DJ Mag

DJ Food

Feed your head

DJ Food's plans for his first album in nine years

If you were a lover of bad puns you might say that DJ Food, AKA Strictly Kev, has a lot on his plate. Part of the seminal, beat-blending label collective Ninja Tune since its earliest beginnings, he met co-founder and one half of Coldcut, Matt Black in 1993. Two albums followed, but since 2000's 'Kaleidoscope', fans have experienced a wait of Stone Roses-esque proportions.

"I didn't really fancy making any music as I'd had a family and moved house," admitted Kev of the creative vacuum. "I was also having more fun designing, DJing and doing a lot of radio mixes."

'The Shape Of Things That Hum', out now, however, marks the second of three EPs building up to the release of his long-awaited third album in the spring. Classic DJ Food, it's a weird, wonky trip through dusty samples and reconstituted sounds, ranging from the menacing, King Cannibal-produced breakbeats of 'Sentinel (Shadow Guard)' to a cover of The The's 'Giant'. 'Brother John', meanwhile, samples the soothing voice of John Rydgren, a deceased Lutheran pastor, whose '60s radio show mixed godly messages with hip modern music.

With three remixes of 'A Covered Darkness' available on the download courtesy of Mr P, an alias of ex-DJ Food member PC, the 12" comes with an A2 poster from 2000AD artist, Henry Flint, whose work Kev collects.

But while the EP provides another tantalising taste of what is to come, hands-on preparations for Ninja Tune's 20th anniversary, being celebrated in 2010, are proving another challenge to productivity.

"We're working things out at the moment. There'll be exhibitions of artwork, design and memorabilia from across the years, a book that's going to be published next August, and various compilations in September. So I'm already behind on the third EP!

"Ultimately I want to get another record out," he adds to himself as much as anyone else. "It'll be another monkey off my back because people have been asking me for so many years, 'when's the next DJ Food coming out?' It's nearly there; I just want to finish it now, and move onto the next one."

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