Midfield General
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Midfield General is the DJ/Production alter-ego of Damian Harris, 2008 saw the release of his second album 'General Disarray', a mere 8 years after the release of his debut album, 'Generalisation' in 2000. In defence of his slow musical output he had been very busy. Harris had 3 hats to wear, that of A&R for Skint Records, DJ and in his spare time producer and remixer.
It was in 1994 that Damian started Skint Records in Brighton. Starting off as the cheeky little off-shoot of Loaded Records, Skint went on to enjoy huge international success. Kicking off with Santa Cruz by Fatboy Slim, the label has gone on to release a broad spectrum of club music including The Lo Fidelity Allstars, Dave Clarke, X-Press 2, Alter Ego, Goose, Alloy Mental, Freq Nasty, Super-Collider, Tiga and International Pony.
In 1996 he started a club night, called The Big Beat Boutique. A place for himself, Norman Cook and the other Skint artists and DJs to play the records they where putting out... The club enjoyed an amazing time in the sun, playing host to some truly memorable nights, special guest spots and live performances. It also spawned the On The Floor At The Boutique mix series. The third of which was Damian's where he glued together his own personal Boutique favourites of house, techno, soul, hip hop, breaks and some old jazz funk records.... The Boutique went across the country and the world with memorable residencies at The End, Fabric and Heaven with Bugged Out and hook ups with The Heavenly Social and tents at Reading and Glastonbury. In the summer of 2002 he toured Japan during the World Cup and then came back to open up the Big Beach Boutique where, as he likes to constantly remind his electroclash friends, he played to 250,000 people on Brighton Beach. At this point he ended his association with The Boutique and decided to take a break from DJing to concentrate on Skint and his own music.
In 2005, after 11 years running Skint, Damian realised that he was much happier in the studio then behind a desk and decided to leave his full time role at the company in order to concentrate on making music and DJing. So, Harris moved to Paris... partly because it rhymed, but mainly to finish his ridiculously delayed second album. So, with a laptop full of samples and a mini keyboard he set off to spend a year immersed in music-making and fun. Another attraction of Paris was his newly formed friendship with Ed Banger Records crew, and he was kindly taken under their wing when he arrived. As part of the cultural exchange program he went out a lot, smoked fags and took looks lots of pictures. He taught them how to swear in English while they taught him how to chop up audio files properly. He was also coaxed out of his semi DJ retirement and my guest appearances at the infamous Ed Banger Boat Parties and Paris Paris amongst others.
The love-in extended to Damian remixing Krazy Baldheads track 'Crazy Moth3f2ck8z'. He also took on the Executive Producer role for Justices single D.A.N.C.E. and in return Xavier De Rosnay helped produce his comeback single 'Disco Sirens'. The single features Vila from Bumblebeez fame on vocals, and with remixes by D.I.M. and Boy 8 Bit, has become a big underground club hit and a great start to the album.
'General Disarray' is a collage of Damians production and a very varied set of vocal collaborations. After an early career appearance on 'Generalisation', Noel Fielding from the Mighty Boosh returns to tell one of his surreal adventures over a dirty funk track. Actor Ralph Brown features on the track 'Teddy Bear', which revisits the curious truck driving CB radio Country hit by Red Sovine that tells a tale of a young crippled boy over a melancholy soundtrack. Elsewhere Robots In Disguise, 70s soul singer Pat Stalworth, and excitable Dutch football commentator Jack Van Gelder also appear. The album manages to contain leftfield pop, hip hop, cinematic epics, house, techno and soul, yet still sound like a cohesive and personal album.
With the album being released around the world and many more singles and remixes to come, Damian can now concentrate on his main loves, remixing and DJing. He has just completed mixes for Bloc Party, Nick Cave's Grinderman project, X-Press 2 and French indie band Nelson. And began DJing properly again with gigs at Londons' Durrr, Fabric, Bloggers Delight, trips to Paris and Moscow and most bizarrely to 15,000 Mighty Boosh fans at this summers Boosh Fest.
