Volumes 4 and 5 of the Jazz Brakes series, co-created with DJ / producer PC transcend the breakbeat compilation format to stand as artist albums in their own right. The later DJ Food albums have developed with shades of Latin, dub, techno, ambient, and Jungle flavouring the funk.
The 1995 album, A Recipe For Disaster was a conscious move away from the Jazz Brakes volumes to form more of an identity as an artist, and a remix album of tracks from all 6 LPs, entitled Refried Food was released the following year. Their last release, Kaleidoscope, featured guest artists including Bundy K. Brown (formerly of Tortoise, Directions in Music, Pullman) and voiceover artist and jazz poet, Ken Nordine).
With a seemingly single DJ name, it is often wrongly assumed that DJ Food is single person. In fact, a whole host of DJs, producers and musicians have performed under the name, so the evolutionary nature of the DJ Food sound comes as no surprise. Matt Black and Jonathan More (aka Coldcut) were responsible for starting Jazz Brakes series in the early 90s. Along the way they met Patrick Carpenter, who, being listed on the liner notes simply by his initials, was often mistakenly thought to be a Personal computer. A loose collaborative team began to form as more like-minded people arrived at the party, including Paul Brook, Paul Rabiger, Strictly Kev and Issac Elliston.
Although keeping their hand in as DJs on the albums, Matt & Jon couldn't perform DJ sets twice in one night under both aliases of Coldcut & DJ Food, so they handed the mantle of live DJing over to PC and Strictly Kev. Later, PC became so busy with The Cinematic Orchestra that he decided to quit, at least temporarily leaving DJ Food as a Strictly Kev solo project.
In addition to The Cinematic Orchestra, PC also recorded with J. Swinscoe under the band name Neptune. Strictly Kev has recorded under the name Flexus.
Album Discography
* Jazz Brakes Vol. 1 (Oct 1990, Cat No. ZENCD 001)
* Jazz Brakes Vol. 2 (Sep 1991, Cat No. ZENCD 002)
* Jazz Brakes Vol. 3 (Jul 1992, Cat No. ZENCD 003)
* Jazz Brakes Vol. 4 (Jun 1993, Cat No. ZENCD 006)
* Jazz Brakes Vol. 5 (Oct 1994, Cat No. ZENCD 010)
* A Recipe For Disaster (Oct 1995, Cat No. ZENCD 020)
* Refried Food (remix album) (Jan 1996, ZENCD 021)
* Kaleidoscope (Apr 2000, Cat No. ZENCD 047)
* Quadraplex EP (Febr 2001, Cat No. ZENCDS 091)
* One Man's Weird is Another Man's World EP (July 2009, Cat No. ZEN232)
* The Shape Of Things That Hum EP (Dec 2009, Cat No. ZEN252)
Refried Food was re-released in 2003 as a double CD, with additional remixes.
DJ Mix albums
Quadraplex was recorded on the same session as Kaleidoscope and is it's accompanying EP.
* Blech II: Blechsdottir (1996, released on Rough Trade in Germany, Cat No. RTD 126.3175.2)
Mixed by PC and Strictly Kev.
* Plastic Apple (Oct 1996, released on Aura Surround Sounds, Cat No. SUCD 005)
Disc 1: a 56 minute mix by DJ Food. Discs 2 & 3 are by the artist MLO
* ColdKrushCuts (Feb 1997, Ninja Tune, Cat No. ZENCD 026)
A mix album collaboration between Coldcut, DJ Krush and DJ Food
* Solid Steel Presents DJ Food & DK: Now, Listen! (October 2001, Cat No. ZENCD055)
Mix album for Ninja Tune's Solid Steel mix series, with producer, DK.
* Various - Raiding The 20th Century - Words & Music Expansion (Jan 2005, Ninja Tune, Catalog No. none)
Originally aired January 18th, 2004 by Strictly Kev on XFM's The Remix show in London, Raiding the 20th Century is an attempt to catalogue the history of cut up music - be it avant garde tape manipulation, turntable megamixes or bastard pop mash ups.
Shortly after he had played it, Strictly Kev read Paul Morley's Words & Music and was amazed how certain chapters mirrored parts of his mix. Apart from the fact that the title, Raiding the 20th Century, was coined by Morley 20 years before for a future Art of Noise project, he also featured Alvin Lucier, who - purely by chance - was sampled on the opening track of the mix.
Kev thus decided to expand his idea and make it a defnitive document on cut up music, including many other parts formerly omitted by the constraints of the original radio session. After months of research, he tracked Morley down and they recorded passages from Words & Music specially for the mix in an attempt to marry the two and finish something that neither of them actually started. A year to the day of the original airing, the newly expanded version was ready, gathering 167 tracks in a 59 minutes long DJ mix.
*DJ Food & DK - Now Listen Again (Ninja Tune ZENCD123, 2007-04-02)
Solid Steel mix album.
(2) DJ Food is a collaborative project between Coldcut/Ninja Tune duo Matt Black and Jonathan More, and second-half PC (born Patrick Carpenter) and Strictly Kev (Kevin Foakes). Although the moniker originally referred only to Black and More's several-volumed series of stripped-down breaks records designed for deck use (i.e., "food" for DJs), club booking demands for the assumedly proper-named DJ Food dictated the pair make an ongoing project of it. Adding PC and Strictly to spice things up (and differentiate DJ Food from Coldcut when they played the same bill), the quartet released a series of 12" singles in various combinations starting in 1994 (including "Freedom"/"Consciousness"), with their proper debut full-length, A Recipe for Disaster, appearing the following year. The quartet also toured Europe, Canada, and America as DJ Food (mainly DJing) and regularly mashed it up side by side on Coldcut's weekly KISS FM show Solid Steel. PC and Strictly were also hired by Warp Records to compile and mix a series of releases entitled Blech, drawing from the influential experimental techno label's back catalog. More and Black continued to split their time between DJ Food and Coldcut, as well as the day-to-day operation of their immensely popular Ninja Tune and Ntone labels. DJ Food's second production album, Kaleidoscope, appeared in April of 2000 to warm reviews. A year later, the pair inaugurated a Solid Steel CD series with the mix album Now, Listen! The years that followed found More and Black contributing less thanks to their Coldcut obligations, while PC would find success with his Cinematic Orchestra project, so much so that he resigned as a full-time member. Strictly Kev revived the project in 2011 and released The Search Engine in 2012. PC would make an appearance, joining J.G. Thirlwell and The The's Matt Johnson on the album's long guest list. ~ Sean Cooper, Rovi
Break
DJ Food Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That it hushed the crowd
they all grew quiet and still
I sunk the one
And thus begun
The test of my pool playing skill
I put chalk on the cue and dropped the two
and then the three and four
and banked the five
and ??? the score
I drop the six
Then just for kicks
Sank the seven and eight
Pocketed the nine and ten
And chalked up again
????
Now I need one more shot
To win this pot
While someone was praying I'd miss
but this hell was my heaven
when I sided the eleven
and sank it on a rail shot
yes
The lyrics to DJ Food's song "Break in" describe a scene at a pool hall where the singer is playing a game of pool, and the break they make is so impressive that it quiets the crowd. The singer goes on to describe sinking several balls with skill and confidence, before finally sinking the winning shot, the eleven ball, on a difficult rail shot. The overall tone of the lyrics is one of triumph and satisfaction, with the singer reveling in their own success in the face of doubt or criticism from others.
The language used in these lyrics is simple but effective, conveying the excitement and tension of a game of pool in vivid detail. The use of verbs like "sunk," "dropped," and "banked" give a sense of the physicality of the game, while phrases like "this hell was my heaven" and "someone was praying I'd miss" add a sense of drama and tension. Overall, these lyrics are a great example of how even simple language can be used to create a compelling and evocative narrative.
Line by Line Meaning
The break was so loud
The first shot of the game was powerful enough to silence the onlookers
That it hushed the crowd
The noise from the break was so intense, everyone stopped making any sound
they all grew quiet and still
The silence extended and nobody even moved a muscle
I sunk the one
The player successfully pocketed the first ball
And thus begun
From this point on, the game has started in earnest
The test of my pool playing skill
The player is about to show their skill in the game of pool
I put chalk on the cue and dropped the two
The player covered the tip of the cue stick with chalk before hitting the second ball
and then the three and four
The player continued to sink the third and the fourth ball
I took my drive
The player hit the cue ball with force for the next shot
and banked the five
The player angled the cue ball off the cushion to hit and sink the fifth ball
and ??? the score
The meaning of this line is unclear
I drop the six
The sixth ball successfully fell into the pocket
Then just for kicks
For the sheer fun of it
Sank the seven and eight
The player continued to sink the seventh and the eighth ball
Pocketed the nine and ten
The player managed to sink two more balls
And chalked up again
The player coated the tip of the cue stick with chalk once more
????
The meaning of this line is unclear
Now I need one more shot
The player is one shot away from winning the game
To win this pot
The player is about to win the entire sum of money at stake
While someone was praying I'd miss
An opponent is desperately hoping the player will make a mistake
but this hell was my heaven
The pressure of the moment is exhilarating for the player
when I sided the eleven
The player won by sinking the eleventh ball via a bank shot
and sank it on a rail shot
The ball went into the pocket after ricocheting off the cushion
yes
The player is victorious and celebrates
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: KEVIN FOAKES, PATRICK EDWARD CARPENTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind