Spectral Band Replication

Like most people who find themselves involved in the music business, Spectralband’s passion for music started at an early age, firstly through listening to his parent’s record collection then in the mid-1980s learning the basics of recording with a drum pad and keyboard with a MIDI sequencer. At that time the real fascination was in the manipulation of tracks and not creating music from scratch. Hours were spent attempting to learn how to mix on a portable dual-play cassette recorder learning what tracks could and couldn’t mix together and how to keep songs in time by slowing down the faster track by quickly pressing stop and then play again and creating ‘mix tapes’ by recording songs from the radio and pressing pause at the right time so that the tracks played back to back as seamlessly as possible… Spectralband’s weekends usually consisted of listening to pirate radio and learning the names of the tracks, labels and artists that were being played, which at that time mainly consisted of Chicago & Acid House shortly followed by the emergence of ‘Rave’ music. Too young to attend any of the illegal raves and warehouse parties Spectralband gained most of his knowledge of the music through radio. Although he never owned decks, Spectralband started collecting music on vinyl to listen to at home and by 1993 had a small collection of House, Hardcore, Techno vinyl which he would take to parties and youth clubs to play whenever he got the chance learning the basics of vinyl mixing mainly on belt-driven turntables (Soundlabs). It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that he got his first break on pirate radio playing under various guises on stations mostly based in East & North London. In 1999 a friend had just started putting on his own events and whilst out dropping off flyers stumbled on a newly opened record shop in East London. The store was predominantly stocking UK Garage and we’re looking to stock Drum & Bass but needed someone with knowledge of the music so the friend recommended Spectralband. After meeting with the owner he went on to co-run the store managing the D&B section. It was there that he met Shax who also co-ran the store and was managing the UK Garage section and a bond was formed. Unfortunately in 2003 the record shop closed down but Spectralband and Shax kept in touch and in 2007 Shax joined Rinse FM, then still a pirate radio station. Seeking a new experience Spectralband joined Shax on Rinse playing a mixture of Tech House & Minimal Techno and later teamed up with Jason H who was also on Rinse to form The Clairvoyants. Production was something that Spectralband considered more of a hobby but motivated by the switch in music and tempo started making music that could be played on The Clairvoyants’ show and in 2010 one of his tracks ‘Modern Day Slavery’ had been attracting a lot of attention from listeners and DJs alike and was released on vinyl & digital on Wonderland. As well as DJing across London The Clairvoyants held a regular show on Rinse from 2008-2013 right through the transition from pirate to legal radio station playing underground Techno and featured guests from the Techno scene which attracted a worldwide following and were even cited by some as being influential to them as Techno / UK Bass music artists and playing a pivotal role in bringing Techno to new audiences and making it popular again in the UK especially London… After leaving Rinse, Spectralband went on to set up an online radio station Séance Radio fronted by himself and The Clairvoyants and continues to work behind the scenes on another more established radio station. By the summer of 2013, having already experienced many facets of the music industry, Spectralband felt the time was right to realise his long term goal which was to start his own imprint and launched the Spectralband label through which he has released his own music and featured remixes from other artists. Both Spectralband as an artist and the label continue to evolve…