Introducing Fierce Angel
On the back of DJ Cruze’s blog post about Mark Doyle’s latest venture, I feel I should put my two pence worth into the topic (even if it is a bit late).
For those who are unaware and need a little education into the topic, sit down, keep quiet and listen in. Mark Doyle, in my eyes, is a legend. I know many people who idolise the likes of John Peel, Pete Tong and other musical pioneers but, for me, Mark Doyle has had a huge influence on my music tastes over the last 5 years or so and feel forever in his debt for introducing some of my all-time favourite tracks. He setup the Hed Kandi brand back in 1999, founding numerous club events around the globe and a catalogue of singles and albums that are still going strong in the house music industry. The instantly recognisable artwork by artist Jason Brooks has established a perfect style to compliment the slick selection of music involved in the brand.
Earlier this year, Hed Kandi was bought out from the Guardian Media Group by fellow dance music brand Ministry of Sound for an undisclosed fee. Initially, I wasn’t too happy with this takeover but since the changeover, Ministry have managed to maintain the same quality you expect from Hed Kandi and hopefully it will stay this way for a long time to come while I continue purchasing the album releases.
During this process, Mark Doyle left Hed Kandi to pursue his own career in a different form known as Tokyo Project. The initial problem he encountered was building up the Tokyo Project family having lost a lot of his reliable DJ friends to Hed Kandi (why would you leave the group you’ve learned to love over so many years?) Slowly but surely, DJs such as Eric Kupper, Mike Van Loon and Kevin MacFarlane gained interest and trusted Doyle’s instincts. The first compilation “Tokyo Project: The Collection” was launched just in time for Christmas but things just didn’t work out. For some reason or other, the project wasn’t as successful as expected and things came slowly to a hault.
But fear not - Mark Doyle is an optimistic fella and picked himself up yet again. This time around, he created another project called Fierce Angels. If the name is anything to go by, I’ve got a feeling this project is going to get some serious PR and, hopefully, more success than Tokyo Project. The first release is keeping in touch with its former guise by porting over some branding from Tokyo Project into the name “Tokyo Dance” (obviously hoping to grab the attention of fans who are not so in touch with the changeover).
Having purchased the album about a week ago, I can quite happily say the flavour is pretty much the same from the previous couple of projects and fans of Hed Kandi and Tokyo Project should feel comfortable with the latest offering. Mark has obviously maintained his friendship with Jason Brookes and asked him to create some new artwork for the release. More importantly, the tunes are from the same artists as before so expect good quality house music, new and old, as per usual.
Rather than being completely supportive of Mark in this project, I feel I have to bring in a little negativity to this “review”. Having visited the Fierce Angels website, I felt that there were certain areas that were lacking. I think it’s fair to say that the website was an afterthought of the compilation and club events but I think the website would have been improved with a little more attention to the content. The navigation gives the impression of a fully developed website but on further inspection, several of the pages are “under development” - poor practise when it comes to website development. If you don’t have the content ready, don’t put a link there. It’s simple enough, surely?
Don’t get me wrong - I think the website is very nicely designed and portrays the brand perfectly but it still requires a lot of work. Why is there a news section and a blog (neither of which have any content)? Surely these are the same thing on an entertainment brand? It’s not as if they need to seperate corporate news from friendly banter. I’m not going to go down the whole route of Web Standards neither but its shocking to see such a modern website built this year that is still built on 5 year-old coding practises. Rant over…
I wish Mark all the best in his latest venture and I will be a true advocate to Fierce Angels and its products. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it to many venues with the baby on the way but I’ll definitely be promoting the albums as much as possible through my Amazon shopping. Good luck Mark and here’s hoping (again) to a long future.
Nice post mate.
I agree that Mark is one of major players in keeping the funkier side of house music alive.
I think a lot of the Hed Kandi DJs were probably contracted in and hence couldn’t “switch sides” so to speak.
My spies also tell me that Hed Kandi DJs weren’t meant to be playing Tokyo Project tunes out on Hed Kandi nights!
Sounds a bit off to me if it is true. Hopefully Mark will continue to grow Fierce Angels into a major force in the funky house music world.
Cheers,
Marc
DJ Cruze
30 May 06 at 8:20 am
Hi Simon.
Thanks for your comments and support and criticisms believe me I need to hear what needs sorting out as much as I need to hear all the nice stuff.
A couple of corrections - I left Hed Kandi at the end of June 2005, at this time I was joined by 5 of the original Hed Kandi office staff, Jason Brooks and 5 of the original DJ’s. We added additional DJ’s over the following 6 months, so I did have alot of support at the beginning. what followed was a long and painful court case that you will find written up on the internet and it’s best that I don’t comment on it. The result was we won the battle but lost the war .. the company was left with a massive legal bill and now finance and I had to make 3 of the office staff redundant in December.
After this I had to take stock of the entire situation and decide whether to go it alone or join another company. It was also around this time that GMG sold Hed Kandi to Ministry. I relaunched a new company funded by my savings and the assistance of independent label All Around The World. Since then we’ve released Tokyo Disco and Beach Angel is out on June 19th.
The website is definitely a work in progress and wouldn’t have existed at all without the help of Rehab Studio. We could never have afforded the sort of site we wanted but Rehab have taken this on as a portfolio project and the work is ongoing. There will be massive changes over the next 4 weeks but the initial job was to get something up on the web.
Thanks Again
Mark Doyle
Mark Doyle
5 Jun 06 at 11:55 pm
Was down at the record store and found Fierce Angel, I thought it was another new sister label from Hed Kandi (like Stereo Sushi). Thanks Simon for telling what’s going on with Hed Kandi. Is a dissapointment for sure but it will all be good. Fierce Angel has a good start. Go Mark!
Hall
27 Nov 06 at 4:11 am
First of all Simon, loved the content of this blog. Being from Canada, Electronic more over so, House music is a rarity over here. The only access we few house music fans have down here, are the # of minuscule clubs that “may” play good house tunes but more than none, its the internet that has allowed us to gain access to the knowledge, interest and love for the music. Hed Kandi was my one stop access to funky house, disco, twisted disco. After the takeover, they remained to keep the rhythm going -however, the lack of Mark’s presence was felt throughout the series. Knowing HK didnt feel “original” anymore. I decided on looking for alternatives, and came upon Fierce Angel, to my surprise it belonged to Mark. I gave the Fierce Angel box set a spin and lo and behold I was back in the original HK groove!
Mark, I’d like to congratulate you on the new label and most importantly on your perseverance. Your actions gives us house music fans the drive to do the same, both through the music and in our everyday lives. I was especially blown away that Mr. Brooks continued his successful box art! (I am a partial fan of the new style on the HK series, not fully as the original) His art definitely portrays the sparkling yet smooth nature of the albums.
Hope the series continues with success. I’ll be watching for a new release eagerly.
All the best in the New Year Mark!
Rick
28 Dec 06 at 12:41 pm
Hey Mark,
I think you fierce angels venture is great. I just got hold of the CD in our local music store here in the philippines. It’s great man. keep up the good work. More power!
coy
26 Jan 07 at 6:17 pm
Hi there, thought you might want to know that Fierce Angel is going strong in Portugal. As yourself and knowing Mark personaly I also believe he is a legend. Check the youtube to see the videos from our adventures here in Portugal.
Best, Luis Madureira
Luis Madureira
7 Feb 07 at 7:30 pm