Not just another big beat act invading the LP realm a couple of years too late,
Midfield General is the recording alias of Skint label boss
Damian Harris. A prime architect of the sound of big beat, Harris grew up listening first to punk, then hip-hop, and finally acid house. He then moved to Brighton to study art, eventually taking work as a DJ while promoting clubs around the city. In 1994, his music knowledge landed him a job at Loaded Records, where former
Housemartins member
Norman Cook -- a friend of Harris' since his days working at the Rounder store in Brighton -- recorded as
Pizzaman.
Harris and
Cook's mutual vision brought about
Cook's first single as
Fatboy Slim, "Santa Cruz." After releases by Arthur and
Hip Optimist (aka
Andy Barlow, later of
Lamb), Harris debuted his own
Midfield General project in 1994 with "Worlds/Bung." Skint finally went overground with
Cook's "Everybody Needs a 303." Almost overnight, the label became famous around Great Britain as ground zero for the full-on collision between acid house mayhem, old school rap attitude, and hook-heavy sampladelic trip-hop that was later dubbed big beat, after the Skint club night, Big Beat Boutique, held at Brighton's Concorde. Releases by
Req,
Bentley Rhythm Ace,
Hardknox, and
Lo Fidelity Allstars cemented the catalog, and after
Fatboy Slim's second album,
You've Come a Long Way Baby, became an international phenomenon, Harris inaugurated a global deal with Sony. Taking the bulk of a year off from the office to concentrate on recording, he finally released his debut album,
Generalisation, in 2000. Harris also mixed the third volume in Skint's On the Floor at the Boutique series and sought out additional studio work, even serving as executive producer for
Justice's crossover single ""D.A.N.C.E." He then returned to his own work, releasing
General Disarray in September 2008. ~ John Bush