Mackangu is the DJ name of Angus Mack. Angus was classically trained at school both in violin and viola up to Grade 6, regularly playing in the school orchestra and sinfonia, which in itself included many future members of the National Youth Orchestra. However although enjoying playing in these groups there was something missing from the music being played that didn’t satisfy. It was during his year working down in Harlow in Essex after sixth form in 1995 that Angus got the dance music bug.
Luckily there was Kiss FM reception at the YMCA in Essex where he was staying and getting a grounding in all forms of dance music from classic radio shows delivered by the likes of Colin Favor (techno), Nicky Blackmarket, Jumpin Jack Frost, DJ Hype (drum & bass), Colin Dale (deep house), Graham Gold, Alex P & Brandon Block (house), Pete Wardman (hard house), Fabio and Grooverider (jungle and d&b) stood him in good stead.
Moving to London the following year to study Angus followed up his new found love of dance music by hitting as many clubs as possible! At that time tending toward to the harder, faster and trancier stuff that was new at the time. These included the then legendary Fridge Club in Brixton for nights such as Escape from Samsara, Otherworld, Science Fiction, Return to the Source and Pendragon, as well as smaller venues such as the 414 club for nights such as One Louder and Acid Bath, to larger venues such as Heaven on Thursdays (Hibernation), Tyssen Street, EQ warehouse (Undertow), Bagley’s Studios, The Pleasure Rooms in Tottenham, the Stratford Rex, the Four Aces in Hackney and Trenz in Dalston - essentially wherever the best new music at the time was being played. Fellow university colleagues ran a sound system called Tribe of Munt which resulted in him pestering for decks for his 21st birthday having only dabbled on friend’s decks before that in order to buy and play tunes at home that were being heard out at the time.
After a year and a half or so of buying Acid Techno he soon realised that most of the records were starting to sound the same and essentailly all produced by the same three people. The scene was also quite ‘full on’ at the numerous squat parties attended and things started to get a bit dangerous.
At the same time a new sound was being pioneered both down in Brighton by the ClickClickWhirlyBeepBeep boys Dom Sweeten and Superfast Oz and also by a young new producer called Ben Keen, which went on to become hard dance sound that is still going today. Early releases on Kaktai and Nukleuz captured a more appealing sound and his love for this style of hard but funky and also slightly anthemic tunes continues to this day. However, as with all new music scenes that become popular, the pioneers pave way for the copycats and the scene degenerated into a series of mindless releases that destroyed the fun of the sound for Angus.
This coincided with changes to his work status and travelling a lot to America and working too many hours, which meant that DJing took a bit of a back seat for a couple of years. The passion was still there and a couple of years before leaving London in 2004 he enjoyed revisiting his old collection of records putting on many house parties and starting to get into what was soon to become the nu skool breaks sound.
A desire to leave London after 8 years there and a chance to move to Cambridge with work meant that Angus was now in arguably the home town of his new love for everything breakbeat.
After spending a couple of years in Cambridge and buying breaks from the legendary Streetwise Records shop, going to Boomslang and other nights in and about town and DJig at various house parties and pubs (including The Royal Standard on Mill Road) Angus entered a DJ competition at The Fez club. Although coming second and not winning the cash prize this led to set at the first Bleep night also at the Fez. More sets followed in various venues in and around town but at the same time the PA system was getting more and more rentals and pressures of the day job meant that there was less time for DJing gigs.
Angus continues to DJ and his musical style is now a lot more varied playing anything from the more techy and minimal style of house to full on electro and of course big smashing ass-shaking breakbeat. He still managed to get in two gigs in while away in Corfu recently at the Passion and Miroir clubs in Kassiopi town.
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