Fuzzbox Inc, aka Joe Pope and Colin Moore. Picture: TONY PIKE (00905550)

EVEN those vaguely in touch with the Island’s music scene will be familiar with Fuzzbox Inc.

The brand that was built just over two years ago by two of Jersey’s most established DJ forces has fast become a formidable promotion and production outfit, helping to haul funk and breaks into an arena long dominated by house music.

Most notable here for their latest club night incarnation Ultrafunkula – host to Featurecast, A-Skillz and Pimpsoul, among others – Joe Pope and Colin Moore, the duo driving the revolution, are becoming pretty famous offshore, too, for their fresh, quirky re-edits, which mix the pair’s unique flavour into old funk tracks, winning huge credit from some of the biggest names in the business.

‘We’ve been getting a lot of support from A-Skillz, Mooqee, Numark from Jurassic5, Tom Middleton, Ali B and Fort Knox Five – a lot of the edits we do end up on their radio shows,’ says Colin.

‘We’ve just remixed DJ Love for Air recordings, Badboe for Breakbeat Paradise Recordings, Neighbour for Homebreakin’ Records and we’ve done another one for Fort Knox Five which features the saxophone player from Thievery Corporation, which Kraak n’ Smaak have done too. We have a track on the new Goodgroove EP, and another release soon on Nice Up, as well as a collaboration with Pimpsoul from Bombstrikes,’ he says.

No question, these boys are in demand – and their DJ mixes are hot property, too.
‘So far we’ve done mixes for Kiss, Rai radio station in Italy (the equivalent of our Radio 1), XFM, RTE Ireland and Radio 1 in New Zealand. We’ve also done remixes for Kidda on Skint, The Cuban Brothers, Fort Knox Five, Basement Freakz and Beat Monkeys feat Ty, who is an MC on Cold Cuts’ label. Now we’ve done 40 or 50 edits and it’s all gone a bit mad, actually – people are hassling us for stuff from everywhere!’ he says.

Neither harbours hopes of quitting the day job, though the explosion of the Fuzzbox Inc phenomena has, as a result, had an unforeseen impact on the working schedules of the pair. It’s something they hadn’t particularly envisaged, but it has triggered an incredible second career.

‘The concept of Fuzzbox Inc was simply for both of us to get back to what we started playing 17 years ago, which is when we originally started playing together at Lord’s. We were playing funk, jazz and hip-hop at the time. We’ve always been into funk-related music, and when the idea for Fuzzbox Inc came about there was this emerging mid-tempo breaks scene, with labels like Bombstrikes and Goodgroove, which really fitted with what we wanted to do,’ says Joe.

‘We started out doing it for ourselves, really. We’ve both always been into lots of different types of dance music, and to start our own night meant we could do what we wanted to do. Originally we only went into the studio for ourselves, really, it was just re-edits to play out,’ he says.

‘I went to Snowbombing in Austria for a gig and met Fabric resident Ali B there,’ adds Colin. ‘He’d just started this show, Funk Revolution on Kiss FM, and I gave him the funk re-edits we’d been doing and he started playing them. Then he went to Canada and America touring and started playing our stuff out there. It’s been word of mouth, really.

‘Then we got this MySpace message from Fort Knox Five, who are like the granddaddies of the midtempo funk/breaks scene, and they are huge in the States and Canada. They sent us this message saying they’d heard Ali playing our stuff and could they have some of it. From there it just spiralled out of control, and we started getting loads of attention from the USA and Canada,’ he says.

With their rising success across the globe, and following further gigs at Fabric and Snowbombing, Joe and Colin now have management for the USA and Canada, and will shortly head out to tour Canada for the second time. Yet the highlight, so far, remains a little closer to home.

‘Jersey Live was actually the highlight last year. The vibe at Jersey Live was just amazing, the crowd were absolutely buzzing,’ says Colin.

‘We sort of fall into two brackets, really – we can play in the back room and we can play out in the front room. We were asked to fill in last minute for Birdy Nam Nam at Jersey Live, and we did a live decks n’ FX/sampler set and it went down a storm. The music we play ranges from hip hop, funk and dub step to D&B, ska and reggae and anything else we can get away with, really,’ he says.

Next up for the boys is the possibility of an original Fuzzbox Inc track. ‘We’d like to do something original – not a re-mix, or a re-edit, but our own track. Even if it’s a cover, I’d be happy with that. It’s just finding the time, really. We’d like to find a full brass section and do a proper production like Mark Ronson kind of thing,’ says Colin.

First on the list, though, is this weekend’s Ultrafunkula gig at Pure, where they host UK DMC Champion and Battlejam resident JFB.

‘Ultrafunkula took a while to find its feet because it’s not really the norm, it’s not your usual night out, because a lot of what you get now is house music in some shape or form.

‘But it’s going well at Pure – I think Pure’s a great little club, quite intimate, and it’s looking stunning since the refit,’ says Colin.

lJFB takes the reins on Saturday night at Pure, with support from Fuzzbox Inc in the main room, plus Keith Robinson and Ray Grant in Room 2. You can also catch Fuzzbox Inc for Urban Aristocracy at the Royal Yacht on Saturday 27 March, at the MASS Festival on Sunday 4 April, with Ultrafunkula featuring Featurecast on Saturday 17 April, and for Theology at the Watersplash on Saturday 2 May – or check out www.myspace.com/fuzzboxinc for gig listings and videos from Jersey Live 2009