Joseph Malik

Joseph Malik`s music / dj / producer and club promoter activities in Scotland reach as far as to the early 90s. With fellow DJs Sace and Easi, he organised various club-nights and parties in Glasgow and Edinburgh, slowly building a rep as a DJ in the scene.

1993 Malik moved to Edinburgh to check out the International Arts Festival. There he hooked up with an old friend from back in the early 80’s Hip Hop scene, AJ. The results were amazing and the duo had their first release under the name of MF’ Outa National on the ground breaking Mo’ Wax Headz album Vol. 1 with the track “Miles Out Of Time”. 1994 brought Malik and AJ to the Stereo Mcs label Response, home of fellow DJs Sace and Easi now recording under the name of NT and Mc Mello with a new production name Black Anized, taken from an old Hank Ballard record. They released a series of killer EPs and album projects on the Response label.

Black Anized set up a home grown label in Edinburgh called Yush Records in 1996. With a host of musicians and visitors from around the world to their Bedroom beats studios they released various EPs, albums blending musical vibrations of Hip Hop, Reggae, Latin, Jazz, R&B, Breaks and Beats, African Asian Chinese experimental music styles. By 1997 Malik left Black Anized and Yush Records to turn his thoughts to the club scene with partner Toby Shippy ‘Salsa Celtica’ and Simon Hodge ‘Big Beat’. They launched a new club night called `The Lizard Lounge`. Based in an old church run by hippies and called `Cafe Graffiti` the club night was a development in mixing DJs and live bands from around the world.

After three wonderful years, in which they won Club Of The Year Award two years in a row, sadly the club came to an end but Malik moved on to a new project called Futuristica pushing the new wave UK and euro NuJazz scene with the help of record collector and DJ Daryl Gannon. The club gained a grassroots support and brought Malik into contact with Rainer Trüby, who asked Malik to sing again The track Rainer had in mind was called “High Jazz” and they recorded it with the rest of the Trüby Trio in Munich at Fauna Flash studios. While being in Germany, Malik stumpled across Michael Reinboth, head of Compost Records. Malik signed a new recording deal for a singer song writer project he was working on in secret with studio Maverick producer David Donnelly, a diverse multi talented musician whose complex arrangements Malik first heard on David’s Demusphere project on Parallax Records in Edinburgh. Together their diverse musical influences focused on Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, Shuggy Otis, Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Ritchie Havens, Joyce, Terry Callier, D’Angelo, Radiohead, Jimi Hendrix, Dr. John, Fela Kuti.