Coldcut

Coldcut are an English electronic music duo composed of Matt Black and Jonathan More. Credited as pioneers for pop sampling in the ‘80s, Coldcut are also considered the first stars of UK electronic dance music due to their innovative style, which featured cut-up samples of hip-hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia. According to Spin, "in ’87 Coldcut pioneered the British fad for ‘DJ records’".

Coldcut's records first introduced the public to pop artists Yazz and Lisa Stansfield, through which these artists achieved pop chart success. In addition, Coldcut has remixed and created productions on tracks by the likes of Eric B & Rakim, James Brown, Queen Latifah, Eurythmics, INXS, Steve Reich, Blondie, The Fall, Pierre Henry, Nina Simone, Fog, Red Snapper, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Beyond their work as a production duo, Coldcut are the founders of Ninja Tune, an independent record label in London, England (with a satellite office in Montreal) with an overall emphasis on encouraging interactive technology and finding innovative uses of software. The label’s first releases (the first four volumes of DJ Food - 'Jazz Brakes') were produced by Coldcut in the early 90s, and composed of instrumental hip-hop cuts that led the duo to help pioneer the trip hop genre, with artists such as Funky Porcini, The Herbaliser and DJ Vadim.

Links To Peel
Matt Black (real name Matthew Cohn) a British DJ and one half of music duo Coldcut (along with Jonathan More) as a student at New College, Oxford, was a member of a band called The Jazz Insects, whose first single was played by John Peel in his radio show in 1979. According to the Keeping It Peel site published in 2004, Matt tried to call Peel on the BBC Radio One:

"'About 25 years ago when I was at college, I was in a band called the Jazz Insects, and we sent a copy of our first single to John. Now, we'd heard it was possible to speak to John on the phone if you called Radio 1, and after a few unsuccessful tries we actually managed to speak to him. He had a very cool manner, and I dried up immediately, but he did play our record that night and we received a helpful £50 royalty cheque. Little did I know that years later I'd be doing a session on the same show.'"

In the late 80's and beyond, Coldcut's pioneering sampling techniques got playlisted on Peel's show and continued getting played into the early 00's, despite the group's lack of hits in the 90's and 00's.

Sessions
1. Recorded: 1997-02-18. Broadcast: 18 February 1997 2. Recorded: 2002-10-17. Broadcast: 24 October 2002
 * Coldcut vs Grandmaster Flash / Creatures / Shakatakadoob / Scratch Yr Heads / Beats + Pieces ’97
 * Midnight (A Brief Intro To Time) / Kodeck / Kid Scratch / Disco Sattalite

Live
1. Recorded live at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London: 1999-02-17. Broadcast: 17 February 1999
 * Live DJ Set

Other Shows Played
1987
 * 1987 (Rockradio): The Music Maker - 12" - Ahead Of Our Time (AHEAD 1202)