ETHOS
Ethos started his journey as a DJ on London pirate radio in the mid 90s, He would strike up a friendship with Jon Kaos and Kevin Energy at Wax City Records in Croydonvwhere he was a regular customer.
The Wax City Nights were going down at Wiseguys during mid-week, and guest DJs would come downvincluding Vibes, Vinylgroover and Slipmatt, as well as MCs Suicide and Viper. It was a friendly place consistently packed and, being the small-scale event that it was, there were always opportunities to chat to the DJs and MCs over a few beers.
Having always primarily been a DJ, he would also chat a few lyrics on the mic occasionally, and after pestering MC Suicide for a go on the mic, Kaos took notice. He was then invited to MC regularly, including a massive spot in the Wax City-hosted room at Moondance at Bagleys in 1998.
From here, Ethos became a regular member of the Wax City crew, working in the shop and MCing alongside MC Suicide at a number of Wax City-hosted rooms at larger scale events including Dreamscape and Moondance.vEthos would also become DJ Kaos’s regular MC, and the pair together would earn bookings at every major hardcore event in the UK including Slammin'vVinyl, United Dance, Helter Skelter and Raindance as well as traveling abroad to the USA, Canada and Japan.
In early 2000, Kaos, Ethos, and MC Suicide launched Future Dance Events, hosting legendary multi-arena parties at Castle Studios and Bagley’s in London as well as regular club nights in the area and one-off parties around the UK. The same year also saw the launch of Future Dance Recordings, where Blue Moon (Recorded at Austin Reynold’s studio) became the first Future Dance smash hit. Future Dance Recordings would be run by the pair until 2003 when Ethos took sole charge, smashing out 17 vinyl releases and 10 digital releases until closing the label in 2007.
The label was featured regularly on the Bonkers albums, as well as a number of other worldwide compilations, receiving regular DJ support from the likes of Brisk, Sharkey, Kevin Energy and even BBC Radio One’s John Peel.
Most probably remember the collaborative smasher anthem (Kaos, Ethos, and MC Sharkey), Get Fucked. The release was seminal in that it was supported even by DJs who didn’t frequent the label. Kniteforce don, Luna-C and Ethos connected in full fan boy fashion, upon Luna-C’s praise of such a smasher. In addition, many will remember Blue Moon, Party Zone, Pump It Up, The Other Side, and DJ Fade’s EP – which also reached acclaimed statuses.
During this time too, Ethos had releases on Blatant Beats, SSU and Thin N Crispy; and also provided vocals for Robbie Long’s TNC label alongside original album intros for the Hardcore Nation album series. His last UK hardcore release came in 2008 when he remixed Robbie Long and Stormtrooper’s “Stick 'Em,” which was released as a picture disc and featured on the Hardcore Underground 3 compilation album, an interesting twist considering that Ethos’s music plan was to DJ and produce, not MC but it was being on the mic that opened the doors to opportunity.
Taking a break to re-evaluate and regroup in 2008, Ethos would still occasionally MC for Thin N Crispy boss, Robbie Long. Ethos also attributed vocals to a Robbie Long track in 2019. That same year also saw Ethos draw upon his influences of psytrance, trance and techno for a new production style.
Expect Ethos to ‘run it’ with some of the freshest-produced hardcore in nearly 13 years, with regular releases coming on SSU Recordings. Following up will be a gauntlet of originals and maybe even some remixed classics. The classic Future Dance sound of fun, hard and uplifting beats are set to blaze a fire with updated beats in 2021.