Richard West (born 2 January 1965), known as Mr. C, is an English

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

DJ, producer and

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

. He was the resident DJ at the early acid house "RIP" nights at Clink Street, London, and later was the co-owner/co-founder of London's

The End The End may refer to: Film * The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...

nightclub. West was the frontman for

The Shamen The Shamen ( ) were a Scottish psychedelic band, formed in 1985 in Aberdeen, who became a chart-topping electronic dance music act on the UK Singles Chart by the early 1990s. The founding members were Colin Angus, Derek McKenzie and Keith Mc ...

during their most commercially successful era. He is a proponent of

tech house Tech house is a subgenre of house music that combines stylistic features of techno with house. The term ''tech house'' developed as a shorthand record store name for a category of electronic dance music that combined musical aspects of techno, ...

, a fusion of

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

and

techno music Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

Career

West was born in London in 1965. He started MCing in the London clubs aged 16 and earned a reputation as a fast-talking, vivacious rapper working with LWR radio's Ron Tom, Jasper the Vinyl Junkie and Jazzy M. He joined with Colin Faver and Evil Eddie Richards to become resident rapper at Camden Palace. West recorded his first

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ...

track with Eddie Richards as Myster-E, "Page 67", which was released in August 1987. This inspired West to become a DJ in late 1987. He has since organised, promoted and been resident DJ at: Fantasy (1988), Base (Dungeons 1989), Release (1991), Harmony (1992), Drop (1993), Cyclone (1994), Vapourspace (1994 and 1995), Flavour (The End, 1995 and 1996), Subterrain (The End, 1995–2002), Superfreq (worldwide 2002–present) and Super Disco Freq (LA, 2010–present). In December 1995 West opened the night club

in London with Partner Layo Paskin (of

Layo & Bushwacka! Layo & Bushwacka! is the pseudonym of British Disc jockey, DJ duo Layo Paskin and Matthew Benjamin, who released four tech house albums between 1998 and 2012. Layo Paskin Paskin, from London, began his DJ career at the age of sixteen while wor ...

) and AKA bar three years later, which had its 23rd anniversary in December 2018. West is founder and owner of Plink Plonk records, co-founder of End Recordings and co-founder and owner of the Superfreq label. He has recorded under the names Myster-E, Unity 2, Nu Jacks, Bass Bureau, Mantrac, Somnambulist, Animus Amour, Killer Loop, Mr. C and Tom Parris, Mr. C and 16B and the Sycophant Slags. West is best known as frontman of

with whom he achieved a string of top 10 hits including " Move Any Mountain" and the UK number 1 hit " Ebeneezer Goode". In 1995 he created the mix album '' Fantazia DJ Collection 3 – Back to the Old Skool.'' He has also released mix albums ''Psycotrance vol 1'', ''X-Mix 6'' on Studio K7, ''Sunterrain 100% Unreleased'' on his End recordings imprint and most recently ''Superfreq Express'' on his Superfreq label. West now records solo as Mr. C and collaborates as the Sycophant Slags with Francis Harris aka Adultnapper, as the Indigo Kidz with Affie Yusuf, with endics.shuffle and with Omid 16b. He has released on Poker Flat, Wagon Repair Records, Get Physical Music and

Adjunct Audio Adjunct Audio is an electronic music record label based in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2005 by Kenneth James Gibson AKA endics.shuffle and Konstantin Gabbro and is distributed by Kompakt. Adjunct releases a range of styles from ...

. He has released a solo EP titled "I'm gonna Give You Some" and the albums ''Smell The Coffee'' and ''Incidents.'' He has collaborated with Affie Yusuf, Omid 16b and endics.shuffle. He has remixed for Mikael Stavöstrand and David Scuba, Francis Harris, Xo Chic, Joint Custody & Affie Yusuf. His "Soulfuric" track was released on Alola and his "Liquid Acid" track was released on DJ Pierre's ''Acid 88'' album on Afro Acid.

Superfreq record label

Superfreq released eight EPs from various artists and one mix-set by Mr. C, but had then been a dormant record label since 2006. Superfreq relaunched in February 2013 and has since released prolifically with forty digital EPs and two albums.

Personal life

West is married to the Mexican actress and model Xochitl Marbach. The 'C' in Mr C stands for the expletive, "cunt".

References

General references

* * * *

External links

Superfreq website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mr. C 1965 births Living people English keyboardists English male rappers English house musicians English techno musicians British club DJs British remixers The Shamen members DJs from London Rappers from the London Borough of Islington Rappers from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets People from Mile End People from Holloway, London