“Irdial legend Ramjac Corporation meets Toronto’s Raf Reza on a carousel of haunted electro-techno-house to initiate Orphic Apparition”boomkat.com
Orphic Apparition is a new label born out of a transatlantic meeting of minds. Facilitated by a long, hedonistic party in one of present-day London’s ‘meanwhile use’ venues Grow Tottenham, Canadian producer Raf Reza and British acid house luminary Paul Chivers spent a precious day in the studio to record a 3 hour straight to DAT session before Reza's return to Canada. The result of this spontaneous yet intuitive collaboration blurs the lines between Chiver’s long-standing Ramjac Corporation alias and Reza’s genre-spanning approach to dub, breaks and house styles. Part of the early 90s rave scene and an important member of the blueprint-setting Irdial label, Ramjac locks heads with the self-professed ‘lazy music guy from Toronto’ to adapt their studio session into five separate mixdowns.
“This is most possibly where it all started for me & the label and this unique recording captures it all like no other, like a time capsule, impressively, and amazingly, a classic slice of British rave history unearthed via Switzerland. Just close your eyes and go back to the phuture.”mentalgroove
The Irresistible Force vs RAMJAC Corporation
Live At The Brain 1990
Vinyl / Digital, 45 minutes of ambient & acid house music live!
Musique Pour La Danse MPD035
An historical live recording at The Brain Club that captures the unique vibe and flow of a brand new life-changing musical era in 1990 London Soho.
Includes liner notes by The Brain club co-owner Sean McLusky, writer ("Bass, Mids, Tops") and DJ Joe Muggs and original sleeve art by the other The Brain club co-owner Mark Wigan, like you were back there. For fans of ambient, acid house, and fucking brilliant live music!!
“Both the "Massive" and "Massing" mixes are essential”Juno
“a thrilling, prescient piece of work”testpressing.org
Ramjac is sound artist, programmer and percussionist Paul Chivers, one of UK's unsung electronic pioneers, known for his voltaic live shows during the heady Summer of Love in 1988 and beyond.
Jamming his own flavour of sampled beats live from his Atari and Emulator, Ramjac performed at the now legendary Sunrise, Energy and Back To The Future raves and went on to tour with Orbital, The Shaman and The Irresistible Force. Ramjac went from playing from 50 to 10,000 ravers in a matter of months.
“I didn't have a studio, the sampler was a studio.”
“I'd much rather take a track and stretch it out live.”
He has ditched the Atari and the sampler, and will instead use reel-to-reel tape players to perform live dubs of Ramjac Corporation material.
While we thought it couldn’t get any better, Ramjac saved the best till last with an outrageous version of the iconic "Cameroon Massif," lasting perhaps 15 minutes. Aside from the audacious tempo changes, he played long passages where he exposed the hitherto overlooked bass line, giving the unsuspecting audience a crash course in dub.
Ramjac’s set is seriously hard hitting - but he doesn’t brutalise - he cajoles people into dancing in whatever way they want, and compels them to be curious about the sounds and where they’re coming from.
If you get a chance to see him or promote him, then do so - because you’ll see a certain level of invention, a re-situating of the typical motifs of electronic dance, and a (polite) refusal to adhere to the cliches - an attitude not seen enough elsewhere.
Thursday 20th October 2022
Twenty One
Western Esplanade SS1 2EH
Dhangsha
Ramjac
Robyn Steward
Lucia H Chung
Admission Free
Doors open 7.00pm, starts 7.30pm