If you’re chatting jungle classics, it’s a guaranteed bet that within two minutes of the conversation Marvellous Cain’s Hitman will crop up. With its rumbling subs and iconic Cutty Ranks vocal, it can officially be filed under ‘quintessential jungle’. As can other Marvellous Cain hits such as Dubplate Style, Snapper, Guiness Punch or his entire ’95 album Gun Talk for that matter.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU_jg3e7Lso
Such a rich repertoire and influence on the scene. Yet, as quickly as he smashed the dance, he disappeared. Back now this week with an endless list of exciting plans and absolutely belting remix of Hitman by Bladerunner, we called him up and asked… WHERE THE DEVIL HAVE YOU BEEN?
“I’ve been selling all my records mate,” he laughs. “Seriously I got someone buying all my old records. All the old stuff – 90 to 93. I’d love to keep them but they’re taking up so much space in my garage, I’m never going to play them again and to be honest half of them are all damp and covered in mildew, he’s welcome to them! If he wants to look after them and enjoy them then they’re better off with him.”
Vinyl revivalists take note. Beneath the chirpy chatter about old skool and mildew lies a much darker story. Much darker… Vinyl is the reason Marvellous Cain disappeared in the first place!
“Lifting records, two crates all the way, it takes its toll on you!” he sighs. “I got to America once and picked up my crates and thought ‘ouch, that needs some attention at some point’ but I just carried on DJing. Then a few years later, three discs in my spine went. Agony mate, absolute agony. I couldn’t get up for two years. You see the problem was back in the day there was nowhere for your record boxes. You’d have to bend over all the time. And the table was too low for the scratch DJs. It killed me. 10 years out of the business! I had to get my back sorted before I could even think about getting back into this.”
How’s that for irony? Having to stop working because the tools of your trade have crippled you? After two years Marvellous (real name Marvin) started to regroup, refocus and began to sow seeds for the future.
“I went back into promotion,” he explains. “Reggae soundsystems with garage, drum & bass, jungle, soul. Everything. One bowl, loads of different fruit.”
From here his Yardrock brand grew. And from this week onwards we’re about taste all the many fruits he promises. It starts with the aforesaid Bladerunner remix of Hitman:
Following that you can expect a whole range of Yardrock business. A DJ agency, an event soundsystem and a clothing range. It’s a massive operation that’s taken years to develop and put in place. RIQ Yardrock, the label side of the grand plan that fuses the spirit of Marv’s old labels Runninz and IQ, has buckets of releases lined up alone!
“There are 40 releases for the label this year,” he confirms. “There’s no point of coming back out with one or two tunes then you waiting another six months for another release. It’s all planned properly. Single-shot releases. No EPs, no albums, just one-shot releases all the way. There might be a lot of remixes throughout the year but they’ll be staggered to suit the seasons.”
Seasons… Just like the Yardrock clothing range which includes all manner of garms and even jewellery! That’s launching in April, though. So in the meantime, cop a load of Bladerunner’s remix of Hitman and get ready for the Yardrock takeover very very soon!
Hitman (Bladerunner Remix) is out now. DOWNLOAD