PRICE:
$18.00
LOW STOCK LEVEL
ARTIST
TITLE
Kiss the Future (feat. The Maffia & The Pop Group)
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
SJR 113CD SJR 113CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
6/13/2005

"This album spans the entire musical career of Mark Stewart, The Maffia and The Pop Group. Curated by Mark Stewart, Kiss the Future is a mixture of new material (with new collaborators such as The Bug, Sanjay T), classic material from the legendary Pop Group ('We Are All Prostitutes,' 'We Are,' 'She Is Beyond Good and Evil') as well as Stewart's groundbreaking solo-work from the 1980s to the present day with the legendary Sugarhill Records/Tommy Boy rhythm section (as The Maffia) along with producer Adrian Sherwood (On U Sound). With unlimited access to the vaults Kiss The Future also includes rare and unreleased material. 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 electro-funk, 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."