour behind schedule, but nethertheless we managed to do most of the set bar one tune, and it seemed to go down really well. Vj chromatouch’s visuals, coupled with Slick rick’s lighting and stage setup, looked very cool, and really gave the performance a festival/dj shadow type feel..It was a different vibe for me as a dj than normal, as i was quite a way away from the crowd, with a big while light was shining bright for a lot of it, but great response though, and checkin some of these pics that my friend skinny took, and the feedback thats been coming in since, i feel very lucky to have been part of it..Here’s some of the pics