Jon Carter

Jon Carter

Jon Carter is a British DJ and producer from Essex, England, born in 1970. He is best known for work under the Monkey Mafia name, and he also records as Artery and Junior Cartier.

Early career and big beat

Carter begins his musical career playing in bands while studying at Southampton University. He leaves university, moves back to London and learns studio engineering, then works at the No U-Turn studios, which is involved in the early 1990s jungle scene. He starts making his own tracks in his spare time and is signed to Wall of Sound after attracting the attention of the label founder, Mark Jones.

His first release is The Dollar under the name Artery. In the 1990s he rises to prominence as a big beat DJ, and he becomes associated with The Heavenly Social, a Sunday-night club at the Albany pub on Great Portland Street in central London. Alongside DJs including The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Richard Fearless of Death in Vegas, he is part of a scene that helps shape big beat through a mix of rock, hip hop, breakbeat and dance music.

Monkey Mafia and other releases

In 1995 Carter leaves Wall of Sound and signs to Heavenly Records to make dub- and dancehall-influenced dance music as Monkey Mafia. The project develops into a full live band, and the album Shoot the Boss is released in 1998.

By this point he is also working as a remixer and mix-album producer, with remix work for artists including U2, Manic Street Preachers and The Beach Boys. In 1999 he returns to Wall of Sound and its subsidiary Nu Camp to release Women Beat Their Men, a house record under the Junior Cartier name.

Later projects and collaborations

In 2003 Carter and fellow DJ Tim Sheridan form the short-lived label Saville Row and issue several singles on it. After a period in which severe tinnitus slows down his DJing and production work, he returns in 2008 with another collaboration with Sheridan, then The Rabbit with Stretch Silvester of Stretch & Vern. This is the first single in a planned series of collaborations released under the name Gentleman's Agreement.

He also works with Liverpool-born, New York-based DJ Alex Blanco as Roosevelt High.

Other work

From 2004 onwards Carter reduces his DJing because of tinnitus, and he also starts a second career in business, co-founding a company that operates a chain of live music pubs across London.

Collective projects

In 2009 Carter joins the Rizla Invisible Players, an evolving collective of musicians and artists. That year the line-up includes Jazzie B, Micachu, Gruff Rhys and David Shrigley, and the group performs at festivals including RockNess, Lovebox, The Big Chill and Bestival.