Technical Itch
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Mark Caro, better known as Technical Itch, is a British electronic music artist, disc jockey, and founder of Technical Itch Recordings and Penetration records. As a musician he works mainly within the jungle and drum and bass genres. He is esteemed to be a progressive producer of jungle, combining moody, unsettling, and dense atmospheres with complex drum patterns and penetrating basslines.
[edit] History
During 1991 Mark Caro was based in Birmingham, DJing at local UK hardcore parties. He soon started out on the production trail, with a very limited set up, producing hardcore techno. As his musical production skills and talent developed he released tracks as Ent. T through the Ibiza label. Introduced by a mutual friend, Mark soon formed a partnership with Darren Beale. As a duo they were moving away from the conventions of hardcore, following breakbeat into the less static realms of jungle. The pair's earliest tracks came toward the peak end of the UK hardcore scene; both Beale and Caro were noted DJs, with Beale's recorded work as Orca adding to his notoriety. They released, as Plasmic Life, a self-titled EP, which appeared on Bizzy B's Brain Records.
Still only a part-time collaboration, further releases ensued, but their desire to run their own record label could not be quelled, and so Tech Itch Recordings was spawned. The label had limited success, which deepened after Omni Trio's Rob Haigh heard Kenny Ken playing a selection of Technical Itch tracks on Kiss FM, leading to their signing with Haigh's home-base Moving Shadow in 1996. Mark then relocated to Bristol from Birmingham where his production skills perfectly complemented Darren's musicianship as a guitarist. The pair produced a number of singles as Technical Itch for the label that same year, with scores of tracks as Decoder and TIC continuing to appear on their own and other labels, marking the pair one of the more prolific (and increasingly influential) of the new crop of jungle producers. Though a Decoder full-length was first out of the gate in late 1998, Tech Itch's Diagnostics followed in 1999 on Moving Shadow.
With a prohibitively long list of aliases (Darren is better known as Decoder and is member of Kosheen) and strong links to Moving Shadow, Tech Itch Recordings has been playing a major part in the worldwide jungle and drum and bass scene. Technical Itch is now widely known as being only Mark Caro, and his original tracks are widely renowned for their unique style, high level of production and programming, examples of which can be heard in recent releases such as The Rukus, Whrilwind, and Heavy Metal. With over 32 releases on the Tech Itch label and a new sister set-up entitled Penetration, Mark and Darren's presence within the drum and bass scene is ever-stronger. In 2004 Technical Itch merged his Tech Itch Recordings with Dylan's Freak Recordings to create Tech Freak Recordings. The natural progression has led to long-term projects with MC Jakes, Dieselboy, Kemal, and a long list of others who compliment their unique style of music.
[edit] Releases
The first release on Moving Shadow was Can't You See (Shadow 74) followed in the same year by The Dreamer (Shadow 99), remixed by Future Forces (Shadow 99R). Both tracks were co-produced and engineered by Decoder. With a number of releases on Shadow under his belt, Mark started to use the Technical Itch name for his more individual projects. First up was The Virus (Shadow 101), remixed by Danny Breaks (AC101) and Stronghold (Shadow 116), with the storming Dom & Roland (AC116) remix. Moving Shadow released material from Technical Itch's debut album Diagnostics.
Mark has also completed production work with Decoder on Peshay's albums and for various high profile remixes on major labels. As for their DJ sets, Mark and Darren go out singularly and as a duo, playing either back to back or straight sets. The experience makes for a unique fusion of sound, with newest tracks from Moving Shadow and Technical Itch Recordings often being showcased during the night.
It is hard to point out the most well known single by Technical Itch, as over the years he tends to release one floor crusher after another. The most recent cuts that have been played by numerous DJ's all over the world are "Reborn [Weapon Remix], Nitron, The Rukus, Soldiers, and several of his own tracks from "Killabites Vol 2". He also gained popular exposure when he contributed a track to the soundtrack of the Wachowski Brothers' Animatrix. The track, The Real, featured sampled dialogue from the films The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded.
