Paranoid Jack @ Hush Friday Aug 25

[Christoph]

Paranoid Jack @ Plan B Sunday Aug. 27, 2006

Manny Berenguel, aka Paranoid Jack, first started Djing in 1994. At the time, he was heavily influenced by the New York / Jersey Garage sound and began to play small underground parties in Toronto's warehouse scene with veterans DJ Cube and Alvaro G. His roots were firmly placed in soul, disco and funk which became an important part in shaping his production philosophy later on.

1996-97, the heyday of Basement Jaxx, Daft Punk and the Mongoloids, brought about another evolution in Jack's sound as elements of techno fused with funky filtered house which became the fundamental basis for everything he's done since. After getting his Audio Engineering degree from Trebas Institute in 1998 he began work on his own production material with an extremely small set-up that consisted of an old beat-up Mac, a K2000 rackmount sampler and a pair of home-made studio monitors.

Amazingly, it was out of this humble system that his first record emerged, "Herbz the Word". He gave the demo on to longtime friend MC Flipside (who at the age of 23, was already a respected veteran of Toronto's rave scene), who promptly passed it on to Stickman Records. They signed it and released it in January of 1999, and the rest is history. It went on to become somewhat of a cult-classic, immediately gaining support from heavyweights like DJ Dan, Terry Mullan and Halo, and remains a highly sought after tune to this day.

Jack went on to produce several singles and remixes for the Stickman camp over the next few years, with each one going in a slightly different direction yet maintaining the banging and funky element that became the signature Paranoid Jack sound. This culminated in the release of his first artist album in 2001, "The Last of the Funky Cyborgs". The album spawned three singles (“U”, “Slavedriver” and “Smart Hockey”) which shot up the charts and put Paranoid Jack on the map. The massively respected Yoshitoshi crew picked all three as their #5 tune on their prestigious Top 101 Tunes of 2001 claiming "these were all so good, we couldn't pick just one!"

"Slavedriver" crossed over into the progressive scene with support from Deep Dish, Danny Howells, Quivver, Sasha, John Digweed, Seb Fontaine, Max Graham and just about everybody else. It reached #1 on both the UK's Massive Records Chart and the US Balance Promotion Charts, and was licensed to several highly esteemed CD compilations, including Transport and Ministry. The success of this single led to remixes by local favourite Addy, and the UK's highly respected tech-house guru Jamie Anderson, which attained similar praise. His 2002 release "Dirty Fingernailz" on Four01 Recordings became a worldwide favourite as well, appearing on Steve Lawler's "Lights Out" compilation for Global Underground.

2003 brought another underground smash titled “The Big O” which solidified Paranoid Jack as an established name in the tech-house scene. This led to a slew of remixes on primetime labels like Lee Coombs’ Thrust Recordings, Kingsize Records, Meat Katie’s Lot 49 imprint, Chris Fortier’s Fade Records, and Release Grooves.

Which brings us to 2004, where Paranoid Jack has really come into his own. “Bring Back the Jack” (Thrust Recordings), “No Rest for the Wicked” (Release Grooves), “Acid Fixx” (Slush Recordings) and breaks collaboration “Environmental Product” (Promo Records) with Robb G, “The World Must Change” (Fifth Sun) have all had massive success with a wide range of todays best DJs. Jack felt it was time to take things to the next level by opening up his own label, Fifth Sun Recordings, with local veteran and good friend Tim Patrick. So far the label has been received very well, with all three releases so far hitting Number 1 on the exclusive Balance Pool Chart successively.

All of this attention has led to 5 years of solid DJ appearances all over Canada, the United States, Japan and Europe, where Jack is proving that he can rock the decks as well. His silky smooth mixing style and genre-bending approach to programming have made him a favourite everywhere he goes. Elements of deep house, tech house, progressive, techno and some breaks are woven together with a distinct percussive and funky feel throughout. As a member of the prestigious Balance Record Pool (membership includes 40 of the top DJs and record shops in North America), Jack has access to a wide array of the most upfront tunes as well as a constant flow of unreleased tracks from his friends around the world.

In a few short years, Paranoid Jack has become an established name in the underground scene. He's been licensed to CD's by people as varied as Nigel Richards, Roger Sanchez, George Morel, Eddie Amador, and Steve Lawler. His records are consistently found in the boxes of the world's top DJ's, and (most gratifying to him) his career is being followed by some of the people he respects most. Nowhere was this more evident than when Circulation (one his favourite production groups) lost their records recently, and an e-mail request came in for a copy of everything Jack’s ever done. Paranoid Jack is definitely one to look out for in the future, and we have only seen the beginning of what promises to be a long and bright career.

Opening is the Angry Samoan

$8 before 11, $10 After

[Christoph]

This guy really knows how to rock a dancefloor. Come see him after headlining the Summer Break party on the mainland. Angry Samoan and Naomi Nice are opening with the goods!

Christoph