About

At the start of their careers, Tom Middleton met up with Richard D James (AKA Aphex Twin) whilst out clubbing in Cornwall in 1989 with whom he learnt the arts of sampling and DJ-ing. Mark Pritchard was DJ-ing and producing and he met with Richard and Tom around 1991. Mark and Tom both shared musical tastes in artists like Carl Craig and Masters at Work, New York's Strictly Rhythm records, Chicago house and techno.

Mark had a hand in producing the rave hit Roobarb and Custard by Shaft released in 1991, the proceeds of which went some way towards setting up the Evolution label, which he did in partnership with Tom. Around the same time Tom recorded with Richard D James on his first release the Analogue Bubblebath EP. The EP was released on the Mighty Force label in September 1991 and was headed Aphex Twin featuring Schizophrenia.

Reload was originally Mark's techno moniker, Tom adopting the name E621 (named after the Flavour Enhancer). In 1992, the Reload EP and Autoreload EP were released on Evolution records. This was the year of the first Recoil Records release from Mark Pritchard and Dom Fripp's highly respected Drum and Bass project Chaos & Julia Set. 1992 was also the year that Tom and Mark's Global Communication project was conceived.

The year 1993 saw the release of the classic techno album Reload - A Collection of Short Stories. Most of the tracks are credited as produced by Mark with both Tom and Mark credited for producing some tracks, and the album includes accompanying short stories by Dom Fripp. Mark and Tom remixed Aphex Twin's On in December of 1993 as Reload, which reached number 32 in the charts. This was also the year of the first Global Communication album Pentamerous Metamorphasis, a remix of Chapterhouse's Blood Music.

Between 1993 and 1994, the Jedi Knights name was added to the list of aliases used by the pair as an electro-funk, beats and breaks project. 1994 also saw the release of the Global Communication album - 76:14, one of the critically acclaimed highlights of their work.

1995 saw the music splinter off in another direction with releases from Secret Ingredients - New York New York and Chicago Chicago, deep, funky tech-house releases produced with the now trademark quality.

Global Communication - The Way/The Deep was released in 1996 and has since become a classic. The Jedi Knights - New School Science long player came out on Universal Language in March that year. Tom started remixing as Mod Wheel in 1997 and the Global Communication project came to an end with the final release being the funk-driven single The Groove. By this time the pair had gained huge respect in the dance arena and were remixing tracks by many big name artists.

The threat of a lawsuit from an unhappy George Lucas marked the beginning of the end for the Jedi Knights name in 1999. It was also the year that the Heard label came and went with a solo release from Tom as Mod Wheel, and the Universal Language label came to the end of it's life. Tom started his new solo project Cosmos and was signed to the Island Blue label by Ross Allen, releasing the single Summer in Space. By this time, Mark and Tom were both concentrating on their solo projects. Tom leaning more towards house, broken beats and 2-step with Cosmos and ambient/downtempo under the name Amba. Mark chose to concentrate on developing his own mid-tempo sound influenced by hip-hop, breaks, drum & bass and latin. Tom got a regular DJ slot at Kiss FM and started DJ-ing regularly around the country and also became involved in the Big Chill events. Mark met up with Danny Breaks after he recorded and released two 12"s through Evolution records and has since released a number of tracks through Droppin' Science, including tracks from Mark's Use of Weapons project.

Recently, Tom has had major success as a producer and DJ, producing some fine Cosmos remixes, a DJ mix album for Mixmag and a triple compilation for Hooj. Mark's excellent solo projects Harmonic 33 and Troubleman are receiving support from well respected DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Ross Allen. Mark has also worked on albums for Kirsty Hawkshaw, Crispian Mills and Sista Widey and remixed artists such as Azymuth, The Orb and Nightmares on Wax, adding to his solo profile.

The Jedi Selector compilation was released in 2001 on Smugg records, giving the public the chance to hear some of the releases they may not have had the chance to hear first time round. Currently you can find out what's happening with the pair by looking at the News section of this site.