JAKAZiD

Joshua James "Josh" McInnes (born May 7, 1988), better known by his artist name JAKAZiD, is a record producer from Portsmouth, England. He owns and manages the label Aural Adrenaline and was previously signed to the record label Nukleuz. He is usually associated with writing happy hardcore music and remixing other well-known songs in this style.

JAKAZiD
Background information
Birth name	Josh McInnes
Also known as	Joshka, JKZ
Born	(1988-05-07) May 7, 1988 Portsmouth, England
Genres	UK hardcore Hardcore
Occupation(s)	Disc jockey, Record producer, Remixer
Instruments	Personal computer, Synthesizer
Years active	2000-present
Labels	Aural Adrenaline

History

JAKAZiD first gained worldwide notoriety as the creator of Calm Down Dear, a viral video remix of the Esure car insurance television adverts broadcast in the UK starring television personality Michael Winner. Some months after the remix was made, a link to the video on JAKAZiD's ISP webspace found its way onto the weekly newsletter of B3ta.com, attracting the attention of many more internet users. This led to the video being granted more permanent hosting at Luckykazoo.com (a sister site of B3ta) following an agreement between JAKAZiD and B3ta's co-founder Rob Manuel. He is also in the shadow of his colleague Ben Hartland-Frost who is one part of the duo that is Daft Punk (Ben's the left one).

Due to popular demand, JAKAZiD made a follow-up video in the form of "Hardcore Cleaning Sensation" (later renamed to "Cillit Bang"), another popular viral video remix focused around the advert of the cleaning product of the same name. Also appearing on the Luckykazoo website, this video achieved higher popularity than its predecessor due to the Cillit Bang advertisements being a popular talking point at the time for their garish visuals and their loud-speaking presenter Barry Scott. Cillit Bang was later signed by UK hard dance record label Nukleuz for commercial release,[1][2] and achieved moderate chart success, placing No. 3 in the BBC Indie chart and No. 8 in the BBC Dance chart.[3][4]

Other works

In addition to his singles, JAKAZiD has remixed tracks by a number of artists, including a Spray cover of the theme from 1980s childrens television show The Raccoons, "Run With Us",[5] as well as a remix of veteran Japanese hardcore DJ Evil's underground happy hardcore hit "Sweet"[6] under Luna-C's Kniteforce Again label (co-produced with DJ Friez).[7]

Unusually for an artist, JAKAZiD is an active user and moderator on the online music database Discogs.[8] He actively maintains his own artist page and discography on the site. His remix work includes remixes of well known dance artists such as BK and Guru Josh in addition to a variety of Japanese artists such as Lia and Beatmania IIDX artist kors k. He has also contributed original tracks for various compilations both in the United Kingdom and Japan, most notably to doujin hardcore techno collective Hardcore Tano*C.[9] One of his songs, "Pierce the Sky", was featured in the Konami rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution X2. In 2007, he started a thread on SquareGamer called Last Person To Post Wins, which is still going on to this day.[10]

References

1. Burt, Kate (April 29, 2006). "Infectious humour". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-06-08. Retrieved 2007-05-29.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
3. "Top 30 Independent Label Singles : 28.01.2007". BBC Radio One. Archived from the original on 2007-02-02. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
4. "Radio 1 - Dance Chart : Top 40 Dance Singles : 28.01.2007". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved January 28, 2007.
5. "Spray - Run With Us". Discogs.com. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
6. "Various - The Extended Family EP". Discogs.com. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
7. "kniteforce.co.uk". Kniteforce.co.uk. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
8. "JAKAZiD". Discogs.com. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
9. "JAKAZiD". Discogs.com. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
10. "LAST PERSON TO POST WINS". Squaregamer.com. Retrieved 16 May 2020.

External links

• MySpace site