Name: The New Normal
Brand: Mark Hawkins

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

HTH149CD

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Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2021-09-24

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5060845320669

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

HTH149

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Clear

Transparent

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5060845320362

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2 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / clear

Artist

Mark Hawkins

Genre GB

Electronic

Label GB

Houndstooth

Houndstooth is a UK independent record label that has been making waves in the music industry since 2013. Based at fabric EC1 in East London, this label is known for its innovative and diverse range of artists and performers. The label is run by *a2554693*, who is also responsible for the popular *l229559* podcast series, as well as *Rob Butterworth*, who curates the fabric and FABRICLIVE mix series. With their finger on the pulse of cutting-edge music, Houndstooth continues to push boundaries and deliver groundbreaking sounds to music lovers worldwide.

Mark Hawkins has had a career in music spanning the past 25 years. He started out producing punky techno for labels like Djax Up Beats and Mosquito before moving on to underground house music as Marquis Hawkes. Now, he is embarking on the next phase of his career, blending his broad influences into one unique sound.

Throughout his career, Mark Hawkins has been involved in various musical scenes. In the mid '90s, he was known for playing esoteric techno records at Goa trance events in Wales. He also spent time with UK house heads like DiY and Smokescreen sound-systems around quarries, fields, clubs, and pubs in the Midlands.

In recent years, Mark Hawkins has released music under different aliases such as Juxta Position and Contactless. He has worked with renowned labels including Houndstooth, Aus Music, Mistress imprint by DVS1, Figure recordings by Len Faki, and Unknown To The Unknown. With this wealth of experience and diverse influences behind him, Hawkins is now ready to create a truly unique sound that combines all of his musical passions.

During a lost year that’s been anything but normal, it’s no surprise that Mark Hawkins has dug deeper, gathering his influences and ideals into a more experimental, yet relevant and cohesive whole. A New Normal represents a blossoming of Mark’s creativity; freed from the constraints of immediate dance-floor delivery they explore new territory, rampaging over a landscape of electro-funk, body-rocking house, experimental electronica, euphoric pop and reflective chill out all underpinned by his accomplished melodic sensibility.

Opening track ‘Can’t Let You Do This’ sets the tone perfectly, so stridently optimistic it will surely become a staple of 2021’s (hopefully) unstoppable deluge of summer parties, whether they’re held in fields to an audience of thousands or in the kitchen of a one-bedroom flat. 100 Percent’s dreamy, delayed vocals and classic House riffs are simply joyous, whilst the disco flavoured ‘No One Can Find Us’ demonstrates a twisted sound design that wickedly plays with perception and emotions. Lazy Sunday’s cheeky organ stabs and ‘You Bring The Sunshine’’s woozy melodies both revel in sun-drenched possibilities of a summer spent forgetting the past year’s hardships.

But there are other moments that perhaps point us towards a different future for Mark’s music. Shape The Way You Compromise marries Soca rhythms with merciless bass tones and staccato acid bleeps, chewing up echos of West London broken-beat via stuttering IDM styled edits perfectly sums up an album that challenges what ‘normal’ from now on should be.