THE AMEN BROTHERHOOD"For many, the king of the super-technical Amen mash-up sound of the mid 90s was Remarc.On tracks like 'Ricky', 'Thunderclap' and 'R.I.P.' he shattered Amen into a thousand pieces and then put it back together in utterly alien but weirdly instinctive new shapes." (KNOWLEDGE)
"Despite the variety and a near-chaotic intensity of Remarc's re-wiring of the empty promise of rave to the sinisterism and dread of darkcore, the origin of each of these tracks lies on the flipside to the Winstons' 1969 top 10 soul hit "Color Him Father". Like many junglists, Remarc built his tracks over the "Amen" break, which is derived from "Amen Brother", a break that is sort of to jungle what "Apache" is to hip-hop: perhaps the integral strand in each sound's genetic code. Far from the IDM-leaning of jungle's over-ground, more white-washed head music, these are tracks of urgency and dread that appealed to/soothed the paranoia of too many years of drug use as much as it did to embody the thrill of communicative dance music. And yet, it's more sonically stuffed and sophisticated than both its spliff-cloud brethren and the drill-n-bass snobs." (PITCHFORK)
Remarc's tracks document a time of change in drum'n'bass -- from the last embers of hardcore's fire in the heyday of jungle to the birth of drum'n'bass and the 'jump-up' style. 1994's 'Ricky (Remarc V.I.P Mix)' cuts up and junglizes Remarc + Lewi's original hardcore classic into a jumpier more amphetamine-fuelled amen beast while still retaining the original's atmosphere between jittery funk and fear." (FORCEDEXPOSURE)
"Remarc told me that one of the main reasons UK jungle slowly stopped using reggae elements was that as jungle skyrocketed in popularity, a lot of Jamaicans in the UK started complaining about how they were being ripped off and weren’t getting the cash, so it just got easier to leave the reggae samples behind, [thus] the reason I work with labels such as Shockout is that they actually deal with and pay the vocalists. That’s important. Dancehall is a very exciting music right now – there are a lot of very original, very strange productions coming out of Jamaica. It’s an exuberant, chaotic, bass-heavy culture, and in the quest for hit singles, the producers make some stunning, surprising music. That’s why I like it, I like all reggae, and to me one of the best things about reggae is the speed with which it evolves. It is quite easy to draw a narrative line connecting the conscious melodic roots reggae of the ‘70s up through to the weird, atonal, gangster synthetics of current ragga." (Dj/Rupture @MUSICNEWCULTURE)
"Early jungle was all about physical release (in common parlance, "brocking out") and translating hip hop's beat science and dancehall's low-end into an endless powerpill Pac-Man chase around the dance floor. [...] It's totally generic in the best possible sense: Hundreds of tracks have followed a similar format, and that format set the basis for music that evolved to encompass nearly any sound an artist wanted." (CITYPAGES)
"Remarc's plays for the jungle underground, no dodgy piano, no safe synths, just uncompromising jungle brutality. [...] Remarc exemplifies the kind of junglist attitude that sounds like it was made between London's Westway and the deepest reaches of Detroit." (BOOMKAT)
Η Planet-μ επανακυκλοφόρησε το 2004 ακατέργαστο υλικό από έναν cult παραγωγό της Jungle/Hardcore σκηνής, τον Marc Forrester, γνωστότερο ως Remarc. Πολύ πριν γίνει το Jungle μια coffee-table υπόθεση κομμωτηρίου, ο Remarc αποθέωσε έναν ήχο όσο δεν πάει ωμό και άμεσο. Το όργιο του drum-programming επηρέασε την μανιέρα του Squarepusher και του μ-ZIQ μεταξύ άλλων. Ξεκάθαρα πολεμικά vibes, με το breakbeat να ισορροπεί ανάμεσα στο χάος της free-jazz και την αυταρχική μετρονομία των 4/4 του techno. Αγωνιώδης ατμόσφαιρα, ποτισμένη με αγενή Τζαμαϊκανά φωνητικά, και ανελέητες, υπεράνθρωπες ταχύτητες, που κάνουν την εμπειρία του χορού να μοιάζει με πεδίο μαχών: τα κλαμπς αναπροσαρμόζουν το κεντρικό νευρικό σύστημα, προετοιμάζοντάς τα ανακλαστικά μας για τις ανάγκες του Τρίτου Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου! (Η παραπάνω διατύπωση ανήκει στον Kode9, και δεν φαντάζει καθόλου υπερβολική εαν ακούσουμε τον Remarc σε δυνατό ηχοσύστημα.)
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