>> Mark Stewart
bio: Mark Stewart (at aged 17!) was the lead vocalist and revolutionary sloganeer behind the Pop Group, now cited as one of the most influential post-punk bands. In the 1980s and thru the 1990s he went on to form Mark Stewart and the Maffia releasing a range of heavily politicised, boundary-pushing albums fusing electronic, dub, twisted disco, and industrial-strength hip-hop into a unique ground-breaking sound. The music ranges from Post-Punk/Funk to Electrofunk, Hip-Hop and Dub, Mark Stewart (with The Pop Group and The Maffia) brought Black music influences into Punk for the first time influencing a generation. This continues today with the punk electronic/dancehall/desi/ dub experiments of the new material (Radio Freedom, Puppet Master, The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum).
Mark Stewart is one of the most respected musical figures in music. LCD Soundsystem, DFA, The Liars,!!!, Radio 4, etc and the whole new wave of New York bands are heavily influenced by the sound.
He has constantly surrounded himself with creative artists. His group The Maffia features legendary New York musicians Doug Wimbush, Keith Le Blanc and Skip Macdonald. From their early days playing alongside Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata and Sugarhill Gang the group have since played with everyone from Mos Def to The Last Poets, from James Brown to George Clinton. The co-producer of The Pop Group is legendary Jamaican mixer Dennis Bovell and for his solo career Mark to this day works with Adrian Sherwood (On U Sound) who himself has an incredible list of credits that include Lee Perry, Junior Delgado, Bim Sherman, Einsturzende Neubaten, Andrew Weatherall, New Age Steppers, Primal Scream and many more. As well as the original punk/funk outfit The Pop Group (which he founded) inventing what became The Bristol Sound and influencing the music of Massive Attack, Tricky (with whom Stewart collaborated) etc.. Mark Stewart himself is the artists? artist: Two new recent Channel 4 TV programmes quoted both Nick Cave and Daddy G as choosing Mark Stewart as their favourite ever artist. With everyone from Carl Craig to Sonic Youth, DJ Hell to David Bowie (!) citing Mark Stewart as an influence, this album is the first to ever bring his musical career together. The first-edition of this release comes with a set of postcard sized-prints of original and archival graphics designed by Mark Stewart. Mark Stewart ?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.
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