DJ Food

DJ Food

DJ Food is a London-based electronic group associated with Ninja Tune. The project begins in 1990 as a concept for making “food for DJs”: records built from breaks, loops and samples for mixing, remixing and production. It starts as a Coldcut project by Matt Black and Jonathan More, then develops into a wider collaborative unit that includes Patrick Carpenter, known as PC, and Kevin Foakes, known as Strictly Kev. Other contributors over time include Paul Brook, Paul Rabiger and Issac Elliston.

Origins and lineup

The name initially refers to Matt Black and Jonathan More’s series of stripped-down breakbeat records on Ninja Tune. As the project expands, PC and Strictly Kev become central to the live side of DJ Food, especially because Black and More cannot perform DJ sets under both Coldcut and DJ Food on the same bill. PC is later associated with Patrick Carpenter, while Strictly Kev is Kevin Foakes. The group remains active from 1990 to the present.

Releases and style

DJ Food’s early output is the Jazz Brakes series, with Jazz Brakes Volume 3 the best-known release from that run. The series develops through five volumes, and volumes 4 and 5, made with PC, move beyond compilation format into artist-album territory. These records focus on jazz and hip hop breaks and samples in the Ninja Tune style. Later releases add influences from Latin, dub, techno, ambient and jungle.

The 1995 album A Recipe For Disaster marks a clearer move away from the Jazz Brakes format toward a more distinct artist identity. A remix collection, Refried Food, follows the next year and is reissued in expanded double-CD form in 2003. Kaleidoscope, released in 2000, features guest appearances from Bundy K. Brown, formerly of Tortoise, Directions in Music and Pullman, and from jazz poet and voiceover artist Ken Nordine.

Collaborations and related projects

DJ Food also works as a collaborative mixing and compilation project. PC and Strictly Kev compile Warp Records’ Blech II: Blechsdottir, and DJ Food contributes to mix albums such as Plastic Apple, ColdKrushCuts with Coldcut and DJ Krush, and Solid Steel Presents DJ Food & DK: Now, Listen! for Ninja Tune’s Solid Steel series. Strictly Kev also creates Raiding the 20th Century – Words & Music Expansion, a cut-up music mix built from research into the history of experimental sampling, tape manipulation, turntable megamixes and mash-ups.

Later activity

With Coldcut demands reducing Matt Black and Jonathan More’s involvement, DJ Food continues with changing membership. PC becomes heavily involved with The Cinematic Orchestra and also records with J. Swinscoe under the name Neptune, after which he steps back from full-time involvement. Strictly Kev, who also records as Flexus, revives the project and releases The Search Engine in 2012. PC appears on that album alongside J.G. Thirlwell and Matt Johnson of The The.

Discography highlights

Key releases include Jazz Brakes Vol. 1, Jazz Brakes Vol. 2, Jazz Brakes Vol. 3, Jazz Brakes Vol. 4, Jazz Brakes Vol. 5, A Recipe For Disaster, Refried Food, Kaleidoscope, Quadraplex EP, One Man’s Weird is Another Man’s World EP and The Shape Of Things That Hum EP. Mix albums include Blech II: Blechsdottir, Plastic Apple, ColdKrushCuts, Now, Listen!, Raiding the 20th Century – Words & Music Expansion and Now Listen Again.