Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: David Caron (1995)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
In 1995 Mo’ Wax created a spin-off label called Excursions. It put out ten 12" singles which were then collected onto a compilation album, also called Excursions, and released by Mo’ Wax in 1996.
David Caron is a Dutch producer who released a handful of singles in the 1990s. At the same time he was working as a programmer, and during the early 2000s he stepped away from music to work full time in the tech world.
Caron made his debut with the 12" single Dawn while studying Music Technology at the HKU University of the Arts Utrech. Dawn was released by the Dutch record label Eevo Lute Muzique in May 1994 who described it as a versatile release “filled with influences from existing music and the ones from his own mind”.
The single’s four tracks included Fantasy On A Fantasy which was subsequently licensed to Mo’ Wax and released in the UK as it’s own single in 1995. This was released as part of Mo’Wax’s Excursions series and featured three remixes by Mark Broom, Tranquility Bass, and the ESP Probe Remix by David Caron.
The new remixes were particularly popular, and in their review of the 12" Muzik wrote the ESP Probe Remix made it “a particularly vital selection…Sun Ra meets Afrika Bambaataa meets, well, tomorrow. A close encounter.” They later named it #40 in their Remixes of the Year.
In July 1995, Fantasy On A Fantasy entered the UK singles charts, spending two weeks in the Top 200, but peaked at #119 outside of the Official Top 100.
Following the Excursions 12", Fantasy On A Fantasy was included on Mo’Wax’s Excursions compilation album, and The Story Of Mowax, a compilation of Mo’ Wax music released by Marlboro Music in Germany. These were his final releases for Mo’ Wax, as the Excursions compilation saw the end of Mo’ Wax’s experiments in releasing techno for several years.
David Caron and his Eevo Lute Muzique label mates toured as DJs during this period, which included a trip to Japan in 1996, where they met Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haruomi Hosono and many adoring fans. The following year David Caron released his next 12" Any Day featuring three new songs, and it was again reviewed favourably by Muzik, who wrote:
“Jazz musician and sometime electronic wizard. David Caron, returns to the Eevo-Lute stable with another fine release. “Dreamshower” pays homage to Detroit with its crystalline strings and squelchy bass licks before “Easy Afternoon” takes us into trip hop territory. But it’s the abstract rhythms and dark textures of “Link” which make “Any Day” an essential piece of armchair tackle.”
Any Day was followed by the song Cauchy By Starlight on Eevo Lute Muzique’s compilation Agenda 23, before he returned with the single Latest Fantasy in 1998, released by Gotcha! in the UK, and licensed from Eevo Lute Muzique. A David Caron album was also teased from Eevo Lute Muzique, but remained unreleased.
1998 also saw Caron feature on an album by Relaxo Abstracto, a trio including himself, his brother Sandor Caron, and their longtime friend Mike Kivits (aka Aardvarck). Released as a CDR, Relaxo Abstracto’s album Shifting Gears features solo tracks from each member mixed in with others by Gauge (aka David Veira), and Black Jazz Chronicles (aka Ashley Beedle & Marc Woodford), among others.
The trio next released the single Inflatable Scream in 2002, with the track Chocolat (Live @ Effenaar, 1998) credited to David Caron, and two further tracks credited to Sandor Caron and Mike Kivits. The single was released on Music for Speakers, a label set up in 2000 by five musicians, including David and Sandor Caron, alongside Mike Kivits, and the duos Sonar Lodge (Marie-Claudine Vanvlemen and Richard Van Kruysdijk), and Madcap (Richard Hermes & Felix Van De Vorst).
Music for Speakers also released the next David Caron solo single Incident Report in 2002, and it has become his final single so far, although further songs were released on compilations, such as Long Wait on Compilation 1, and M42 on Cado.
Since then David Caron has had few music credits, with his most recent on the 2005 Music For Speakers’ 12" Umma Gummo which features all of the labels’ artists. Instead he has focused on programming and other IT related work.
Since the mid 90s David Caron worked as a developer, and although his brother still produces, David Caron appears to have left the music industry behind. He is currently an Advisory Specialist Solution Engineer in the Netherlands.
But even though he’s stepped away from music himself, some of his music has remained available, and his label Music For Speakers has been making their releases available online. Of David Caron’s solo singles, only Incident Report is available digitally, and it’s available to stream or buy on Bandcamp alongside Relaxo Abstracto’s Inflatable Scream, and his solo song Long Wait.
Unfortunately, none of the early Eevo Lute Muzique singles, or Mo’ Wax remixes, are available apart from the songs A Quiet Passing and Fantasy On A Fantasy which appear on the compilation Agenda 22 — Another Eevo lute Compilation. Originally released on CD in 1994, this compilation is available on most streaming services, which thankfully means some of David Caron’s earliest songs can still be heard today.
