a guy called gerald
Breaking Beats Since 1988.
About
A GUY CALLED GERALD
An iconic name in dance music, A Guy Called Gerald stands out for consistent innovation, excellence and refusal to compromise. A Guy Called Gerald kick started Europe’s acid house frenzy releasing the first UK acid house record, the ’88 classic ‘Voodoo Ray’ and 'Pacific State' and went on to lay down the blueprint for jungle / drum n bass.
Nine albums and 25 years of independence later, he continues to push the boundaries of electronic dance music touring worldwide bringing his "true school" flavour to a world overloaded with pop pap.
Although his remixes are relatively enviable including the likes of David Bowie, Cabaret Voltaire, Black Uhuru, Finley Quaye, Lamb, Tricky and The Stone Roses, it is Gerald’s own productions and refusal to plough anyone’s furrow but his own which has marked him out. A Guy Called Gerald is responsible for the birth of British dance music as you know it today and continues to explore what is possible both in the studio and in the club with his "Live in Session" performances.
Since 2012 he has been working on a side project with Graham Massey (808 State) called REBUILD performing live jams on the Roland machines. “How Long Is Now” was released on Bosconi Records in 2012. A live album Silent Sound Spread Spectrum followed from the Society of Sound Series – a collaboration between Bowers & Wilkins and Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios in 2013.
In 2017 he continues to be in demand worldwide with his Live In Session shows using a vast patchwork of past, present and future experimenting effortlessly between early acid house through abstract tech breaks into dreamscapes of futuristic oscillations.
At Glastonbury Festival this year he will return to perform with Funktion One’s Experimental Soundfield – a six stack Ambisonic full-sphere surround sound technique that is ‘capable of recreating accurate three-dimensional sound stages from original recordings’.
TOUR
DJ MAGAZINE ON THE INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SCENE FROM ACID HOUSE TO DRUM AND BASS
“Nobody else has redefined it so much with the character and soul of Britishness, creating music for both the feet and the head, and indelibly altering our cultural landscape.“
A Manifesto
True School
Original Art Form Of Electronic Dance Music Production
My Art is the production of music, predominantly music for dancing, using technology. One of my goals is to encourage inventiveness in a medium that has no boundaries.
What is the “True School”?
True School is respecting the old and embracing the NEW – new melodies, new beats, new sounds, new rhythms, new harmonies, new textures.
True School is Deep Attention.
True School is pushing your Art forward.
True School is being true to yourself which encourages others to be true to themselves.
True School is dancing only when you feel it.
True School is knowing louder is not necessarily better.
True School is knowing bigger is not necessarily better.
True School is respecting your audience.
True School is knowing the roots of the music you’re producing.
True School is knowing that the music and the dance floor is more important than the DJ. This is not a spectator sport.
True School is demanding good sound.
True School is not ripping off the Old School.
True School is not remixing without permission and putting it out into public domain.
True School is not faking it but making it.
True School is not fetishizing the machines or the format. This just distracts from the content.
True School is taking yourself seriously and having fun. If you really feel the music, you feel serious about it and what you feel is pure, unadulterated fun.
True School is not going through the motions with hands-in-the-air fake fuckery.
True School is not being afraid to play original tracks.
True School is not trying to make fast cash out of old hit records or borrowing other people’s names to make yourself known.
I openly discourage throwaway DJ-based music production as it stands today i.e. taking large chunks of other people’s music, illegally or not, looping it, and adding a few beats / percussion / vocals over the top and calling it your own track without crediting the original artist and THEN swearing vinyl is the saviour of music meanwhile they starve the original artist.
It seems to me that the dance music industry, when it comes to inventiveness, is stuck in it’s own loop and the groove is getting very tired.
This Art is being lost to money grabbers and fakers. I welcome comments and discussion.
Welcome to the True School.
A Guy Called Gerald
