Opel presents The Rogue Element Friday, February 15th :: Mighty |
Opel is very psyched to present The Rogue Element (Exeptional Records, UK) International Breaks Award “Best Producer” 2006. He’s been called the ‘great white hope’ of breakbeat for the fresh infusion of productions he continues to bring out. We think he is among the BEST offering in the world right now for sound we like. He has put out monster track after monster track, both in breaks, tech funk and more recently dirty electro. Guaranteed to bring down the house, not to be missed.
$10 pre-sale on sale now HERE.
Will be $20 on the door.
Rogue Element Intro: The Rogue Element is producer Ben Medcalf. His fascination with music began with piano lessons at the age of seven, moving through various different instruments until his early teens, when he settled down behind the drum kit and started his first band. This band proved to be the embryonic stages of more than just Ben’s career: playing guitars was the future electro-house producer and DJ King Roc, and on bass guitar was Jarman, now a successful drum and bass DJ and producer signed to Renegade Hardware.
The Rogue Element, aka award winning producer and DJ Ben Medcalf, was born in Portsmouth in 1979. Displaying an interest and aptitude for music from an early age, he played various instruments through his teens until becoming the drummer in Blindside, a rap/metal outfit playing the Portsmouth band circuit.
Also in the group were Martin Dawson aka King Roc, the acclaimed electro DJ and producer, and Chris Jarman, aka Raiden, former protege of Renegade Hardware. All three were part of a wider social circle that also included Tom Neville and hard dance superstar Nick Sentience, brought together by a mutual love for the music of acts as varied as Underworld, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Deftones, RATM, and the Wu Tang Clan.
After moving to London in 2000 Ben began to learn the trade of the sound engineer, experimenting first with his own compositions and then in collaborations with Tom Real, who at the time was also new to the capital and effectively introduced Ben to the sounds of breaks and techno . After only a couple of years a number of tracks were signed to the alternative house offshoot Beautiful Records and the Rogue Element project was born.
Since signing a two-album deal with the reputable and eclectic Exceptional Records in 2004, The Rogue Element has taken the breakbeat world by storm. A string of singles received instant support from the Plump DJs, Freestylers, Stanton Warriors, Krafty Kuts, The Crystal Method, Hyper and Rennie Pilgrem and culminated in Ben being awarded the ‘Best Breakthrough Producer’ award at the prestigious Breakspoll International Breakbeat Awards at Fabric. In addition to this the acclaimed debut album ‘Rogue Rock’ was released in September 2005, which received a nomination for ‘Best Album’.
2006 has seen The Rogue Element continue in a prolific manner with remixes of some of the biggest names in breakbeat (Stanton Warriors, Freestylers, Krafty Kuts, the Crystal Method) and drum and bass (Noisia). DJ tours have taken him all over Central and Eastern Europe, to the Far East, and to Australia and New Zealand. Continued collaborations with Tom Real, available on Functional, have been similarly lauded and have succeeded in crossing over to the electro scene (He’s So Hot Right Now). In addition to producing, remixing, and engineering, Ben writes the scores for TV and film.