Mark Stewart ( - )
Related: Adrian Sherwood - industrial music - dub - UK music
Mark Stewart (1987) - Mark Stewart [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Soul Jazz presents: Kiss the Future (2005) - Mark Stewart [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Biography
Mark Stewart is a British musician and founding member of The Pop Group. He makes polemical noise-funk with a hip-hop reggae dub feel and has recorded for On-U_Sound_Records and Mute Records. Stewart started out in Bristol in 1978 in music with The Pop Group a band whose titles (such as "For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?"), political conviction, disrespect for copyright and willingness to collaborate laid the foundations for his later work.
The Pop Group split in 1981, with Stewart and two other members heading off to London to hook up with the emerging On-U Sound "conspiracy of outsiders" as part of the New Age Steppers. On-U became a focal point an absurdly diverse set of networks - punks, reggae players from both the UK and Jamaica and free-jazzers.
Stewart has since made several albums under his own name as well as collaborating with big names such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame. In 2005, he released a collection of his best work on Soul Jazz Records titled 'Kiss the Future'.
He is currently living in a small town on the coast of South Dorset with his mother and two cats. Despite this, he is constantly touring.
Mark is well known in several European countries and Japan. He is currently having a documentary filmed about him [August 2006] which will air in Germany including interviews with the likes of David Bowie. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark Stewart [Aug 2006]
Stranger (1987) - Mark Stewart
One track of this very nice cd is "Stranger": it has been credited as a blueprint for trip-hop (according to UK newspaper, The Independent, no less): a mellow classical refrain (actually Erik Satie's "Gymnopedies") backed with a mellow breakbeat.
See also: Erik Satie - 1987 - sample
Soul Jazz presents: Kiss the Future (2005) - Mark Stewart
The end of the month (31 May) sees the release of Mark Stewart – Kiss The Future.
Mark Stewart, the man behind the legendary Pop Group, The Maffia and much more has compiled this album of his material. Ranging from the start of his career in The Pop Group (aged 16!) with tracks such as 'We Are All Prostitutes', 'She Is Beyond Good And Evil' through the 1980s with the epic 'Jerusalem' and classic cuts such as 'Hypnotized' right through to his current material with new tracks such as 'Radio Freedom', a collaboration with The Bug the CD and LP both come with a limited edition set of postcard graphics, designed by the man himself. Kiss The Future coincides with Mark Stewart headlining both All Tomorrows Parties at SEI, London on Thurs June 2nd and the VENN festival in Bristol on Fri June 3rd. --pHinn via http://phinnweb.blogspot.com/2005/05/mark-stewart-kiss-future-compilation.html [May 2005]
The Pop Group
The Pop Group were a post punk band from Bristol, United Kingdom whose uncompromising, dissonant sound spanned punk, free jazz and dub reggae. Their lyrics were, more often than not, political in nature.
Formed in 1978 by Mark Stewart (lyrics, vocals), Jon Waddington (guitar), Gareth Sager (guitar), Simon Underwood (bass) and Bruce Smith (drums, percussion), they issued their debut single, She is Beyond Good and Evil on the 'Radar' label the following year.
Their debut album Y, was one of the earliest touchstones of the emerging post-punk sound. Produced by reggae veteran Dennis Bovell, the record is still cited today as one of the best of the era, although it is, at the time of writing, along with the rest of their discography, sadly out of print.
Although it did not chart, the album's success was sufficient to convince Rough Trade to sign the band, but not before more line-up changes, with Dan Katsis replacing Underwood on bass, and Tristan Honsinger joining on cello.
The band's career with Rough Trade commenced with what is possibly their best-known single, the angry 'We Are All Prostitutes', which preceded the release of their second album, For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? in 1980.
The band split in 1981, after legal wranglings and internal squabblings ingulfed them somewhat, but that was not the end of their members' involvement in the music scene, with ex-members going on to form bands like Pigbag, Maximum Joy and Rip,Rig & Panic, the latter notable for the involvement of a young Neneh Cherry.
Singer Mark Stewart, meanwhile, collaborated with the On-U Sound [Adrian Sherwood] posse, issuing records firstly as Mark Stewart and the Mafia, then as a solo artist.
The Pop Group are often credited with founding the Bristol scene that would later spawn trip-hop. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pop_Group [May 2005]