Mark O’Neil, known as DJ Red made an excellent contribution to jump up in the mid to late 90’s. His output on Trouble on Vinyl was superb with nearly every tune being a certified banger.
As with most producers, he used an alias for some of his production. The Good Fellas was DJ Red’s chosen name, quite why he used the plural I have no idea but the tune entitled ‘Impact’ released on Phat Trax was a monster and one that any jump up addict should own.
Although DJ Red’s biggest tune was undoubtedly ‘Enta Da Dragon’ or the ‘Tekken 3 Remix’ he also produced some amazing B sides. Take for example the original Enta Da Dragon, the flip contained ‘Nasty’ which could have easily been a single sided release in its own right.
‘Devastate’ was Trouble on Vinyls 18th release and featured ‘Murder One’ on the flip, both produced by DJ Red. The intro to Devastate featured the well used vocals “The surgeon general has determined that the sound you are about to hear can be devastating to your ear”. I have no idea where this was sampled from but it was also featured on Erick Sermon’s 2002 album entitled ‘Chilltown, New York’. Red Man vocals also feature throughout the intro, alongside some subtle reverse drum edits, air raid sirens and a chunky 808 bass which tends to require some EQ work when in the mix unless you want it clashing all over the place.
I remember hearing this tune for the first time on the Mickey Finn set from the Club Formation ‘Lost in Paradise’ tape pack. What frustrated me at the time was that the quality of the recording was shocking. Needless to say, quality control avoided, the set was actually pretty good and I managed to track down DJ Red’s track using the trusty technique of taking my Walkman to the record shop and playing it over the counter.
This is a solid piece of dancefloor jump up that creates a big thump in your chest and is typical of DJ Red’s exceptional production in the mid 90’s. The distorted bass which I assume was produced using a Novation Bass Station, is typical of the era and although simplistic, works so well.
Don’t be confused into thinking the remix of Devastate is the release ‘Devastating’ released on the single vinyl compilation ‘Here Comes Trouble Volume 04’, it certainly isn’t. To this day I am still trying to track down the remix, if anyone has any idea if it was released please give me a shout.