Submitted By: alek91

Genre: Breaks

Date of Set: Jul 2007

Filesize: 67.00 MB

Total Downloads: 26

The story begins in early 1995, when old friends Dave Wallace, Kieron Bailey and Brent Newitt who had all been producing under many a guise for a few years got together and decided to record a couple of drum and bass tracks. Shortly afterwards a demo tape arrived through the post-box at Moving Shadow and the seeds of a musical alliance were sown. The first single 'Dezires/Images' (Shadow 64) was released just three months later followed closely with a remix of 'Dezires' by DJ Krust and a mix of `Images' by the boys themselves (Moving Shadow's first ever non-drum and bass track, Shadow 64R ). Championed by the likes of Fabio and LTJ Bukem, it became a huge favourite down at Speed.

Brent sez, 'I can remember turning up at Speed for the first time, going down the stairs and the first thing I hear is LTJ Bukem playing Dezires!'

Aquasky's second single 'Kauna/Tranquillity' (Shadow 76) was released early in 1996 and remixed by Big Bud (Shadow 76R), followed swiftly by the strangely titled 'Cosmic Glue/Nylon Roadster' (Shadow 87) remixed by Total Science (Shadow 87R). Both received excellent reactions from DJs & press alike, and demand for the trios production and remixing skills continued to build - attracting keen interest from record labels big and small along the way.

The sheer level of demand for the boys production skills eventually enabled the band members to pursue individual musical projects outside of Aquasky. Brent and Kieron hooked up with producer Ben McColl to explore a mutual love of dirty lo-fi sonics, known as the 'Skin Divers' project (released through R&S's UK off-shoot, All Good Vinyl).

In the meantime Dave was working on the truly sublime 'Expressions' Parts 1 & 2 (Shadow 71) remixed by Tango (Shadow 71R ) for Moving Shadow.

Dave sez, 'This is alledgedly a rarity - £30 a throw in the record shops! If this is true drop me a line and let me know...'

Another release on All Good Vinyl - 'Future Realities' - followed. Simultaneously, Aquasky were busy remixing for many different artists like Galliano, EBTG, Sneaker Pimps, The Runaways and A Guy Called Gerald, managing to navigate their way through as many different musical styles as possible.

All this hard work and exposure put Aquasky firmly in the spotlight, and in the summer of 1997 the inevitable happened when they were offered a major deal and signed to Polydor. The first release on Polydor was the six track EP 'Orange Dust' (5378361) in late 1997. As a mixture of drum & bass as well as hiphop, this EP featured guest appearances from the likes of UK rapper Big Kwam and Big Shug from Gangstarr, pre-empting many of the current crop of hiphop influenced d&b tracks. Two remix 12's followed with mixes by The Spirit, Total Science and heavy weight `D and D' producers Da Beatminerz ( Polydor 571747-1 and 571745-1 ). The last release on Polydor was Strategy/Vortex (Stra 1), a drum and bass single released December 1997

After an ultimately unsatisfactory relationship with Polydor (but an amicable departure, lovely!!!), Aquasky are once again firmly back in the Moving Shadow camp and with five 12's (check discography section of this site) in 1999 and their first album 'Bodyshock' (Ashadow 17) released in March 1999 , they are poised ready to release 'Aftershock' their second album due out March 2000.

Aquasky have also set up their own record label named 'Passenger with the intention of releasing all styles of funky underground dance music.

**** August 2001 update ****
New labels launched. Auasky succesfully launched their own d&b label 'Sonix' late in 2000 and in 2001 another d&b label 'Incident' was launched. While Sonix is the main outlet for Aquasky d&b Incident is going to showcase other artists. Also Passenger has been re-launched in a nu-skool/break-step style. Check the news section to listen to all the latest releases.

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