Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force is one of Mark Ernestus' projects. It released the album Yermande in 2016, playing a mixture of Mbalax and dub. Besides Ernestus, the line up consists of a griot clan of Sabar drummers from Kaolack in Senegal, along with guest Mbalax musicians and vocalists, including mainstays of the bands of Baaba Maal, Youssou N'Dour and other top Senegalese artists. Most of them were also part of Ernestus' 2012-2013 project Jeri-Jeri, a.k.a. Mark Ernestus Presents Jeri-Jeri. They are Abdourakhmane Fall, Assane Ndoye Cisse, Bada Seck, Ibou Mbaye, Laye Lo, Mangone Ndiaye Dieng, Mbene Diatta Seck, Modou Mbaye and Serigne Mamoune Seck.

Mark Ernestus is the founder of the legendary Hard Wax record store, which in 1989 laid the foundation for Berlin's electronic club music scene. He played a key role in establishing the Berlin-Detroit nexus, and started creating music as one half of Basic Channel (a.k.a. Maurizio), with its deep, immeasurably influential hybrid of dub and techno.

As Rhythm & Sound, the duo of Mark and Moritz von Oswald refined this signature sound alongside a range of vocalists — most extensively Tikiman (a.k.a. Paul St. Hilaire), besides reggae legends like Cornell Campbell, Jennifer Lara, Willi Williams and Sugar Minott. In the mid-nineties, BC set up Dubplates & Mastering, a mastering and vinyl cutting studio. It also launched a series of dub and reggae reissues drawn from the fabled Bronx-based Wackies label — ‘roots like Downbeat, sweet like Treasure Isle, mystic like Upsetter’.

In recent years Mark has remixed Tony Allen, Tortoise, Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit and Konono Nº1. Besides co-hosting the monthly Wax Treatment club nights in Berlin, he runs the Dug Out label — with Mark Ainley from Honest Jon’s in London — dedicated to lost reggae killers (following on from the Basic Replay imprint). Ernestus’ sets feature dub and reggae, mostly instrumental, from deep roots to militant steppers, roughneck electronics to digi minimalism, heavyweight doom to hardcore up-tempo. On occasion, he plays mbalax, and other West African dance music. Typically, Mark appears with Tikiman on the mic (as intro man, MC, singer), mixing with live effects and treatments, dubwise.
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