MEMORY-032_
The NZ MANC DC connection
Concord Dawn “Morning Light”
Timeless Recordings (TYME022)
This song was my introduction to Concord Dawn, and it has connections to so many people in my lifetime. I knew I wanted to write about this at some point, and it seemed like a good one to catch up the MEMORY-_ queue. I don’t remember where I heard it first, or who I heard play it first, but what I vividly remember was that Marcus Intalex came to play Buzz in DC, March of 2002. I was out with my friends Matt and Will, who I had met while shopping for records at Music Now in Georgetown, back at the start of 1999. We were on the dancefloor, front room of Nation, the three of us super in to the late night set, which was probably the 2AM to 4AM slot. Weaving in & out of Soul:r type music, mixed with a bit of techy dnb, and then the vocals “please don’t cry… in the morning light” and reece bass comes in. We geeked out pretty hard about hearing this out, during Marcus’s set. I always had a great time hanging out with Matt and Will. Matt was still local, and Will was based in NYC, living in a loft building on the edge of Bushwick & Williamsburg. Matt and I went up almost monthly to hang out and stay at Will’s place, our first nights usually consisting of watching Super Troopers and drinking Heiniken bottles. Will still had family in the DC area, so he’d come down occasionally to see them, and we’d make it a point to get out for a bit.
Later that year I was consulting a promoter on their quarterly event’s drum & bass line-ups, telling them who I thought they should book, and who to contact. I was getting paid, booked, and not having an affiliation with their promotion outfit. They booked Marcus for the last event of the year, and I must have struck up a decent conversation with him. Some time in the next few months, I got to go to lunch with him and Calibre, after they bought new MacBook laptops through I think Aaron Meyers, who had started a dnb label himself, and was working at an Apple store in Northern VA. I think he needed someone to give the guys a ride to the store and meet him there, and then we got lunch. I wish I could recall what we chatted about, but after that whenever Marcus was in town, if I went to the show he always had a few minutes to chat. I think around 2010, I went to see him at Ultrabar, a few years since the last time I had seen him, and he totally remember who I was. He told me about recently getting in to Ableton Live for his production work, and that he was dabbling in techno production. About a year & a half later, his work as Trevino started to be released. I miss Marcus, his passing was sad news, but his influence and mentorship can be heard and seen. I was just an acquintance, but he came across as a genuine person. He is one of the key reasons I was opening up to more 4/4 music, and trying to explore music that influenced what he made.
Also around this time, I was using AIM to contact and chat with people in the drum & bass scene. I remember I had the tune “Breach” (Sinthetix, plus me & UFO!), and it was like my one chip to trade. I can’t remember if there was a single Concord Dawn AIM account, but it was Matty from CD that I ended up chatting with, and he let me have “Take Me Away” to cut to dubplate, in exchange for “Breach”. In 2004 I got to open up for Concord Dawn at Buzz, which was an amazing night, I probably played 2.5-3 hours warming up, and it was Evan Kiljoy doing the CD tour in North America. I was pretty excited to meet him, but seeing as I was DJ’ing, we didn’t get to chat, just. a quick “yeah, wicked, safe, alright” handshake and transition between sets. Jump ahead to around January 2020… and this is something I’ll pick up in a future story.
YouTube:
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/master/270422-Concord-Dawn-Morning-Light-Check-This-Sound
I had this particular story written a few days ago, and tonight I saw mention that Matty as Concord Dawn has a final show booked for December 20th in NZ: