"When we DJ it's not a trainspotter
type thing, it's more to do with the
party attitude. Most people who
want to go out and dance will, you
know, dance...I don't think the
punters really give a shit"
B I O G R A P H Y
Dublin
1988. Neil Higgins and Rory Carlile are having their brains fried by an
intoxicating mixture
of Acid
House, the Mondays, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B & Rakim, De La
Soul and The
Stone
Roses.Meanwhile in Sheffield, Leeds born musician and (soon to be) studio
engineer
Justin
Underhill, was discovering the joys of samplers and sequences as the first
wave of dance
music
swept Britain. Inspired further by a series of happy pill indulgences,
they simultaneously
head
to London to further their musical pursuits.
London
1993. Three years of parallel madness are spent in the capital amidst jobs
in various
second
hand shops and recording studios. With heads full of beatbox rhythms and
sounds, and
bedrooms
full of technology, the trio finally collide.
1994
sees the trio make their first vinyl salvos in the form of two EP's, 'The
Other Side' and
'Something
For The Weekend' which are released on their own Deep Into It label. It
is at the same
time
that influential freakbeat label Wall of Sound releases 'Give Em Enough
Dope Vol 1'. A
Beatniks
demo is sent to WOS guvnor Mark Jones and the unnamed threesome hook up
immediately.
First
release , recording under the name Rootless, is the 'Mental Spiritual EP'.
This is followed by
a debut
long player 'Rotten Wood For Smoking Bees' which has dance bible Muzik
enthusing "an
explosion
of instrumental collages which will have you scratching your head while
shaking your
booty".
Keeping
a healthy step away from the over applied 'trip hop' tag, they take up
the moniker Dirty
Beatniks
and in November '95 release 'Bridgin' The Gap EP'. The featured tracks
'Hypnotizin',
'Getting
Stupid', 'The Mythmakers' and 'The Source' took the group's original influences
and
created
a hybrid of up tempo breakbeat with gritty funky house. With grins as wide
as their Marley
roll
ups, WOS claimed they'd licensed the melange of mutant disco and splintered
funk from New
York's
Black Apple Label. The NME referred to them as "NYC bad boys" when in reality
they
were
concocting this bludgeoning groove beatfest from the humble surroundings
of Crouch End.
1996
and the Beatniks complete their debut album 'One One Seven In The Shade',
a hard as you
like
collection of Detroit inspired rolling basslines, B Boy breaks and giant
samples which paid
homage
to those Nu Grooves and Fingers Inc. release that had provided such an
early source of
inspiration.
A "potent slice of late 20TH / early 21ST century polyglot eclectica" said
Echoes
whilst
Select rightfully observed it was "music to make you stagger".
1997
has heralded a monstrous year for the Beatniks. Remixes for INXS, Boy Eats
Girl, James
and
Mellowbag were matched by the 'Live At The Blue Note' 12" and 'Don't Stop
EP'. However, it
has
been the group's storming live shows that have made them an absolute top
attraction. From
dancefloor
wreckage at Back To Basics to much publicised mayhem on Wall Of Sounds
'Back to
Mono'
tour, the non compromising energy of live bass, scratching, guitars and
drummer, Steve
Ashmore,
who pounds the skins like Moon the Loon, have given the Beatniks a real
edge over
their
contemporaries. Their performances at both the Essential and Reading festivals
were
outrageously
good. The same could be said about any of their shows in Belgium, France,
Switzerland,
Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Ireland and Holland.
D I S C O G R A P H Y
S i n g l e s
Beatnik
Bounce CD Single/12"
Don`t
Stop CD Single/12"
Bridging
The Gap E.P. (12")
Latinhead
(12" Only)
A l b u m s
One One
Seven In The Shade (2 X LP/CD)
1 9 9 9 D A T E S
Sat 27th March
Alvin C /Rory Beatnik
Front Page ,Belfast
,UK
Sat 16th May
Strike Boys /Neil
Beatnik
Hirsch ,Nuremberg
,Germany