Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Midnight Funk Association (1995)

James Gaunt
Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now
6 min readOct 1, 2022

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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…

Midnight Funk Association — Firescratch (1995) Source: Discogs

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.

Midnight Funk Association were Mark Broom & Dave Hill. As Midnight Funk Association, they released one album and a few singles between 1995–2001, including Firescratch on Mo’ Wax.

Dave Hill and Mark Broom both began releasing music at the beginning of the 1990s. Dave Hill, with his brother Alan C. Hill, released the house album Rhythm Of Life as Rhythm Of Life Productions in 1991, followed by a several singles as Mind Over Rhythm in 1992.

At the same time, Mark Broom had met Peter Ford (aka Baby Ford aka Peter Adshead) at Fat Cat Records in 1992, where he handed Ford a demo mixtape. The two became friends and began collaborating, with Broom DJing at Ford’s Nude club night. Soon after, Mark Broom was introduced to Ed Handley and Andy Turner from Black Dog Productions/Plaid. The trio of Handley, Turner, and Broom began collaborating as Repeat and released the single Game Shows on General Productions Records. Broom also released some solo records on the label which were all recorded at The Sonic Kitchen in London, the same studio Dave Hill was recording his Rhythm Of Life and Mind Over Rhythm releases.

Eventually, Dave Hill asked Mark Broom if he’d like to collaborate on some music together and they released Charm under the alias Voyectra in July 1994. The single was released on Ifach, a label set up by Mark Broom and Baby Ford. Of Ifach’s 30 or so releases, almost all of them include Mark Broom, and many also include Dave Hill.

Following the release of Charm, Mark Broom and Dave Hill formed their own label Pure Plastic in late 1994, with their debut an untitled white label credited to both of them under their full names. This was followed by several solo singles from Mark Broom, releases from their friends Baby Ford and Stasis (aka Steve Pickton), and later Rue East, a new alias from Hill and Broom.

These early tracks were recorded on Dave Hill’s Akai MPC 60, which Mark Broom was a particular fan of. Speaking of their time toegther in the studio, he later recalled:

“My first studio was in London and I shared it with my then musical and Pure Plastic label partner Dave Hill. The main focal point was the Akai MPC 60 which was and still is one of the best pieces of equipment I’ve worked with. We also had an Akai S950 and a Soundcraft Spirt mixing desk. We had a bunch of effects units and synths like the Juno 60 and the Novation Bass Station. Over the years we upgraded the MPC to the 3000 model and added some additional bit and pieces here and there.”

In 1995 Mo’ Wax Records started a sublabel called Excursions, which saw them release a series of five 12" releases billed as “excursions into Techno” alongside another five into hip hop. The five techno releases were by iO, David Caron, Midnight Funk Association, Stasis, and Twig Bud.

Of these, Midnight Funk Association, Stasis, and Twig Bud (aka Baby Ford) all knew each other through the Pure Plastic label, and Mark Broom had an inside connection Mo’ Wax too, as he told Red Bull in 2015:

“James [Lavelle] picked up on this UK techno thing…but tried to make us mix hip hop and the techno. I was going out with a girl that worked in the Mo Wax office, so I used to go down there quite a lot and hang out with James. There was another guy, Will Bankhead. He was James’ right hand man, and he was more on the techno tip. He was telling James, ‘This is the shit.’”

Midnight Funk Association’s Firescratch 12" was the third techno Excursions release, but Broom had already appeared on two earlier releases, providing remixes for iO and David Caron’s 12"s, and he would also create a megamix for a CD compiling the Excursions releases.

Muzik gave Midnight Funk Association’s Firescratch 3/5 and wrote that while the opener sounded a bit too much like Plastikman, the B-side tracks Twice The Life and Cafe Noir were highlights. Firescratch missed out on appearing in the Official UK Charts, spending two weeks in the Top 200 and peaking at #102, just outside of the official Top 100. Of the techno Excursions releases, only iO’s Claire entered the Top 100.

After ten 12"s on Excursions, Mo’ Wax shut down the sublabel and released a compilation featuring songs from across each releases, with a mix from Mark Broom called Where’s My Money Mastermix. Another Midnight Funk Association track Code was released as part of Headz 2A, a Mo’ Wax compilation released in October 1996. This was Dave Hill and Mark Broom’s final credit on Mo’ Wax, and the Midnight Funk Association alias was set aside for a few years as the duo focused on other work.

Mark Broom and Stasis collaborated as Kapè Ill Miester on two singles in 1995 and 1996, before Dave Hill joined them to release two more singles in 1997 and 1998 as The Ted Howler Rhythm Combo. Broom and Hill had also been releasing music as Rue East, with an album Summer Of Blood released in 1998 on their Pure Plastic label.

1998 also saw the debut of Visitor, the duo’s new alias, and the return of Midnight Funk Association with Byte The Bullet and Sexy Way released as singles on Domino.

In 2002 Midnight Funk Association released Coffee Shop Rules, their only album to date. Many reviews were unfavourable, feeling that the duo had waited too long to release their debut and had lost some relevance.

Groove in Norway gave it 2/5 and advised their readers to listen to something else. Les Inrockuptibles in France felt the delayed release between their Mo’ Wax debut and their debut album actually made it feel timeless, as it wove easy-listening and trip-hop, while NME in the UK felt it’s timelessness was still a negative point. All Music were kinder, giving it 3/5 and felt it stood out from other similar downtempo music.

Since then, Midnight Funk Association haven’t released anything, but both Mark Broom and Dave Hill continued releasing music under their other aliases for a few more years, with Visitor releasing an album, U.X.B. releasing one single, and Rue East releasing several more singles up to 2005.

After 2005 it doesn’t appear Mark Broom and Dave Hill have worked together, likely because Mark Broom moved out of London around this period. He left most of his music making hardware with Dave Hill, as he was using computers more at that point. Mark Broom kept producing and has released two new solo albums in the past two years, but Dave Hill stopped producing and has had no recent credits unless you count reissues like 2019’s Repeats debut album, recorded with Mark Broom, Dave Hill, Ed Handley, and Andy Turner in an East London flat in 1995.

But while Dave Hill stepped away from music, Mark Broom has continued collaborating with other producers alongside releasing his solo work under a variety of aliases. In 2022 he has released a new album with James Ruskin as The Fear Ratio, a solo album 100% Juice on Rekids, and inbetween DJ sets and tours he has also been releasing a series of new remixes on Bandcamp.

Unfortunately Midnight Funk Association, along with a lot of early Mo’ Wax releases, aren’t currently available on streaming services so for those interested in reliving their Excursions 12" or even their album Coffee Shop Rules, YouTube or buying them second hand is your only current option.

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James Gaunt
Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now

An Australian writer with a passion for research. James edits music fanzine The Shadow Knows and writes regularly about Mo’ Wax Records. www.jamesgaunt.com