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Drum + Bass took the UK dance scene by storm in the mid to
late 1990's and had seemingly peaked a couple of years ago after
having hit main stream public. Many of its fans had by then
jumped on to UK Garage and R 'n' B, making the genre more underground
once more, but not for long. London Elektricity and their latest
album 'Billion dollar gravy' prove that drum+bass is indeed
here to stay - and in some style! London based Hospital Records
are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to today's cutting
edge drum+bass and we managed to catch up with their main man
Tony Colman who is also the man behind London Elektricity. He
obviously likes to keep busy. Hospital Records are also home
to drum+bass artists such as nu:tone, High contrast and Cyantific
alongside breaks/garage artists such as Landslide + The Phuturistix.
Then there are the Hospitality club nights at London's Herbal
nightclub and a mainlining spot at this year's Big Chill festival
as well as other live appearances, which suggest that Tony likes
get out of the studio a bit too.
Steinberg's Nuendo system was used to complete the entire album
project after Tony first came across Nuendo around summer 2002.
His first reaction to Nuendo was that, "It felt great!"
and his second reaction was, "It sounded wicked!"
and he then went on to add, "It was just an instant feeling!
It is totally flexible and the automation is the best I've come
across. I didn't even consider any competitors as I had already
tried them all!" As far as the dreaded learning curve goes
Tony said, "It was pretty quick really and having been
a Cubase user the interface was very intuitive." Now he
uses his Nuendo system for composing, recording, editing, mixing
and mastering. "Everything actually.", he enthused.
When it comes to playing live, London Elektricity actually
play live. Not one note that you hear has been sequenced, which
is pretty rare among dance music acts these days. When asked
if it would be tempting to simply sequence the music and play
a couple of licks on top Tony disagrees in the strongest terms
possible saying, "I'd rather sit in a dark room and listen
to cheesy manufactured pop than sequence anything for my band!
No temptation whatsoever!". The Jungle Drummer, who keeps
time for London Elektricity is the backbone of the operation
and there's no click track in sight, which gives him the ability
to groove to his heart's content - something that would make
so many locked-to-the-click drummers very envious indeed. Needless
to say that all of his drum takes were recorded straight into
Nuendo. Rehearsals for the live sets seem like a good time all
around with Tony saying, "We enjoy our rehearsals very
much - if you don't enjoy it, don't do it! We still like spending
time together." Good job for the rest of us as if you're
into drum+bass and haven't seen London Elektricity live yet,
now is the time to correct that little oversight, as you will
not have seen a gig quite like it!
Tony is obviously someone with great integrity for his art
form. Even though many rap artists are now millionaires, in
the early days of rap it was dismissed as a fad that would soon
pass.
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Well, history has told us otherwise. Tony coins it well when
he says, "Rap is intrinsically vocal music and drum+bass
isn't! You need words and vocalists to make millions. Drum+bass
is here to stay though - we're now past the 'Is drum+bass dead?'
phase for good now. It's a genre with an eternal lifespan in
the same way that Hip-Hop, R 'n' B, reggae and so on are."
Who are we to argue with that! As for the general state of the
record industry and its relationship with drum+bass Tony says,
"Drum+bass has been through the major label flirtation
already and everyone apart from Ronnie Size regretted it. Drum+bass
is leading the way in terms of independent underground music
that has its business sorted out. We don't need the majors as
we can chart singles quite happily ourselves and we maintain
complete control over our catalogue - forever!". So, it
would seem that as well as having the music and production side
of things wrapped up Tony's also no mug when it comes to the
business of actually getting the finished product out there
without major compromises and unwise financial dealings.
When Tony first started making music it was on an Atari ST
and a Casio FZ10M sampler and now it's a dual processor 1.25
GHz G4 with Nuendo and various soft synths and samplers. "The
only possible drawback with Nuendo is that seeing as it's so
easy to do everything you need self discipline not to spend
too much time trying things out!" While on the road he
uses an iBook with Cubase VST 5 and Reason to get ideas together,
which will then be fully worked out and finished in Nuendo back
at the studio. Either way, Steinberg's Nuendo is and will remain
the heart of Tony Colman's musical world. And such a funky,
groovy and downright melodic world it is too.
More information on Hospital Records and London Elektricity
can be found at:
www.hospitalrecords.com
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