Marc Mac
DJ, broadcaster, producer, promoter and label owner. Co-founder of 4hero, Strong Island radio and Reinforced Records.
Biography
Born and raised in London to a Jamaican family of the Windrush generation, Marc Mac went to school in Harlesden. In 1985 he founded the sound system Midnight Lovers, having also run Solar Zone. In 1989 he and Dego started the pirate station Strong Island Radio in Dollis Hill, and he played the midnight slot on Girls FM with Iain Bardouille.
That same year he founded Reinforced Records with Gus Lawrence, and with Dego, Bardouille and Lawrence formed 4hero. Outside the group he has worked as a producer and arranger for others. In 2002 he and Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick of Incognito produced Terry Callier's Speak Your Peace.
His solo work, much of it on his own Omniverse label, moves between jazz, soul, funk, hip hop and broken beat, often built around the history of Black music across Africa, Brazil, Jamaica and the US.
Projects & aliases
Visioneers
Jazz and hip-hop project: Dirty Old Hip Hop (BBE, 2006), Hipology (BBE, 2012), Def Radio (Omniverse, 2024).
Manix
Breakbeat hardcore on Reinforced: "Feel Real Good", "Oblivion (Head in the Clouds)", "Rainbow People".
Nu Era
Straight-ahead techno.
Nature's Plan
Afro-Latin productions.
Omniverse
His label for solo albums, the "Tapes" instrumentals and the Ah-Free-Ka / Ja-Maye-Ka / Br-Azil-Ah / Ja-Pan-Ah series.
4hero & joint aliases
Tom & Jerry, Jacob's Optical Stairway, Cold Mission, Project A-KO. See discography