Mighty Force Records
Encyclopedia
Mighty Force Records was a record shop and influential early techno label
based in Exeter
, Devon
, South West England between 1990
-1995
. It was founded by ex-punk
, ex-free festival
activist (having briefly worked with the Stonehenge Free Festival
Campaign in 1983) and ex-warehouse party organiser Mark Darby and his partner, journalist Jess Shortis after they had visited various club-based events in Plymouth and realised there was no focal point for the burgeoning rave
scene in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
The store soon became a regular stop-off point for many internationally known DJs including, Sasha
, Andrew Weatherall
, Lee Burridge
, Jon DaSilva
and Felix Buxton later of Basement Jaxx
and was the catalyst for the fledgling West Country techno movement.
The record label is best known for releasing Analogue Bubblebath
and other works by the Aphex Twin
, and works of Tom Middleton
later of Global Communication
, Jedi Knights, Cosmos and AMBA. Later releases included Middleton's own "My Splendid Idea" and the hard to find Fog City EP by Darby and Matthew Herbert
.
Middleton, his Global Communication
and Jedi Knights partner Mark Pritchard
and Herbert met through the patronage of the Mighty Force store. All three also DJ'ed regularly at the weekly promotional club night run by the label along with the likes of Weatherall, Judge Jules
and ex-Haçienda
resident Graeme Park
. Another regular DJ at these events was Dominic Jacobson then studying at Exeter University, later a member of Phil Asher's Restless Soul
crew and who now produces deep jazz inflected house under the name Modaji and Harvey Lindo. Middleton and Jacobson were often to be seen working behind the shop counter.
Although the store ceased to trade in 1995, the label relocated to London and continued to release music by deep house
artists such as Peach Palf and the Classic / Music For Freaks
recording artists, Luke Solomon and Justin Harris under the alias Robotic Movement until 1998. Label design was by Ben Drury
, known for his innovative work with James Lavelle
's Mo' Wax
label and collaborations with former graffiti
artist and The Clash
's sometime sleeve designer, Futura 2000
.
Other releases included a series of white label
breakbeat
EPs under the name of Old Skool Flava, nominally produced by Darby and "H" Warren, label manager of Global Communication
's now defunct Universal Language Productions imprint.
Darby's connections with the early Eighties festival scene and involvement in organising free acid house
parties centered around Pepper Box Hill near Salisbury in Wiltshire in the latter part of that decade - especially a joint event at that location in August 1989 - led to an informal partnership between a DJ and sound system collective based around the shop and Nottingham's The DiY Sound System
, with whom they collaborated to stage many free parties throughout the South West during the early to mid 1990s.
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
based in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, South West England between 1990
1990 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1990.-Events:*January 21 – MTV's Unplugged premieres on cable television with British band Squeeze...
-1995
1995 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1995.- January–February :*January 18 – Jerry Garcia crashes his rented BMW into a guard rail near Mill Valley, California, USA, but is not injured in the accident....
. It was founded by ex-punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
, ex-free festival
Free party
A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the free festival movement. It typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one...
activist (having briefly worked with the Stonehenge Free Festival
Stonehenge Free Festival
The Stonehenge Free Festival was a British free festival from 1972 to 1984 held at Stonehenge in England during the month of June, and culminating on the summer solstice on June 21. The festival was a celebration of various alternative cultures...
Campaign in 1983) and ex-warehouse party organiser Mark Darby and his partner, journalist Jess Shortis after they had visited various club-based events in Plymouth and realised there was no focal point for the burgeoning rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
scene in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.
The store soon became a regular stop-off point for many internationally known DJs including, Sasha
Sasha (DJ)
Sasha is a Welsh DJ and record producer. Sasha began his career playing acid house dance music in the late 1980s...
, Andrew Weatherall
Andrew Weatherall
Andrew Weatherall is a DJ, producer, and remixer.Andrew, Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel and Steve Mayes started Boy's Own initially as a fanzine commenting on fashion, records, football, and other issues...
, Lee Burridge
Lee Burridge
Lee Burridge is a DJ, producer, and record label owner who helped launch the underground club scene in Hong Kong during the early 1990s, and today plays at nightclubs across the world....
, Jon DaSilva
Jon DaSilva
Jon Dasilva is a producer and DJ. He has had releases on labels such as Soma and Deconstruction. He is also well known for his time as a resident DJ at The Haçienda. While there, he mentored Sasha in the early 1990s.-External links:*Official Website**...
and Felix Buxton later of Basement Jaxx
Basement Jaxx
Basement Jaxx are a British electronic dance music duo from London, England consisting of Felix Buxton born 1971 and Simon Ratcliffe born 1 December 1969. They first rose to popularity in the late 1990s...
and was the catalyst for the fledgling West Country techno movement.
The record label is best known for releasing Analogue Bubblebath
Analogue Bubblebath
Analogue Bubblebath Vol I was the first EP released by electronic musician Richard D. James under the alias of AFX and is the first release in the Analogue Bubblebath series.-Pressings:...
and other works by the Aphex Twin
Aphex Twin
Richard David James , best known under the pseudonym Aphex Twin, is an Irish-born electronic musician and composer described as "the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music"...
, and works of Tom Middleton
Tom Middleton
Tom Middleton is a prolific British recording artist, music producer, remixer and DJ.A classically trained pianist and cellist, Middleton worked in the early 1990s with Richard D. James , co-producing "En-Trance To Exit" on the Analogue Bubblebath EP for Exeter's influential Mighty Force Records...
later of Global Communication
Global Communication
Global Communication is an electronic music act, composed of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard. Their debut LP, 76:14 is one of the most acclaimed albums from the ambient music genre and from 1990s electronic music in general....
, Jedi Knights, Cosmos and AMBA. Later releases included Middleton's own "My Splendid Idea" and the hard to find Fog City EP by Darby and Matthew Herbert
Matthew Herbert
Matthew Herbert , also known as Herbert, Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, Transformer, and Wishmountain, is a British electronic musician...
.
Middleton, his Global Communication
Global Communication
Global Communication is an electronic music act, composed of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard. Their debut LP, 76:14 is one of the most acclaimed albums from the ambient music genre and from 1990s electronic music in general....
and Jedi Knights partner Mark Pritchard
Mark Pritchard (music producer)
Mark Pritchard is an electronic music producer and DJ from Sydney, Australia. Born in Yeovil, United Kingdom, he has released music on the labels Warp Records, Hyperdub, Dedicated and Sonar Kollektiv amongst others...
and Herbert met through the patronage of the Mighty Force store. All three also DJ'ed regularly at the weekly promotional club night run by the label along with the likes of Weatherall, Judge Jules
Judge Jules
Judge Jules is a British dance music DJ and producer, known for his DJ activities and popular radio show which achieved global success.-Education:...
and ex-Haçienda
The Haçienda
Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...
resident Graeme Park
Graeme Park
Graeme Park is an historic site in Horsham, Montgomery County. It is owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and operated by the non-profit group, The Friends of Graeme Park. It is the only surviving residence of a colonial-era Pennsylvania governor...
. Another regular DJ at these events was Dominic Jacobson then studying at Exeter University, later a member of Phil Asher's Restless Soul
Restless Soul (artist/label)
Restless Soul is an alias British DJ, music producer, and record label owner Phil Asher uses, along with production partner Luke McCarthy, for many of their dance music productions and remixes...
crew and who now produces deep jazz inflected house under the name Modaji and Harvey Lindo. Middleton and Jacobson were often to be seen working behind the shop counter.
Although the store ceased to trade in 1995, the label relocated to London and continued to release music by deep house
Deep house
Deep house is a subgenre of house music that fuses elements of Chicago house into the 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. In the early compositions , influences of jazz music were most frequently brought out by using more complex chords than simple triads which are held for many bars and...
artists such as Peach Palf and the Classic / Music For Freaks
Freaks (band)
Freaks, earlier known as Robotic Movement, Future Movement and the Unknown are an electronic band from London, England. The band members are Justin Harris and Luke Solomon...
recording artists, Luke Solomon and Justin Harris under the alias Robotic Movement until 1998. Label design was by Ben Drury
Ben Drury
Ben Drury , is a British freelance designer.He was art director of Mo' Wax recordings and has worked extensively in the music industry, creating album artwork for Turin Brakes and Dizzee Rascal amongst others...
, known for his innovative work with James Lavelle
James Lavelle
James Lavelle is a DJ, electronic recording artist and record label boss.-Early years:Born into a family with a strong tradition of music, Lavelle first began by learning the cello with his grandmother in Oxford....
's Mo' Wax
Mo' Wax
Mo' Wax was a UK-based record label owned by James Lavelle, who founded it in the early 1990s with Tim Goldsworthy. Steve Finan became co-owner shortly after. The label came to recognition for being at the forefront of trip hop, turntablism and alternative rap during the mid-90s...
label and collaborations with former graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
artist and The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
's sometime sleeve designer, Futura 2000
Futura 2000
Futura 2000 is a graffiti artist. He started to paint illegally on New York's subway in the early seventies, working with other artists such as ALI. In the early eighties he showed with Patti Astor at the Fun Gallery, along with Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton and Kenny Scharf...
.
Other releases included a series of white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...
breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
EPs under the name of Old Skool Flava, nominally produced by Darby and "H" Warren, label manager of Global Communication
Global Communication
Global Communication is an electronic music act, composed of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard. Their debut LP, 76:14 is one of the most acclaimed albums from the ambient music genre and from 1990s electronic music in general....
's now defunct Universal Language Productions imprint.
Darby's connections with the early Eighties festival scene and involvement in organising free acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
parties centered around Pepper Box Hill near Salisbury in Wiltshire in the latter part of that decade - especially a joint event at that location in August 1989 - led to an informal partnership between a DJ and sound system collective based around the shop and Nottingham's The DiY Sound System
The DiY Sound System
The DiY Sound System was one of Britain's first house sound systems. The group "divided their activities between free parties and legal club nights, acting as a bridge between counter-culture and the mainstream"....
, with whom they collaborated to stage many free parties throughout the South West during the early to mid 1990s.