After hearing this week’s salute recipient’s music for the first time, back in what was probably somewhere between 2006/7, on the ‘Therapy Session 3’ mixtape, mixed by the legendary Noisia – i was immediately entranced by the savagely rugged, 2 step, clanging snare-ridden beats for which he became so well known during that golden period of Neuro/Tech Drum & Bass.
Famed for being notoriously hard to find on the internet because of the extremely commonly used word he chose for his DJ/Producer name, AUDIO has gone from being one of the more obscure niche artists in the scene to a RAM Records front runner.
His newest productions on the aforementioned label have got a hell of a lot more commercial appeal than those on his first LP, ‘To The Edge Of Reason’, on Dylan & Tech Itch’s Tech Freak Recordings. To say that these were some of the most technically impressive productions in the history of ‘Dark Drum & Bass’ would not do him a disservice – a truly sinisterly distinctive style that many have tried and failed to imitate down the years.
After the release of ‘TTEOR LP’ and an earlier string of releases on Freak, Subtitles, RUN DNB, Habitat & G2 amongst others, Audio was picked up by Optical’s Virus Recordings for his next 3 LP’s. The first of which, Genesis Device, garnered critical acclaim from far reaching corners of the dance music world and the link up with Virus certainly counted for a lot with regards to launching his name into the spotlight. To this day some of his most popular work can be heard on this album, ‘Collision’ & ‘Jibba Jabba’ are notable examples. From this point on it was clear for all to see that Audio had set off on a slightly different path than he had been on for the first 6 or 7 years, adopting and genuinely pioneering the Neurofunk sound which by this point had become very popular.
Singles on Barcode Recordings, Rise Audio, Virus, Bad Taste & Renegade Hardware would precede his ‘Soulmagnet LP’, before an EP on Black Sun Empire’s Blackout Music and 2014’s ‘Force Of Nature LP’, again on Virus.
Later that year RAM Records would announce his exclusive signing – which was greeted with scepticism from certain sections of the D&B faithful, however he answered the critics in emphatic style with his debut RAM EP, ‘Nil By Mouth’, which kept true to his sound when many said it would be end of Audio as we knew it.
https://www.facebook.com/AudioUK/
https://twitter.com/AudioPXLFST
https://soundcloud.com/audiofreakcult
YOU CAN CATCH THE ‘WEEKLY SALUTE ROUNDUP’ ON THE MONTHLY INFIDELITY RECORDS SHOW, UJIMA 98FM, 7th MAY @ 10:00PM – 00:00AM.
Listen to the latest Infidelity Records show here: https://goo.gl/EGpwhl
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BLOGGED BY LAURIE @ SAFETY IN NUMBERS