Shitmat

Operating from Brighton in England, the eccentric Henry Collins produces plunderphonic breakcore as Shitmat. His deliberately provocative stage name twists that of happy hardcore pioneer Slipmatt, while his sound exceeds even that precedent in manic intensity, stretching jungle and breakbeat hardcore to breaking point through constant insertions of pop hits, television themes, and fragments from countless other genres. Collins shows no hesitation in reusing the same samples or dancefloor tropes repeatedly, at one point constructing whole albums around a single recurring vocal snippet. He helped establish the Wrong Music collective alongside like-minded figures including Ebola, Chevron, and his one-time flatmate DJ Scotch Egg.

During the first years of the 2000s Collins began circulating CD-Rs of his productions, quickly attracting notice from Jason Forrest and Mike Paradinas. Paradinas added him to the Planet Mu roster, where his debut appearance came via the Ramones-interpolating 2003 single “Shopliftin’ Gabba.” The following year saw the arrival of his first album, Killababylonkutz, every track of which drew from Baby Cham’s “Babylon Bwoy,” already a staple a cappella among ragga-jungle producers. Later in 2004 came the equally outlandish Full English Breakfest, issued both on CD and as five separate 12-inch EPs containing additional cuts. Subsequent material appeared on Planet Mu as well as Death$ucker Records and Ad Noiseam, the latter including a split EP shared with touring companions Enduser and Bong-Ra. Under the alias Kyler, Collins also issued the ambient collection Pur Cosy Tales.

Hang the DJ, originally slated for Sublight, ultimately emerged on Wrong Music in 2006. Grooverider, a nod to the influential jungle selector, followed in 2007, succeeded by One Foot in the Rave in 2009. In 2012 Collins pushed the Shitmat concept to its extreme with Mash Hits, systematically reworking every track that had topped the U.K. singles chart across its then-sixty-year history. Over nine months he generated hundreds of remixes and mashups, uploading them progressively to SoundCloud, though numerous entries were later removed due to copyright claims. He subsequently retired the project, only to revive it in 2016 with the Bandcamp releases Roughneck Rarities and Killababylonkutz 2, before reuniting onstage with Enduser and Bong-Ra the next year.