Tom & Jerry

Tom & Jerry are Marc Mac and Dego, the producers also known together as 4hero. The alias gave them a place for direct, sample-heavy rave records, with the early hardcore material developing into jungle built from soulful passages, ragga voices, chopped breaks and substantial sub-bass.

That contrast is the attraction. A warm musical sample can draw you in before the drums turn the track upside down, keeping the records useful to DJs without losing their character. Maximum Style and Air Freshner remain good starting points for hearing how the partnership brought those elements together.

The project belongs to the wider Reinforced Records story, but it has an identity of its own within the two producers’ work. Their exploration of jazz, hip-hop and broken beat elsewhere did not erase the urge to make something raw for the dance. In a later interview with Fact, Dego described returning to old Tom & Jerry sounds when writing This Ain’t Tom N’ Jerry as Cousin Cockroach.

Most of the original Tom & Jerry activity came in the 1990s, with further material appearing in later years. The records make sense as part of that long musical relationship rather than a disconnected side project. For a listener following 4hero’s more expansive albums, they reveal the same curiosity concentrated into a very different kind of release.