* En anglais uniquement
Playgroup was a studio party/rumpus-room collective orchestrated by
Trevor Jackson, a graphic designer (with sleeves of releases by
Eric B. & Rakim,
Stereo MC's, and
the Jungle Brothers to his credit), producer, and remixer who had previously operated as
Underdog and Skull. A melting pot of disco, funk, hip-hop, dub, new wave, and house, 2001's
Playgroup, released on the Source label, featured appearances from
Roddy Frame,
Edwyn Collins,
Shinehead,
Kathleen Hanna, and
Rowetta. Astralwerks picked the record up for release in the U.S. in March of 2002. By the end of that year,
Jackson released a pair of mix albums: his contribution to the DJ-Kicks series and a very limited disc called Party-Mix. In 2005, Peacefrog gathered two discs of
Jackson's remixes for the likes of
Soft Cell,
Yello, and
the Rapture, and issued it as Reproduction. A couple years later,
Jackson briefly reactivated the
Playgroup name to contribute a disc to Rapster's Kings of Electro double-disc mix set. In 2016,
Jackson opened the vaults and issued a nine-part series of Previously Unreleased EPs, one per week from July to September, on the Yes Wave label. Most of the tracks were compiled onto a double-CD later that year, also titled Previously Unreleased.
Jackson also ran the Output label, home to releases by
Fridge,
Four Tet,
LCD Soundsystem,
Black Strobe, Mu, and
Colder. ~ Andy Kellman