DJ Food is an electronic music project currently headed by Kevin Foakes (also known as "Strictly Kev"). Originally conceived by the members of Coldcut on the Ninja Tune independent record label, the project started in 1990 on the premise of providing metaphorical "food for DJs". DJ Food released the Jazz Brakes series, with Jazz Brakes Volume 3 being the most successful. The records consisted of collections of breaks, loops and samples that could be used for mixing, remixing and producing.
DJ Food started as a Coldcut side project from Jonathan More and Matt Black. Along the way they met Patrick Carpenter, who was listed on the liner notes, but only his initials. A loose collaborative team began to form including Paul Brook, Paul Rabiger, Kevin Foakes a.k.a. Strictly Kev and Issac Elliston.
Although keeping their hand in as DJs on the albums, Black and More could not perform DJ sets twice in one night under the aliases of both Coldcut & DJ Food, so they handed the mantle of live performances over to Patrick Carpenter and Strictly Kev. Later, Patrick Carpenter became so involved with The Cinematic Orchestra that he decided to quit DJ Food, leaving Strictly Kev as the sole director of the project. He has since contributed three remixes to The Shape of Things That Hum EP in 2009.
Links to Peel
DJ FOOD John Peel 19th April 2000
DJ Food performed a session mix for Peel in 2000 and in his blog explained what were the intros and outro skits from them. These included an impression of John Peel by Norman Lovett, which appeared on an album compiled by Morgan Fisher called Miniatures (A Sequence Of Fifty-One Tiny Masterpieces Edited By Morgan-Fisher):
"The intro and outro skits are from a great album called ‘Miniatures’, 1 min sketches and songs compiled by Morgan Fisher in the 80s, when we knew we were doing a John Peel session I thought it’d be a laugh to have ‘John’ introduce the mix. The Steady track, ‘Alarming Frequency’ is the first ever release on the Tru Thoughts label. The Leonard Nimoy read of Ray Bradbury‘s ‘Marionettes Inc.’ turned up in another form a year later on our first Solid Steel mix CD. The Spontaneous Sound gong record is actually an alias of Christopher Tree, a percussionist whose album I found in the US one time, it had virtually no info on it other than the title and the stamp of a drum shop where it had been sold." [1]
The session lasted for 34 minutes long and was a mix, which DJ Food admitted on the blog was much longer, but had to be edited when broadcast.
Sessions
1. Recorded: unknown. First Broadcast: 19 April 2000
- Untitled Piece
Other Shows Played
- 1994
- 02 July 1994 (BFBS): Dark Blood (album - Jazz Brakes Volume 5) Ninja Tune
- 15 July 1994: ‘Turtle Soup (2xLP - Jazz Breaks Volume 5)’ Ninja Tune
- 24 February 1995: 'Mella (2xLP-Funkjazztical Tricknology)' (Ninja Tunes)
- 20 October 1995: Scratch Yer Hed (2xLP - A Recipe For Disaster) Ninja Tune
- 27 October 1995: Inosan (album - A Recipe For Disaster) Ninja Tune
- 03 November 1995: 'Akaire (2xLP-A Recipe For Disaster)' (Ninja Tune)
- 24 November 1995: Inosan (album - A Recipe For Disaster) Ninja Tune
- 02 December 1995: Spiral (album - A Recipe For Disaster) Ninja Tune
- 03 December 1995 (BBC World Service): Inosan (2xLP - A Recipe For Disaster) Ninja Tune
- 1996
- 03 February 1996: Inosan (Black Devil Mix Pt. 2) (2x12" - Refried Food Pts. 3 And 4) Ninja Tune
- 1999
- 09 February 1999: Last Night A Cliche Saved My Life (LP - Let Us Replay) Ninja Tune
- 2000
- 15 February 2000: Cookin’ (LP - Kaleidoscope) Ninja Tune
- 16 February 2000: 'The Riff (CD-Kaleidoscope)' (Ninja Tune)
- 19 February 2000 (BFBS): 'Cookin' (CD-Kaleidoscope)' (Ninja Tune)
- 24 February 2000: Break (CD - Kaleidoscope) Ninja Tune
- 24 February 2000 (Radio Eins): Full Bleed (CD - Kaleidoscope) Ninja Tune
- 25 February 2000 (BBC World Service): Cookin' (album - Kaleidoscope) Ninja Tune
- 02 March 2000 (featuring Ken Nordine): The Ageing Young Rebel (CD: Kaleidoscope) Ninja Tunes
- 30 March 2000: Cookin' (CD - Kaleidoscope) Ninja Tune
- 2001
- 15 March 2001: Hour Glass (EP - The Quadraplex) Ninja Tune
- 21 March 2001: Monocle (Silver Dub) (EP - Quadraplex EP) Ninja Tune
- 08 April 2001 (BBC World Service): Hour Glass (EP - The Quadraplex) Ninja Tune
