Clubbing Magazine

Label profile: Renaissance
Renaissance was founded in March 1992. The emphasis from the very beginning was on quality. Classical imagery derived from the paintings of the Italian Renaissance were the trademark of the clubs advertising and immediately stood in out in stark contrast to the identities of its competitors. Nothing like this had been seen before in the mediums in which it appeared (Mixmag, The Face, Sky Magazine etc.), and there was an instant excitement and curiosity, created by what was a carefully thought out marketing campaign. In October 1994 Renaissance released their first album 'Renaissance - The Mix Collection', mixed by Sasha and John Digweed. It chronicled the musical evolution of Renaissance over 3 CD's and was married with the stunning imagery which was now synonymous with the club's identity. Demolishing sales figures of any compilation album before, it went gold (100,000 sales) within 6 weeks and went on to sell over 200,000 copies. Still recognised as the benchmark for all club compilation albums, it has never been bettered, and was recently voted 'best mix compilation ever' by Muzik magazine. The next step for Renaissance was to look further afield. Renaissance Worldwide was born eight years ago, with a tour of the Far East, Asia and Australia (this has now become an annual event in the club's touring calendar), its immediate success demonstrating how the U.K dance music phenomenon was quickly developing into a Global economy. Since this landmark event Renaissance has touched down in all the world's major locations, including America, Russia, China, Japan, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, Switzerland and Newcastle to name but a few. Throughout all this activity the Renaissance albums have continued to go from strength to strength. In 1999 Renaissance joined forces with the mighty Ministry of Sound to further develop a singles label. This joint venture has already delivered a stunning masters series: Dave Seaman - 'Awakening' + 'Desire', Deep Dish - 'Ibiza' and Nick Warren & Danny Howells - 'Revelation', and a 100,000 + selling, 3 CD, brand-led Ibiza album. The singles arm gained instant recognition with Mark Pichiotti's seminal progressive anthem by Sandstorm - 'The Return of Nothing'. It has since secured artist album deals with some of the brightest luminaries in the world, highlights of which include: Danny Howells under his Science Dept guise; Paul and Ben Harris's Dirty Vegas alter ego H-Two; the San Francisco uber collaboration of Jerry Bonham and Jondi & Spesh, better known as JSJ, and legendary New York DJ/producer Angel Moraes.
Marcus James Marcus James began DJing on the sunny shores of Blackpool during the halcyon days of the North West boom in 1990/91. Instantly captivated, a set of decks in the form of a birthday present lead to hours of bedroom turntablism. Today this timely investment is paying dividends as, alongside guesting at some of the finest clubs around the country, Marcus is one of the Renaissance residents. Marcus's professional career initially began via a number of competition successes in 1996. First was the opportunity to spin at the Hacienda's 'Young, Gifted and Slack', a night devoted to exposing the best up and coming DJ's from around the UK. However, it was shortly after this the real breakthrough came in the guise of Muzik Magazine's (then relatively new) Bedroom Bedlam. This national exposure was highlighted further the following July when the magazine included him in the 'Cream of Bedroom Bedlam', a feature article pinpointing six previous winners who were most likely to explode onto the club scene. Since then Marcus has remained true to the article's promise and his CV now includes Cream, Ministry of Sound, Basics, Gatecrasher, Golden and, of course, Renaissance. He has also been developing his international profile and has played as far afield as Miami, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore (Zouk), Brazil (Sao Paolo), Amsterdam, Germany, Beirut, Montreal (Angel Moraes’ Stereo club), Hungary, Romania, Denmark, Ibiza and Harrogate to name but a few. In a statement to Muzik Geoff Oakes said, "...listening to his tapes I get the same feeling I had when I first heard Digweed." This compliment truly sums up Marcus's versatile musical style, being as comfortable playing deep US/UK house as he is with the more commonly associated peak time progressive fare. Outside of the DJ circuit Marcus has started a monthly one-hour radio mix for the 'Renaissance Clubland Collective', which is broadcast weekly on the Ministry of Sound's Digital station. This is also streamed through to their award winning web site, currently averaging 500,000 hits a month! In June, 2001 he teamed up with fellow Renaissance resident Nigel Dawson to do a mix CD for Muzik's Ibiza cover mount, which was the year's best selling issue. Last year Marcus completed his first full mix album - 'The Sound of Renaissance', a 2 x CD compilation set, now on general release. On the subject of this Marcus says, "I think all at Renaissance were keen to produce an album that people would want to listen to. My sound has always been slightly housier and vocal, so the album gave me the perfect canvas to express this." Marcus has just finished the follow-up to ‘The Sound of Renaissance’, which is out now. On the subject of the mix, Marcus says, “It was great to have the opportunity to continue the ‘TSOR’ series. It was a repeated challenge which I hope people will have as much listening to as I did mixing it.” The album has since been released to critical acclaim, picking up ‘Album of the Month’ in M8 and Ministry, Australia! In the midst of all this Marcus also finds time to work in the Renaissance office, where he generally lounges around listening to music on the pretence of running the Renaissance/USR record labels. So, if you hear any tracks on either which don't appeal, direct all complaints to him! With production a high priority, continued exposure and bookings throughout the year the future for Marcus is both bright and exciting…
Audio part You can listen to the interview with Marcus James here. It was done backstage at Vega, Copenhagen on the 22nd of Febuary 2003. Length: 14.50 min, mono 32kbps Size: 3478Kb Format: MP3
Interview by: Christian Almind