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Mark Hawkins - The New Normal LP (Houndstooth)

Coming through as a producer in the early 2000's, nothing much seemed normal. The whirlwind of 90s dance music innovation had given way to a lack of focus, with increasingly innovative and accessible technology making the sounds heard on dancefloors more eclectic but at the same time the parties had started to feel less inspired, as if it were too hard to keep hold of the magic that had swirled around us for the last 10 years.

Against this backdrop, Mark Hawkins immediately stood out by how grounded he was compared to most of the space cadets floundering with their musical calling. Watching one of his staggeringly raw live sets, ripping up the floor with a combination of jacking Chicago house and bare bones techno was to see a pragmatic idealist carving out a unique space, unashamed to reference his inspirations with humour and bombast.

It was perhaps inevitable that Mark’s boundless spirit would see him push through the barriers of the UK’s more experimental audiences to gain greater presence with his entrance to a more underground House sound. Releases followed on Dixon Avenue Basement Jams and Clone before arriving on Houndstooth, blending House and Techno in a way that reached for the sky even while their roots were clearly planted firmly in the ground. Whilst always tough-as-painted-nails, the music progressed from being identifiable through its keen rawness to displaying increasing sophistication.

During a lost year that’s been anything but normal, it’s no surprise that Mark has dug deeper, gathering his influences and ideals into a more experimental, yet relevant and cohesive whole. The Twelve tracks on this new album represent a blossoming of Mark’s creativity; freed from the constraints of immediate dance-floor delivery they explore new territory, rampaging over a landscape of electro-funk, body-rocking house, experimental electronica, euphoric pop, and reflective chill out all underpinned by his accomplished melodic sensibility.

Lead single from the album from the old ways and into the new is ‘Let It Slide’, his second collaboration with Jamie Lidell (following 2018’s “We Should Be Free”) that tears up the rulebook. Beat’s stumble and stutter, resolving in angular B-boy grooves while the bass line sounds like it’s being slapped out by a P Funk-addicted robotic jackhammer. In its sheer disregard for musical conventions, it reprises Lidell’s previous work with Cristian Vogel in their genre-destroying freakbeat combo, Super Collider, and perfectly sums up an album that challenges what ‘normal’ from now on should be.

The New Normal

PREMIERE : Mark Hawkins - Let It Slide feat. Jamie Lidell

There was a voice in the back of his head, sometimes it whispered and yet sometimes it shouted and screamed as if he were under a magnificent spell. It hold him what to do, how to be, where to go and how to think but it was not always the voice of wisdom. Sometimes it whispered elegant, crafty lies and tall tales. This time the story was well reasoned and well rounded and the voice was beginning to grow louder. It shouted and screamed as follows...

"I can't let you do this..."

Mark Hawkins readies an exciting new album on Houndstooth. A full length LP titled "The New Normal" is forthcoming on the label with the emergence of a new track called "Can't Let You Do This" an insight into what we can expect. It's big room stuff, poppy, happy, housey and club ready.

PREMIERE: Mark Hawkins - Can't Let You Do This [Houndstooth]

Part Of: The New Normal
Catalog: HTH149D
Release Date: 15.09.21
Buy Link: https://hth.lnk.to/normal

Mark Hawkins
SoundCloud | https://soundcloud.com/mark-hawkins

Houndstooth
SoundCloud | https://soundcloud.com/houndstoothlbl
Bandcamp | https://houndstoothlabel.bandcamp.com

Release Text: 
Coming through as a producer in the early 2000s, nothing much seemed normal. The whirlwind of 90s dance music innovation had given way to a lack of focus, with increasingly innovative and accessible technology making the sounds heard on dancefloors more eclectic but at the same time the parties had started to feel less inspired, as if it were too hard to keep hold of the magic that had swirled around us for the last 10 years.
Against this backdrop, Mark Hawkins immediately stood out by how grounded he was compared to most of the space cadets floundering with their musical calling. Watching one of his staggeringly raw live sets, ripping up the floor with a combination of jacking Chicago house and bare bones techno was to see a pragmatic idealist carving out a unique space, unashamed to reference his inspirations with humour and bombast.
It was perhaps inevitable that Mark’s boundless spirit would see him push through the barriers of the UK’s more experimental audiences to gain greater presence with his entrance to a more underground House sound. Releases followed on Dixon Avenue Basement Jams and Clone before arriving on Houndstooth, blending House and Techno in a way that reached for the sky even while their roots were clearly planted firmly in the ground. Whilst always tough-as-painted-nails, the music progressed from being identifiable through its keen rawness to displaying increasing sophistication.

During a lost year that’s been anything but normal, it’s no surprise that Mark has dug deeper, gathering his influences and ideals into a more experimental, yet relevant and cohesive whole. The Twelve tracks on this new album represent a blossoming of Mark’s creativity; freed from the constraints of immediate dance-floor delivery they explore new territory, rampaging over a landscape of electro-funk, body-rocking house, experimental electronica, euphoric pop, and reflective chill out all underpinned by his accomplished melodic sensibility. 
‘100 Percents’ dreamy, delayed vocals and classic House riffs are simply joyous.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Berlin House Music
SoundCloud | https://soundcloud.com/berlinhousemusic
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/c/berlinhousemusic 
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/berlinhousemusic
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/berlinhousemusic
Website | https://berlinhousemusic.com
Submit Your Music | https://berlinhousemusic.com/submission

PREMIERE: Mark Hawkins - 100 Percent [Houndstooth]

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@mark-hawkins is a real favourite producer round the LV offices. With a long background in electronic music you may have come across his work as Black Ops, The Spider or Marquis Hawkes. He is now back using his birthname and is just about to release a rather fantastic album via @houndstoothlbl titled 'The New Normal'. 

Covering everything from deep and throbbing electronica to radio destined deep house alongside classic house groove it's another masterclass of production from Mark.

Check out SE5 from the album here and jump over to LV online for more on the release via: https://levisiteuronline.com/music/lv-premier-mark-hawkins-se5-houndstooth/

LV Premier - Mark Hawkins - SE5 [Houndstooth]

'Mark Hawkins presents his new album ‘Normal’ on Houndstooth...'

Read More: https://whenwedip.com/2021/09/premiere-mark-hawkins-houndstooth/

Follow: @mark-hawkins // @houndstoothlbl

Connect: When We Dip on Spotify - open.spotify.com/user/whenwedip

www.whenwedip.com
YT >>> youtube.com/user/whenwedip
FB >>> facebook.com/wwdofficial
IN >>> instagram.com/whenwedip/
TW >>> twitter.com/WhenWeDip

Premiere: Mark Hawkins - You Bring The Sunshine [Houndstooth]

MERCH >> bit.ly/3a1Jnwv << T-shirts, hats, hoodies & more!

Artists: Mark Hawkins
Title: Lazy Sunday
Label: Houndstooth
Release Date: 2021-09-24

PURCHASE >> bit.ly/3o5v04n <<

MORE MI4L PREMIERES >> bit.ly/2QKq6FX <<

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>> PURCHASE <<

Mark Hawkins - Lazy Sunday [Houndstooth] [MI4L.com]

Life Signs Remixes

Lea Valley (rumu Remix)

A2. Hyphae

WEE BREAKZ TRACK FROM FMB004 (RADIO EDIT)

LYK LYK VIDEO: 
http://youtu.be/6dYQNlWQ4UY

PRE-ORDER:
http://bit.ly/FMB004Phonica
http://bit.ly/FMB004Juno
http://bit.ly/FMB004DeeJay


BICEP | LYK LYK

When ppl talk and talk and talk and aint shit change...lmaooo enjoy

Ain't Shit Change

Half Out

Etch

Back To The Motherland

Taken from his 'New Atlantis' EP. Buy/Stream https://17Steps.lnk.to/NewAtlantis

In Paradise

Buy/Stream

Chrissy - In Paradise

Taken from the Lyra EP 
Buy/Stream: https://17steps.lnk.to/Lyra

Lyra

Pre-order/Stream

9th House - Lyra

Don't Deal With Us (Dusky Edit)

JT Company - Don't Deal With Us (Dusky Edit)

Ransom Note is an online music, arts and culture magazine. We provide a home for readers and writers with boundless enthusiasm, esoteric knowledge, fierce opinions and impeccable taste.

With our core team immersed in all aspects of dance music, we publish news, articles, and interviews covering the greatest in innovative, underground culture from across the globe. We offer regular, exclusive music and mixtapes from our favourite artists, and publish features shining a light on everything from the freshest new artists to the untold tales from rave history.

Alongside this we offer musings on film, books, life, and art, generating some context and controversy as an antidote to the reheated PR that clogs up the internet. Our office is fuelled by Tunnock’s Bars, cat memes, hangovers and a ridiculous, never ending love for our culture.

We're always interested in getting new writers on board – feel free to get in touch if you’ve got a story to tell.

With love until the grave.

Mark Hawkins is a studio based musical artist with a career spanning more than 25 years.

Cutting his teeth in the UK underground party scene throughout the 90s, he has built an extensive body of work collaborating with a wide variety of record labels and artists, in numerous styles of electronic music under many different aliases, including his given name.

After two and a half decades of performing both as a live electronic act, and as a DJ, at many events around the world, which had included many of the most well known clubs and festivals, he decided to narrow his focus down to his main passion of writing, producing and engineering music in his Berlin studio, working on both his own material, and as a sonic “gun for hire”, assisting other artists in achieving their own aspirations in the studio environment.

Mark is a reclusive character who is more interested in sculpting sound, and searching for the perfect beat than promoting his own work, and as such declines to participate in the social media world which dominates contemporary culture.

Preferring to immerse himself in the world of audio manipulation, he has become a go-to studio engineer amongst those in the know, who want their own sound to take on a more professional sheen, or even a more retrospective aesthetic that relates to music from days gone by. 

But this has in no way slowed down his own output of material, in fact, without the distraction of unwanted self promotion or touring, he has been able to place an increased emphasis on crafting exactly the kind of music he wants to create for himself.

Looking ahead, Hawkins will continue to forge his own path via his artistry, blending styles and blurring the boundaries between genres, and will inevitably in the process discover and create exciting new works.

PREMIERE: Mark Hawkins - Can't Let You Do This [Houndstooth]

Ransom Note

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