Recently a number of incredibly good records started floating across my radar from a label called Collective Rhythm Network. Each release featured some of my favorite artists such as Terrence Parker, Rick Wilhite and Javonntte. However, they also featured tracks from Toronto house legends like Ron Allen and D’Pac, which made them stand out even more in an ever crowded field of excellent contemporary labels. So after seeing this great start, I wanted to know who was behind this excellent series of records.
Run by Canadian DJs Geoff Adamson and Marc-Andrew Bird, the Collective Rhythm label is actually an outgrowth of the college radio show of the same namesake the pair have hosted in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada for the past 27 years and is dedicated to shining some light on both old and new tracks from an amazing roster of artists.
For those that follow dance music in Canada, the names of the Windsor/London (Hawtin, Acquaviva) to Montreal (Tiga, disco new and old, Mutek Fest and their associated artists) corridor will seem familiar, but while it may be just off that well known musical thruway, the City of Hamilton punches well above its weight, in terms of talent, knowledge and history of its lineage.
I got together with Geoff and Marc-Andrew in Toronto, Canada during the middle of yet another 2025 polar vortex to discuss their past, how they met and their passion for dance music in general, as expressed through both their radio show and their fantastic label.
Tell me how the Collective Rhythm Network radio show got started.
Geoff Adamson: I had started the original show in St. Catherines, Canada in the fall of 1998. For two years it went from 11pm – 4am at CFBU 103.7 FM in St. Catharines. We also had some good friends like Reece and Andrea that would join us. And then we took over Hamilton’s long running House Music radio show “The Groove” on CFMU 93.3 FM. Darcy Kelley ran “The Groove” for years and when it came time for him to pass the show on to someone else, he actually vetted people who wanted to play on that time slot. He knew Marc-Andrew before we actually met so that was a nice connection to Darcy personally and so it was almost like a covenant or a rite of passage to move into hosting that slot once it was presented to us.
Marc-Andrew Bird: Darcy would call up all the big labels like Strictly Rhythm, Yellorange, etc, which was basically unheard of for Community/College Radio in the Hamilton area at the time. And he would send back all of the radio reviews, the DJ promo type feedback. He’d do it via fax machine and he would also go down to Winter Music Fest in Miami every year and come home with all the new promos and play them on his show.
So for us, that’s what the show represented and we loved the guy for doing it, so I think we’re kind of trying to continue in the spirit of what he started.
Geoff: And Darcy wasn’t a major party attender either, he was just super dedicated to the playing and supporting the music via the show. And that’s sort of what we’ve tried to continue. We use the show each week to basically geek out a bit and see what each other has picked up, new release-wise, during the preceding week.
M.A.: And to circle back a couple of years, at the same time as Geoff did the radio show in St. Catherines, I was going to Hamilton and hanging out at a record shop started by some of our DJ mentors called “Sound on Sound,” which is like a Carl Craig reference. People like DJ Reece and Dj Shamps along with the store owner Ollie Barkovic (who also ran Steel City Records) were instrumental in exposing both of us to important records from Detroit and Chicago as well as schooling us on all the classic disco records from the past.
So I was hanging out there and at another store called Dr Disc and through them I got sort of welcomed into the Hamilton scene. And then in another connection, I had some friends who went to school at Western (University, in London, Ontario Canada) and so I started DJing parties in the London area.
Geoff: I had also started going into Dr Disc around the same period and initially, I had just bought a DJ mixer and started looking at 12 inches, a few years after Marc-Andrew had started. And around that time, Marc-Andrew had done a mixtape for our friend Alex’s mixtape series and it was just so different from everyone else’s that it really had grabbed people’s attention locally. Especially mine. It really resonated with me in terms of the type of music Marc-Andrew played and the overall vibe of it.
5 Mag Issue 220
Out Now
MADE IN CHICAGO: First published in 5 Mag Issue #220 featuring Jamie 3:26, Ryan Sadorus, Alexander Flood, James Duncan on Canada’s Collective Rhythm Network and more. Become a member for $2/month and get every issue in your inbox right now…
M.A.: Our friend DJ LX was running Signal Records out of Hamilton. They also did a mixtape series. So I did it for them.
Geoff: Yeah and it was all sorts of different stuff. It was really good and it really stood out. It ended up being this totally mythical DJ mix for me along with some others in the Hamilton area scenes.
M.A.: The guys at Dr Disc were also pretty important in my development as a DJ and in learning about the music in general as well. They pointed me to Chicago and Detroit. And because Dr. Disc was in the loop with London and Windsor, they were getting all the Intellinet stuff. So you would see all the Intangible releases, but they would also get Cajual, Relief, Dance Mania and all that stuff, you know, coming from Chicago along with the great Canadian labels at the time like Plus 8 and Toronto’s seminal Stickman Records. So they would tell me to check all of that stuff out. So I would.
Geoff: So I knew this mixtape was by “M.A” but everyone was like “Who’s this M.A guy!?” So we eventually met at what was the closing night of Industry (iconic Toronto dance music venue). My girlfriend at the time was saying “I know this guy that will be there, you two would really get along” and it turned out to be Marc-Andrew! And I was like “You’re M.A?! That’s amazing!” So it all sort of came together very quickly ha!
With a radio show already going, you both finally played together on Mitch Winthrop’s radio show right? The legendary Toronto radio DJ and house producer.
Geoff: I had sorta made friends with Mitch on the “Garagehousemusic” message board and I eventually met him in person during one of my various trips to Toronto to go record shopping. So we ended up sending him a mix and much to our delight, he featured it on his weekend overnight radio show “Keys to the House”.
So there was a bit of a Toronto connection for you both it seems.
Geoff: Yeah, I was coming up to Toronto and going to Play D (Toronto legendary record store) and I’d be saying “I didn’t know the name of this song but I heard it on the radio last weekend,” and I would be, like, trying to like sing the song or humming the track to Dave Cooper and he’d figure it out and then show me the record. And it would be something obvious, like “Hit and Run” or something ha! So I refined my knowledge through the process of listening to mixes and the radio and then digging for the records I was loving listening to.
M.A.: And so when the opportunity came about to host Darcy’s show, we naturally decided to extend our budding friendship and the rest is sort of history. Twenty-five or more years later now!
Talk to me a bit about the evolution of running a weekly radio show into running a now well-respected record label.
Geoff: We were about to come up to the 20th anniversary of the radio show. So I think we were kind of like, it’d be cool to do something to celebrate the 20th anniversary. I knew Rick Wilhite from Vibes Records. I met Rick around 20 years ago from record shopping trips to Detroit and being at the festival (DEMF and later Movement) and promoting the radio show.
M.A.: We also got to meet and know Mike Huckaby on those trips with stops at Record Time. He had known some of the people we really looked up to in the Hamilton scene during the ’90s, because they would be making trips to Detroit to not only buy records to bring back, but also promote their parties and raves that they were producing, things like the Eklipse and Storm parties, as well as doing runs for Stickman Records.
So by Mike knowing our friends from their flyers they had dropped off years ago, that helped give us a lot of credibility when we’d visit him at Record Time to go record shopping.
Geoff: So we learned how to run a label through that first release, by reaching out to Rick, then Terrence Parker and then of course Toronto house legend Ron Allen.
M.A.: We also reached out to and looped in our close friend and talented artist Drei to do the label’s artwork, which he was known for in the area, and he captured the vibe of not only the label but of the overall aesthetic we were trying to present.
Geoff: Much like with Mike [Huckaby], history repeated itself and we spent the day hanging out at Javonntte’s house to pick the tracks for his “Le Nouveau Riche” release, the second release on the label. It was just another great learning experience.
We also then began trying to reach out to D’Pac, as he was also someone we wanted to present as well.
M.A.: We finally were able to get in touch with Yogi, D’Pac’s brother (who partnered with his famed brother to release tracks and remixes under their “Soul Immigrants” moniker). So we arranged to license D’Pac’s unreleased mix of “C’Mon Now” by Infiltrate (the duo of Toronto house legends and DJs Carlos Clarke and Gene King) and start working on another release.
Geoff: Basically a follow up to the first release, Volume 2, with an additional track from Terrence Parker along with Chicago DJ and producer, the legendary DJ Slugo.
You then did some DJ events in Hamilton, correct?
Geoff: We started doing some events at a place called Sous Bas in Hamilton co-founded by Erika McMeekin. Again we were lucky to connect with someone who had a really strong vision and also had her own version of quality control, much again like how we assumed the reins of the original radio show in Hamilton with Darcy. She vetted everyone who went through there in her own way, which was cool. It was also helpful for us to be able to point her to our weekly radio show so she could check out our vibe and listen to what we were all about, or where we were coming from at least.
M.A.: Erika’s energy and her excitement sort of really got us going. So we did an event at Sous Bas with Rick Wilhite to coincide with the first release on the label.
Geoff: So because of that, we then were able to bring in a bunch of people we admired and respected to Hamilton, because we knew we had someone behind us that trusted our instincts. We were able to eventually book people like Mike, who was also one of the first artists that started doing radio drops for our radio show. He did about ten of them over the years.
M.A.: Yeah for sure. And then we did some more events with great people like Whodat, DJ Skeez and Ladymonix. It was amazing to be able to present all of these great people and artists.
Let’s talk a bit about your latest release, “Dionne – Feel Da Rain (The Unreleased D’Pac Dubs)” from 2024.
Geoff: The D’Pac mixes, there were two of them that weren’t released on KMS [in 1994]. We wanted to do another compilation and then Yogi presented us with the idea of using these mixes and shared them with us (as the one on KMS was cut short at only 3 mins).
M.A.: And so we licensed them, in addition to the mix we had already released. We’re really happy with the way it turned out. Those are excellent mixes that needed to see the light of day.
And now there’s a new 7 inch coming out, right?
M.A.: Yeah we are doing a 7 inch release with Whodat. Teri has done releases on labels like Uzuri and Workshop as well as being included on Theo Parrish’s K7! DJ Kicks comp from a couple years back now. So in addition to having her at two of the events at Sous Bas, it’s just such a natural extension to press a record of her material. We’re all really excited and it will be available in July 2025.
Geoff: Yeah, it will be really good – we both can’t wait.
Any plans to dip either of your toes into production as well, as far as future plans go?
Geoff: No, we’re content to just explore and introduce the music we both love to as many people as possible.
M.A.: And whether that be via the radio show or the label itself. We’re very content to just stay in our lane, which we both thoroughly enjoy.
Collective Rhythm Network is live every Monday 9-10:30pm EST at cfmu.ca or on 93.3FM in Hamilton, ON. Canada.
Don't Stay In 
Get on our guest list for news from 5 Mag and you'll never miss a thing. It's free and we don't sell your shit. 
There’s more inside 5 Mag’s member’s section — get first access to each issue for a few bucks a month.
