Originally produced by Coldcut, the DJ Food project started in 1990 on the premise of providing "food for DJs". DJ Food released the "Jazz Brakes" series, with Jazz Brakes Volume 3 being the group's most successful release. Not only are they effective collections of breaks, loops and samples, ideal for mixing, remixing and producing - but also fine collections of funky jazz & hip hop tunes, that cut it just as well on the discerning dancefloor as in the safety of your own home.

On the back of the growth of the abstract hip hop scene recent years, the Jazz Brakes albums have proved to be ahead of their time, holding weight against the influx of new instrumental hip-hop artists. Jazz Brakes Volumes 4 & 5, co-created with DJ/producer PC, are collections of finely crafted tunes that 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, tribal, african and jungle flavouring the funk. The October '95 album entitled 'A Recipe For Disaster' was a conscious break from the five Jazz Brakes volumes to form more of an identity as an artist, and a remix album of tracks from all 6 LPs, titled 'Refried Food' was released Feb '96. A new studio album is being prepared by PC and Strictly Kev in various top secret kitchens across London as you read this. They are collaborating with various guests on this including Bundy K. Brown (ex-Tortoise, Directions in Music, Pullman) and Ken Nordine (60's word jazz poet).

Who, then, makes this food? We know that Matt Black & Jonathan More (aka Coldcut) were responsible for starting the DJ FOOD series of Jazz Brakes back in the early 90's. Along the way they met Patrick Carpenter (PC), who was commonly misconstrued as the computer that they made the tracks on for a while. A loose collaborative team began to form as more like-minded people arrived at the party; Paul Brook, Paul Rabiger, Strictly Kev and Issac Elliston, to name a few.

Whilst keeping their hand in as DJs, Matt & Jon couldn't and didn't want to DJ twice in one night under both aliases of Coldcut & Food. Therefore, PC & Strictly Kev stepped up to represent the Food club-wise. This was the score for some time, until PC became so busy with his involvement in the Cinematic Orchestra that he decided to depart. This left Strictly Kev to single-handedly carry the mantle, but allowed him to really come into his own.

Striclty Kev now DJ’s out regularly, travelling all over the world and creating a stir wherever he plays. He is amazingly versatile, both in the variety of tunes and his skills on the decks; playing a mix of jazzy, funky breaks, bootlegs, hip hop and usually building the set to a drum & bass crescendo that has the crowd going nuts.

External links

• Dj Food page at Ninja Tune website (http://www.ninjatune.net/ninja/artist.php?id=4)
• DJ Food website (http://www.djfood.org/)