London Elektricity
London Elektricity is the name of a British music project. It is best known as a live drum and bass act , but its music also contains influences from jazz , funk , soul and breakbeats .
history
London Elektricity originally consisted of the duo Tony Colman and Chris Goss and was founded in 1996. Colman and Goss are also considered the founders of the record label Hospital Records , under whose contract London Elektricity is also.
In 1999 they released their debut album Pull the Plug on the Hospital Records label. Although this album features contributions from studio musicians who have performed with double bass, brass, electric guitar, flutes, strings, and jazz singer Liane Carroll was involved in two tracks as a singer, the LP was essentially a studio album by the producer and DJ duos Colman and Goss.
In 2002, Chris Goss retired to focus on managing Hospital Records. This made London Elektricity a solo project by Tony Colman. The second album Billion Dollar Gravy was released in 2003. During the work on the album, the studio musicians involved formed a band. Colman decided to have them perform as a live act. In addition to Colman, the line-up consisted of Andy Waterworth , Landslide , MC Wreck , Jungle Drummer , Liane Carroll and Robert Owens . In 2004 they released a DVD called London Elektricity: Live Gravy.
In 2005, the third studio album Power Ballads was released with the same line-up . London Elektricity announced on December 2, 2005 at Pressure (drum and bass event at the University of Warwick ) that there were no plans for future live performances. In support of this announcement, London Elektricity was also endorsed by founding member Chris Goss, who appeared on stage. Tony Colman has been pursuing London Elektricity as a solo project since 2006 ; under the name he appears as a DJ and plays drum and bass. Liane Carroll received the BBC Jazz Awards Best of Jazz Award in 2005 and has since enjoyed a successful career as a solo jazz singer. Ben Nguyen has been at the mixer for the band since 2007 .
Tony Colman hosts the Hospital Records Podcast produced by Matt Riley on Hospital HQ . The podcast publishes productions from Hospital Records. The podcast also includes drum and bass music from around the world. The Hospital Records Podcast was named Best Podcast at the BT Digital Music Awards. Each show on the podcast has approximately 30,000 downloads. Artists who are under contract with Hospital Records also appear regularly in the podcast, e. B. Logistics .
In 2007, London Elektricity won the Xtra Bass Award for best live act, although there had been no performance with the band for two years.
In September 2008 the fourth London Elektricity album called Syncopated City was released. The previous month was especially distinguished by its Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1. In 2011 the fifth album called Yikes! . In November 2015 the sixth album, Are We There Yet? .
Influences
On his Myspace page, Tony Coleman lists Talking Heads , Fela Kuti , Kraftwerk , Brian Eno , Led Zeppelin as influences. Music styles such as jazz , soul , latin , dub , rock and punk are represented in the songs of London Elektricity. Examples are Rewind, Attack Ships on Fire, Southeastern Dream, Do You Believe (and its dub version Dub You Believe ), Main Ingredient, Remember the Future, Round the Corner and Song in the Key of Knife (with characteristic double bass - Running ).
Discography
Studio albums
- 1999 - Pull the Plug
- 2002 - The Waiting Room
- 2003 - Trillion Dollar Gravy
- 2005 - Power Ballads
- 2006 - Medical History
- 2008 - Syncopated City
- 2011 - Yikes!
- 2015 - Are We There Yet?
- 2019 - Building Better Worlds
Live albums
- 2004 - Live Gravy
- 2006 - Live at the Scala
- 2017 - Live In The Park
- 2017 - Live At Pohoda
DVD
- 2004 - Live Gravy
- 2006 - Live at the Scala
More genres
London Elektricity was best known on albums such as Medical History or Compilations such as Out Patients for its musical experiments with other genres, including acid jazz and breakbeats . Well-known songs are for example Incurable, Round the Corner (Acid Jazz Version), Theme From the Land Sanction or The Land that Time Forgot.
Other Projects
London Elektricity has created side projects, most of which are published on Hospital Records, and occasionally on other labels. The best known of these are the groups acid jazz , Izit , house music and Future Homosapiens . Both Tony Colman and Chris Goss are part of the Peter Nice Trio and Dwarf Electro .