Disconnected Podcast 007: Mark Archer

disconnected podcast 007 mark archer

Mark Archer.. someone who gives most people in electronic music a run for their money when it comes to production pseudonyms!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself, what your back ground in music is?

Always been into music of some sort or another, but got into electro funk in the early eighties and funk and soul, followed it back as well as forward. Then came house and acid and that was it for me, got into producing purely by accident really and was in the right place at the right time when a studio opened up in Stafford and somehow got a deal with the fledgling blue chip label.

I know you must get asked about this all the time, but what was that ‘rave’ culture really like?

You didn’t really think about it as it was going on, because it was just what you did, going out to raves etc..

It’s only now that you realise how unique it all was, the sheer size of some of the events and that there was never ever an empty venue, and this was going on everywhere, every single weekend.

Whats the best party you’ve played at and why?

The very 1st Altern 8 PA was special purely because it was our 1st live performance. It was at the eclipse in Coventry which was a major part of the Midlands rave scene and attracted people from all over the country, and it absolutely went off, footage from that went to make the infiltrate 202 video.

So, you’re trading off your own name now-a-days, why is that?

Basically, Chris [the other ex-member of Altern 8] won’t allow me to use the name – that simple.

Is Altern8 assigned to the rave grave?

As a production duo, Altern 8 split in 1993. Myself and Mkone (the Altern 8 MC) carried on djing until last year when we were stopped from using the name – so I guess Altern 8 is dead.

Can you tell us about the stuff you have done with Danny Taurus as Slo Moshun?

I’d already started working with Danny on my Stafford South/North labels before the end of Altern 8 while I was recording house tracks as Xen Mantra so we decided to record a track together, I’d already recorded the A side (I feel high) so we worked on a tribal piano track for the B side which ended up as Bells of New York. It rocketed straight into the charts and was number one in every club chart going in 1994 so we were pretty chuffed to say the least. We followed that with an epic 15 minute gospel house track called ‘Help My Friend’ before the label unfortunately folded.

What’s next for you?

Myself and Mkone are still djing as Mark II – playing oldskool from 1986 – 1994 all over the UK and around the world and we’re currently working on some remixes and production for release next year hopefully.

If you want more information check out Mark’s Soundcloud or Myspace.

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