Morgan King (born 28 March 1961) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and photographer.

Musical career

Born in Spitalfields, London, King's musical career began in 1979 as drummer for

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

band Illustration, who were subsequently signed by the

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

label, "

Some Bizzare Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of '' Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu E ...

" featuring on the

Some Bizzare Album ''Some Bizzare Album'' is the first album issued by Some Bizzare Records. It was released in 1981 as a sampler of the label's musical ethos. The acts were not signed exclusively to the label at the time. Information The album consisted of tracks b ...

. After several years immersed in the UK indie scene, King's musical direction changed considerably with the advent of house music in the late 1980s. In 1988, King moved to Chicago and started writing with

Kym Mazelle Kym Mazelle (born Kymberly Grigsby; August 10, 1960) is an American singer. She is regarded as a pioneer of house music in the United Kingdom and Europe. Her music combines R&B, soul, funk, house music, dance, and pop. She is credited as " The ...

and

Marshall Jefferson Marshall Julius Jefferson (born September 19, 1959) is an American musician, working in the house music subgenres of Chicago house and deep house. Biography Sometimes known as the father of house music, Jefferson was originally a record produce ...

on Mazelle's first album, ''Crazy'', which was released the following year. In 1989, King joined his third band, the Manic MCs who had a UK top thirty hit with their first release, "Mental". In 1990, King started collaborating with BTech record's Jan Ekholm after being introduced by DJ/production duo

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

, working in Sweden on a series of dance releases under various pseudonyms, including Technoir, Backbeat, Groovement, Bassrace and others. " Clubland" originally formed by Dave Rawlings and Ronnie Herel of Quartz with Jan Ekholm. During the first album Quartz left and the two remaining members were joined by Zemya Hamilton on vocals. Clubland recorded three albums, winning a Swedish Grammy for their second album ''Adventures Beyond Clubland'', plus received three

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

s. Together they also topped the US

Billboard Dance chart Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

three times with "Lets Get Busy", "Hold On (Tighter to Love)" and "Hypnotized" respectively. It was also during this period he recorded his solo record, the Balearic anthem "I Am Free". In 1991, Kingn partnered with Nick Hook to form Om records in London and the band Soundsource, who subsequently achieved success with the House / rap track "Take Me Up", later recycled by "Lock 'N Load" for their 2000 top ten UK hit "Blow Ya Mind". This single was followed up by the 1992 club hit "One High". Again, King started writing and recording under a variety of pseudonyms at Om including, Al Hambra, VFN Experience, Om and Obiman. Obiman went on to feature on the seminal Cafe Del Mar compilation series. On the same album he also co-wrote and produced José Padilla's first solo recording "Agua". Around 1994/1995, King took a break from the music scene, eventually resurfacing in 2003 to co-write Trybe's "Sarah Said" with

Fragma Fragma are a German vocal trance music group, originally comprising three producers. The group was successful in the early 2000s when they released several singles that charted successfully across Europe, especially the United Kingdom and Irel ...

. In 2007 he opened his Accidental Music label so he could make his archive available in the digital realm for the first time, and to collaborate on new dance projects. Also around the same time he became a professional photographer after he was invited to do a one off project in Iran. To date he is still working as an artist releasing solo albums and playing live, plus since 2012 he joined

Lene Lovich Lene Lovich (; born Lili-Marlene Premilovich; March 30, 1949) is an English-American singer, songwriter and musician. She first gained attention in 1979 with the release of her hit single "Lucky Number", which peaked at number 3 on the UK Singl ...

as part of her band.

Selected discography

Morgan King

;Albums *''Grains & Grams'' (2016), Accidental Music *''Old Skin'' (2019), Accidental Music ;Singles and EPs *"I'm Free" (1991), BTech Records *"I am Free" (1993), Om Records *"I'm Free" (1998), Excession Records *"I'm Free" (Anniversary Edition) (2011), Accidental Music *"I'm Free" (Anniversary Edition 2) (2012), Accidental Music *"Boy Called George" (2012), Morgan King Media *''Zero'' (EP) (2012), Morgan King Media *"Breathing in Air" (2014), Accidental Music *"Grains & Grams" (2016), Accidental Music *"Alien" (2016), Accidental Music *"Sex Shop" (2018), Accidental Music *"Janet & John" (2018), Accidental Music *"From The Fade" (2021), Accidental Music *"Beautiful Miserable" (2021), Accidental Music

Morgan King & Lene Lovich

;Singles *"Retrospective" – 2018 Accidental Music

Morgan King / La Serrena

;Singles *"I'm Free" – 1992 Sony

With Clubland

(King / Ekholm / Hamilton) ;Albums *''Themes From Outer Clubland'' – 1991 *''Adventures Beyond Clubland'' – 1992 *''Secrets of Inner Clubland'' (Clubland featuring Zemya Hamilton) – 1995 ;Selected singles *"Let's Get Busy (Pump It Up)" – 1990 US Hot Dance No. 1 UK No. 86 *"Hold On (Tighter To Love)" – 1991 US Billboard "Hot Dance" No. 1, US No. 79 *"(I'm Under) Love Strain" – 1992 *"Come Rain Come Shine" – US Hot Dance No. 39 1992 *"Hypnotized" – 1992 US Hot Dance No. 1 *"Set Me Free" – 1992 US Hot Dance No. 1, US No. 90 *"Peace of Luv" – 1995 *"Gimme Love, Gimme All" – 1995

With Manic MC's

(King / Cottle / Hudd) ;Singles *"Mental" – 1989

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

UK No. 30 *"The Beat" – 1990 UK No. 96 MCA

With Soundsource

(King / Hook) ;Singles *"Take Me Up" – 1991

FFRR FFRR Records (sometimes credited as Full Frequency Range Recordings) is a dance music label previously run and founded by English DJ Pete Tong. Originally the dance music label of London Records, FFRR is currently a sublabel of Parlophon ...

UK No. 62 *"One High" – 1992 Om records

Obiman

;Singles *"Rising" – Om Records 1993 *"On the Rocks" – Accidental Music 2016 *"The Dunes" – Accidental Music 2016 ;Compilations *"On the Rocks" – Included on Cafe Del Mar Vol 1 album React Records 1994

With VFN Experience

(Nasty / King) ;Single *"Vol 1" – Om whites 1994

Morgan King & Max Julien

;Singles *"Lifetime of Understanding" – 2009 Deepsound Records *"Building A Dream" – 2011 Accidental Music

Morgan King vs Charma

;Singles *"Justify" – 2010 Accidental Music *"Justify" (Dirty Rhythm Syndicate Remixes) – 2011 Accidental Music

Morgan King vs Lyla D'Souza

;Singles *"I Want Now" – 2010 Accidental Music

Remixes

*Backbeat – "Love and Happiness" (Gasmatron mix) 1991 *Clubland – "Ride the Groove" (With Billy Nasty) 1992 *Clubland – "Hypnotized" (The Soundsource Seduction) 1992 *Alhambra – "Sonar Remix" (with Nick Hook) 1992 *MDA – "Take an E" (Roofon remix) (with Nasty / Hodgson) 1992 *Hypernature – Flow "The Morgan King mixes" (King Full Force Effect, Kingdub and Kingdeep mixes)1992 *Elimar – "Prosody II" (Morgan King Reprise) 2007 *Sami Dee – "Da Fly" (Morgan King Remix) 2008 *Max Julien feat Yohan Knight – "We're the Angels Alive!" (Morgan King Remix) 2008 *Marco Zappala feat Claudio Pinhero – "Wherever You Go" (Morgan King Remix) 2009 *Clubland – "Let's Get Busy" (Morgan King Remix) 2009

Compilation appearances

- 1981 (Illustration - Tidal Flow)

Some Bizzare Records Some Bizzare Records was a British independent record label owned by Stevo Pearce. The label was founded in 1981, with the release of '' Some Bizzare Album'', a compilation of unsigned bands including Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, the The, Neu E ...

*Trance 3 – 1993 (Morgan King – I Am Free – Soma Mix) Rumour Records * Cafe Del Mar – Cafe Del Mar Vol 1 – 1994 (Obiman – "On the Rocks", Co-Written and produced Jose Padilla's "Agua") – React Records *Sound of the Absolute – 1994 (I Am Free – Soma Mix, Soundsource – One High – Bump Mix, Alhambra – Alhambra – Otama Mix, I Am Free –

Leftfield Leftfield are a British electronic music duo formed in 1989 as the duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of the Rivals and A Man Called Adam). The duo was very influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s, wi ...

Escape From Da Da Mix, Obiman – Rising – Rosi Ryder Mix, Om – Older Brother From the Rock) * Northern Exposure –

Sasha and Digweed Sasha & John Digweed are a British DJ duo comprising Sasha and John Digweed. Digweed had been DJing for ten years before getting a gig at Renaissance where he met Sasha, who had been working the past few years in various acid house music clubs ...

– 1996 (I'm Free – The Full Length La Serrena Mix and Playdo's Minimalist Mix) Ministry of Sound /

Ultra Records Ultra Records is an American record label formed in New York City in 1995 by former PolyGram and Virgin Records executive Patrick Moxey. As of December 23, 2012, Ultra entered a global partnership with Sony Music, giving its artists access to ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

Worldwide – Singapore 1997 I'm Free (

William Orbit William Mark Wainwright (born 15 December 1956),"William Orbit." ''Contemporary Musicians''. Vol. 30. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2000. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 7 May 2017. Available onlinvia ''Encyclopedia.com'' known ...

Mix) –

* Sasha – Global Underground #009: San Francisco" – 1998 (I'm Free – William Orbit Mix) Boxed *GU Mixed – 2007 Sound Source "One High" Global Underground *Snapshot (The Singles) – 2008 Accidental Music *Cafe Mambo – 2008 "I'm Free" compiled by Andy Cato, Defected Records *90's House – 2010 – Accidental Music
Cafe Del Mar Essentials
– 2019 (Obiman – "On the Rocks"). *The Tears of Technology - 2020 (Illustration - Tidal Flow) - Ace Records
Cafe Del Mar 40th Anniversary
– 2020 (Morgan King – "I'm Free").

References

External links

Morgan King
(Official Website)
Morgan King
(Official YouTube Channel) * * Clubland US Billboard chart positions(from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

)
Accidental Music
(Morgan King's Electronic Music Label) * * * * * * * * * *
Illustration WebsiteTracksourceMorgan King PhotographyLene LovichThe Tears Of Technology
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Morgan 1961 births Living people English house musicians English dance musicians People from Spitalfields English record producers English male songwriters Musicians from London