C.J. Mackintosh ranks among the most visible DJs in Britain’s club circuit, having started out as one of Europe’s foremost hip-hop mixers and stepped into the spotlight through the short-lived success of M/A/R/R/S’s “Pump Up the Volume” before settling into regular house and garage sets at London’s Ministry of Sound. Although born in Paris, he was raised in London, where his brother first showed him the basics of DJing after both had begun acquiring records in their youth. The siblings operated a sound system as a sideline to their car-parts export company and staged parties built around rare-groove selections and early Sugar Hill releases. Mackintosh’s debut residency at the Flim Flam Club opened the door to creating megamixes for Serious Records. In 1987 he claimed the English title at the DMC World Mixing Championships and entered the Nasty Rox, Inc. production collective that Dave Dorrell had formed once Nellee Hooper left to join Massive Attack and Soul II Soul. That same year Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the independent label 4AD, convened musicians from Colourbox and AR Kane to produce a hip-hop and acid-house hybrid. Seeking leading scratch specialists, Watts-Russell recruited Mackintosh and the Nasty Rox team, yielding the M/A/R/R/S single “Pump Up the Volume,” which became a club staple, reached Britain’s Top Ten in 1987, and climbed to America’s Top 20 the next year. Although M/A/R/R/S issued no further material, Mackintosh’s profile enabled an immediate move into remixes; working with Dorrell he reworked tracks for C&C Music Factory, Barbara Tucker, Coldcut, Inner City, and Public Image Limited. His background in hip-hop also translated into successful midtempo R&B revisions for Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Sounds of Blackness, Sly & Robbie, De La Soul, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, and D-Mob. When he began mixing at the Ministry of Sound, the selections centered on house and garage. He issued several mix albums either independently or in tandem with Farley & Heller and Todd Terry, and his Love Happy project scored a 1995 chart entry with the anthem “Message of Love.” A widely reported disagreement with the venue led Mackintosh to resign his residency abruptly in 1996, though he continued to perform internationally. Subsequent mix releases included Trust the DJ: CJ01 in 2003 and Nervous House 20 in 2011.
