Kevin Foakes was a big influence of mine towards the end of the 90’s although it wasn’t until a few years later that I joined the dots together and realised how many of my favorite things he’d been involved in.
Under the Strictly Kev pseudonym, Foakes was part of the original DJ Food line up alongside Patrick Carpenter (PC) and Coldcut’s Matt Black and Jonathan More. A friend of mine picked up Refried Food sometime in 97 and it was following up on the remixers there that led me to the likes of Autechre, Fila Brazillia, Luke Vibert and Mathew Herbert. Shortly after, I discovered the Blech II mix that he and PC had put together, which for me still stands as one of the best examples of what you can make of a mixtape (look at that tracklist!).
Alongside the music and DJing, Foakes has delivered some seriously tasteful artwork as graphic designer at Ninja Tune. Over the years, he’s created a visual profile that only long term realtionships like this or The Designers Republic & Warp seem to yield.
I recommend you spend some time exploring the history of projects on his site. If you’re into digging for good stuff you may have missed, the connections to be found there are certainly worthy of investigation.
