MJ Cole

MJ Cole, real name Matt Coleman, has seen his career move forward at breakneack speed over the last five or so years. Ever since "Sincere", a slab of finely tuned two step groove laced with orchestral sounds exploded on to the UK Garage scene in early '98, MJ has managed to conquer the underground scene as well as bringing his sound to the masses. He's been offered bucket loads of remixes, re-released Sincere for the year 2K as well as hit the top 20 with the tune "Crazy Love" which was taken from his debut album Sincere.
With it's blend of out and out two step dancefloor action and slinky, perfectlyformed soul numbers, ragged pirate transmitted basslines which makes it one of the first UK Garage Albums. It's raked in the critical acclaim not to mention the award nominations, with MJ finding himself in the running for the UK Garage Awards, the Mobos and the Mercury Music Prize.
MJ was brought up in Twickenham, South-West London in 1973. While he was growing up, MJ had a love of computers. It was through one of his amiga programmes that MJ made his first tune with a mate. This was done by linking their two computers via a crossfader.

Mj started going clubbing aroun 1989-1990. He hit the scene at a time when "Fun City" was going off at Busby's, along with the huge raves at Legends, Raindance, Telepathy and Living Dream which were at their peak. It was pure hardcore and MJ had gained a love for it.
Despite raving like a madman, MJ managed to finish his college courses, and then took a few months off and went to India. He then came back to London and bombarded every studio he could think of with his CV, detailing his computer wizardry, his formal music training and his elf confessed obsession with all things drum'n'bass. It was the respected drum'n'bass label SOUR that gave him his first job. He was a �20 quid a week a week tape op or in non musical terms, the dogs body, however he was meeting all the people he dreamed of meeting. Sour was a small independant label, so didn't pay much, so quite often regular engineers didn't turn up. Matt saw this as an opportunity and grabbed in with both hands. His first ever proper engineering stint was with Elizabeth Troy, who appears on many of his album tracks including "Crazy Love". He was soon in charge of the labels studio's in Dalston, workingalongside the likes of Ed Rush, DJ Trace, Freq, Nasty, Roots Manuva and Black Twang. Matt also made some of his own tunes which were classed as jazzy drum'n'bass tunes under the guises of Dallas, Shapeshifer and Shapeshifter 2. But he conceded that his stuff was just too musical for drum'n'bass.
At this point, MJ had never been to a UK Garage Night, and had gone so far as to slate his girlfriend for getting all sprussed up for the events, while himand his mates went out raving in their combats and trainers. However during the summer of 96, his studio asked him to tweek the buttons for ramsey & Fen while they remixed Kym Mazelles tracks "Big Baby" and "Quality". The duo started off by playing MJ some UK Garage tunes before getting down to the remixing . The results are now regarded as classics and had transformed Matt into a Garage head. MJ hookied up with the VIP label, producing a series of six EPs witth some of the scenes biggest underground DJs including Daryl B and Jason Kaye. He soon became an in demand remixer and producer . Something that has not changed to this day. His first ventures as a solo artist were called "My Love" and "Rocket" and as Matlock "anyway". In early '98 he launched his own label Prolific records, putting out his own tunes "Flava Fever","Guilty""Talk to Me", and "Treat Me Right".
Then one day in his studio, Matt created the classic tune "Sincere". However, the distributors as they thought it wasn't pumping enough and wouldn't sell . That all changed when a guy called Arthur from Metrix records in Reading heard it. They liked it so much that Matt was given an advance, and told to start an album. It originally got a test pressing of just 20 copies, but one was recieved by Pete Tong who caned it on his show on radio one. It was signed by am:pm recordsand broke into the top 40. Since that first play by Pete Tong, MJ has been signed by Gilles Peterson's label, Talkin Loud. Since then he's dj'd around the world and remixed artists from Goldie and Breakbeat Era to Glamma Kid, TLC and Another Level. And then there's the album, the first ever UK Garage one. He has also recently won a string of awards including best producer at the mobo awards, as well as being nominated for best UK album, best newcomer and best UK Garage act. He also won best producer at the UK Garage awards, and has been nominated for best producer at the Ericsson Muzik Awards, and just missed out on a Mercury Music Prize for his album.

Kym Mazelle (Big Baby)
Kym Mazelle (Quality)
Fabulous Baker Boys (Oh Boy)
SoMore (I refuse)
Drizabone (Pressure)
Drizabone (Real Love)
State Of Mind (This is it)
State Of Mind (Take Control)
Strike (I saw the future)
Urban Species (Woman)
E-Smooth (Deja Vu)
Goldie (Believe)
De-Ryus (Grass aint Greener)
Merz (Lovely Daughter)
Masters At Work (To Be In Love)
Incognito (Nights Over Egypt)
Belo Horizonte (Belo)
Gerrideau (Masquerade)
Core (Wont Be broken)
Maxee (Call My Name)
Wookie (Battle)
Soul2Soul (I Feel Love)
Gwen McCrae (Gotta Have Your Love)
Carrol Thompson (Too Late)
Kevin Aviance (Din da da)
Blood (My Love)
Dubs For Clubs (I Need Your)
Rootjoose (Mr Fix It)
Ahmen Rah (Everybody Sometimes)
Another Level (Guess I was A fool)
Glamma Kid (Taboo)
TLC (Unpretty)
Breakbeat Era (Bullitproof)
Guy S'mone (Lazy)
Valerie Etienne (Misunderstanding)
JD Braithwaite (Feel My desire)
Bird (Game)
Lee e John (Mind Body and Soul)
De La Soul (Aint all Good)