Krafty Kuts - History

History

Inspired by the hip-hop and electro sounds that surrounded him, Martin first stepped behind a pair of decks when he entered a DJ competition as a complete novice, surprisingly making it all the way to the finals. This early success prompted him to perfect his art and set about teaching himself turntable techniques such as cutting and scratching that was to become the core of his DJ sets.

Immersing himself in the music he loved, Martin went on to run a record store in Brighton throughout the 90's, where he built an encyclopaedic knowledge of dance music in all its forms. In 1996 he took the next logical step, transferring his dance-floor knowledge to the studio, creating his own tracks for use in his DJ sets.

His first big break came when a dubplate of Krafty Kuts’ ‘Gimme The Funk’ found its way to Norman Cook who immediately snapped it up for his Southern Fried label. Suitably impressed Ministry of Sound offshoot FSUK Records signed Krafty to release a string of singles; ‘Funky Elements’, ‘Wild In the Aisles’ (a tribute to Martin’s appearance on TV show Supermarket Sweep!) and ‘Return of the Elements’.

With his own tracks elevating his profile across the globe Martin mixed his first compilation ‘Slam On The Breaks’. At about the same time, Krafty teamed with fellow-Brighton DJ Skool of Thought to establish the SuperCharged club night which is still running. By 1999, with his all-encompassing club style, Martin entered the studio with Freddy Fresh, long standing studio partner Ed Solo and New York’s Dr Luke to produce a series of beats and skits that eventually made it onto Finger Lickin’ Record's 'Finger Lickin Funk' release.

In the following two years Martin's skills were employed to create music for a Coca Cola advert, PlayStation 2 and Guy Richie’s ‘Mean Machine’ as well as mixing a cover mount CD for Mixmag. With DJing and music now taking up all of his time, Martin left the record shop, free now to concentrate fully on his creative side. Martin launched both the Against The Grain and SuperCharged labels with club partner Skool of Thought, on which he released the ‘Lost Plates EP’, ‘Lock The Hype’ and ‘Sound Check’.

Following up on a contact made during his record shop days, he began a studio collaboration with up and coming DJ A-Skillz, that resulted in the hip-hop and party breaks album Trickatechnology. The album saw the pair collaborating with Kurtis Blow, Dr Luke and Freakpower’s Ashley Slater on a series of compositions.

With the demand for his records and club sets showing no sign of slowing down, Martin took a backseat with the labels and club promotion to focus solely on touring and recording. Working solidly throughout 2006 Krafty completed his debut solo album, Freak Show. Once again the tracks featured a strong cast of collaborators from the Scratch Perverts, Tim Deluxe and Dynamite MC, to long term associates A-Skillz, Ashley Slater and Dr Luke. Mirroring Krafty Kuts’ universal approach to music and club-culture, the album moved through a myriad of tempos and genres. Freakshow was crowned Album of the Month and its lead single 'Bass Phenomenon' awarded single of the year in 2006 by DJ magazine. The album was following soon after by a Fabriclive compilation mixed by Krafty Kuts.

Martin has since released an installment of the Back To Mine compilation series. In October 2009 he released the double mix CD "Against The Grain" which features 19 of his previously unreleased re-edits. The release won Best Compilation at the 2010 Breakspoll Awards, with Martin also walking away with another Best DJ award at the ceremony.

In December 2009, Martin released his very own iPhone application, purpose built for DJs to fire pre-loaded audio samples during their live sets, and is currently working on his second solo album.