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There’s a freshness to this week’s mix from Mike Hulme. Yes, its from the old country, the UK; seeped in tradition, in depth, in darkness. However, techno is fresh for Jungo Road and Mike’s take on it prevails. He has created for us a mix with dark, at times minimal, techno, tech-house and tech-funk tracks where the beat goes ON!

Creatively, Mike Hulme started producing under the alias Introspective in 2002 at Sinister Recordings blending the best bits of breaks, techno, electro and house with over 20 singles. In his eight years there, he helped establish and run the legendary breaks label while DJing around the globe, mixing Ministry of Sound compilations, and gaining the firm support of James Zabiela, Meat Katie, Elite Force, The Crystal Method, Rennie Pilgrem, Plump DJs, Laurent Garnier, General MIDI, Cut La Roc and Überzone.

Now, Mike is out front and center stage recording under his own name and signed to Elite Force’s U&A Recordings. In this direction, he has released three singles, has four releases in the pipeline, and gained support from peers like Carl Cox, Slam and Laurent Garnier.

On Mike’s business side, he’s worked for Ministry of Sound and DJdownload.com in London; licensed material on Fabric Live, Sony Playstation and Y4K; even worked for a Japanese-owned music licensing company where he composed and sold thousands of ringtones in Asia. Music everywhere!

While writing this feature, we were listening to Mike’s mix for Jungo Road. I had my headphones on part of the time; while the majority was open air with our Velodyne sub pumping. Two friends were listening in and we all agreed this is a fresh side of techno; big props to it! The groove was relentless. It dripped with audio gravy that surrounded us and we wished our minds would leave our body for a short time to float then dive down into it. Mike’s rediscovery of techno, obviously a past love, is welcomed and we look forward to his upcoming releases:

• Mike Hulme – 100mg [U&A Recordings]
• Butter Party – Eat The Mushroom (Mike Hulme Remix) [Trickery Collective]
• Aaron Pope & Chad North – You Got What? (Mike Hulme Remix) [Erase]
• Peter Paul – Count Drak (Mike Hulme Remix) [N-Mity Sound]

More about Mike Hulme at MySpace and SoundCloud.
Booking: Click to reveal email

Play individual tracks and then click on the links below to purchase!

1. Intro / GusGus – Add This Song (Klovn Remix) [Kompakt]
2. Stephan Bodzin – Mustang [Systematic]
3. Layo & Bushwacka – The Raw Road [Olmeto Records]
4. Tommy Four Seven – Surma [Electric Deluxe]
5. Queen Atom – Refuse Greed [Dumb Unit]
6. D-Nox & Beckers – Cala a Boca (Meat Katie Remix) [Sprout]
7. Mike Hulme – 100mg [U&A Recordings]
8. Meat Katie & Elite Force – Believe (Dopamine Remix) [U&A Recordings]
9. Marc Romboy ft. Blake Baxter – Where Would You Be? (Version 1) [Systematic]
10. Aaron Pope & Chad North – You Got What? (Mike Hulme Remix) [Erase]
11. Electric Rescue – The Devil’s Dance [Cocoon]
12. Extrawelt – The Dark Side of My Room (Timo Maas Remix) [Cocoon]
13. Freeland – Mancry (Gui Boratto Remix) [Marine Parade] / Outro

A few words before we delve into the obligatory biography… those who are fans of breakbeat and tech-funk have no need for a formal introduction of Elite Force – and for those who are new to the genre, there is no better artist to better sum it up for you than this week’s Jungo Road podcast mixed by Elite Force.

I always noticed Elite Force’s tracks and remixes on b-sides of 12″ I was buying – and then in 2006 it finally hit me: this is hands down my favorite producer in dance music. And three years later that has not changed. Whether it is under his name or a plethora of cheeky monikers he has used to put his imprint on the scene, for over a decade Elite Force (aka Shack) has been the pioneer, innovator, and master of tech-funk.

Simon Shackleton’s Elite Force project began way back in 1996, debuting on his own newly founded Fused and Bruised label with a series of peerless 12″ and remixes. After a successful five years, he put Fused and Bruised on the back burner to concentrate on production work. Following several years with Whole9Yards and Moonshine, he became a mainstay recording artist for Adrift Recordings (formally known as Kingsize Records) before moving on to set up his own hugely successful U&A Recordings imprint.

Often credited for being a linchpin in the development of the tech-funk genre (an amalgamation of breaks, house, techno and electro), he has released a series of highly successful singles in the past few years. He received broad support from DJs and musicians across the board, including the likes of James Zabiela, Sasha, Crystal Method, Laurent Garnier and Fatboy Slim to name but five. In 2008, he released a semi-retrospective double album’s worth of remixes and re-workings of a 12-year back catalog, with over 25 mixes coming from such luminaries as Miles Dyson, Rogue Element, Deepgroove, Dylan Rhymes and Calvertron.

In addition to these solo singles, Meat Katie has been a regular collaborator with Elite Force. It’s a creative relationship that began in 2003 with the massive-selling “Toba”, continues with a series of singles under the “Meat Katie & Elite Force” banner, and comes to fruition in 2009 with the launch of their new joint project Dustbowl.

As a remixer, Elite Force has always been in huge demand, with re-workings for the likes of Grandmaster Flash, Crystal Method, Jungle Brothers, Stereo MCs, UNKLE, Infusion, Rennie Pilgrem, Shiloh and Dylan Rhymes all contributing to his reputation as one of the most creative and effective remixers around.

Elite Force’s music has also been the soundtrack to many a movie, with a huge list of impressive A-list credits to his name, including the likes of The Matrix, Charlie’s Angels, Arlington Road, Mortal Kombat, Crow, The Bone Collector, The Jackyll, and Spiderman 2. His music has appeared on a wide array of TV shows, from CSI to Top Gear, from Football Focus to LA Doctors. He’s also soundtracked a number of computer games including no fewer than 5 FIFA games, several of the Wipeout series, The Matrix and Motorstorm 1. He is currently writing some bespoke music for forthcoming games for Ferrari and Motorstorm2.

On the decks, Elite Force has been a prime mover since 1990 when he cut his teeth playing huge student nights and self-promoted acid house nights in the South West of England, before moving up to ….London…. and ultimately gravitating towards his tech-funk style, with which he now has a full diary of global bookings. He has become known as one of the top tech-nicians on a circuit that has included massive shows in Belarus, Hungary, Australia, Italy, USA, Czech Republic, India, Turkey, Spain, Japan, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and China, amongst others, as well as numerous festival slots including Glastonbury, Coachella, Bloom, Wickerman and the Glade. This year will be Elite Force’s debut performance at Burning Man.

He was also responsible for the hugely influential Strongarm Sessions webcasts which became something of an institution since their inception back in 2001, receiving as they did around 20,000 downloads per show, but now put on the back burner to concentrate on other projects, such as his own blog Tech Funk Manifesto and his other musical projects such as Dustbowl.

You can catch Elite Force in the USA this month June 19th at Shorty’s Martini Bar in Baltimore, MD; June 20th at Mission Rock in San Francisco, and June 22nd at Monday Social in Los Angeles.

More info on his MySpace
Booking: Click to reveal email

Stream the mix here or download the podcast above; then click on the links below to purchase!

1. The Loops of Fury – Flick A Switch (Hijack Mix) [U&A Recordings]
2. Hatiras – Scream Train [Hatrax]
3. Uberzone – I No You [Gizmonik]
4. Maelstrom – The Jungle Jacker [Expressillion]
5. Remaniax & Marc Benjamin – Blazin’ (Haggstrom mix) [Audiodamage Records]
6. Wehbba – The Bunker [Lo Kik]
7. Mike Hulme – 100mg [U&A Recordings]
8. The Loops of Fury – Flick A Switch (Original) [U&A Recordings]

“Following our ‘10 excuses to avoid DJ requests’ post which attempted to provide useful lines for DJs wishing to avoid requests from annoying punters without resorting to violence, Zodiac Cartel has seemingly come up with his own evil musical double entendre for DJs.

‘We Don’t Play That’ has the added benefit of being an absolutely rip-roaring, in-your-face electro house cut, so when your hands are tied dropping this track should hopefully still hit the message home – it’s the musical equivalent of a big fat ‘F*** Off!’ or a fricking laser beam in the face.

Such evilness from the DJ booth obviously won’t bring you any more fans, but as a secretive supervillan of the DJ world creating an army of aggressive electro house followers is one of the aims of the General Zod-loving producer.

Joking aside, ‘We Don’t Play That’ is supreme bassline-driven electro house with a good amount of urban and breakbeat influence, and it comes from one of the fastest rising yet most secretive stars in electro house.

In just two short years, Zodiac Cartel has risen up the ranks with his loud and energetic productions that have landed on some of the scene’s biggest labels including Rennie Pilgrim’s TCR imprint and Calverton’s Jack Knife records, but his attempts to remain anonymous have so far been successful.

His music has too. Zodiac Cartel’s remix of Calverton’s ‘Doggy Style’ in particular did a great job of bridging the electro house and breaks divide recently, and both Lee Mortimer (Beatportal’s electro house artist of 2008) and breakbeat purveyors ‘Soul of Man’ are big fans of Zodiac Cartel. That says much about the wide-reaching potential of his music (wahahaha!).

‘We Don’t Play That’ is set to be his biggest track to date with airplay already on BBC Radio 1 and it’s success will surely be impressive considering only a logo and a photo of General Zod exists for his public profile.”

Tech-Funk maestro’s Meat Katie and Elite Force have somehow managed to find time in their busy “Dustbowl” schedule to create what is perhaps the most stand-out breaks track of the past year. No exaggeration. Just when you thought the whole world had gone electro, long-time breaks stalwarts MK and EF deliver HUGE on this twisted breakbeat juggernaut. If this track is not in your crate, go buy it now!

Guaranteed to drive breaks fans insane, and no doubt win over some house-heads, Dark & Deep pummels the dance floor with about as big of a break as they come. Pulsating bass and syncopated, rolling synths keep the track moving with as infectious a groove as you could imagine. A fitting, equally twisted, breakdown only takes this track further into the mental asylum. You know when you’ve found the perfect warm-up tune? This ain’t it.

Hyperion turns in the perfect companion mix for the package. Hyperion exploded onto the scene last year with huge releases on U&A and are thus called upon to remix such a huge track. They are more than up for the occasion with this 4×4, blinding, jackhammer of a track. Loaded with filtered synths and a rising bassline that builds energy like a freight train, Hyperion’s mix will punish any dance floor, regardless of genre.