Goldie, Dillinja, Ant TC1, und Diverge

Price was born on 19 September 1965 in Walsall, Staffordshire, England to parents of Jamaican and Scottish ancestry; however, he was later put up for adoption and spent most of his childhood amongst various foster parents and child-care homes. Prior to his music career Goldie was involved in several breakdance crews and also took up visual art.

His occupation as a graphic designer led to his acquaintance with Dennis McFarlane and Mark Clair, who comprised the drum and bass act, 4hero. He was commissioned by this group as an artistic consultant for their record label, Reinforced. While working for Reinforced he developed his skills as a producer and in 1992 made one of his 1st musical contributions, providing vocals on the Ajax Project track “Rufige”.

Later this year he was releasing material on his own, initially under the moniker Rufige Cru. Through this name he put out the recordings “Killa Muffin b/w Krisp Biscuit” and the “Dark Rider EP”. He adopted the moniker Metalheadz for the release of his single “Terminator”, but eventually swapped it for the alias Goldie. The track “Terminator” featured the technical innovation of “time stretching”, a technique characterized for extending the duration of a musical segment without compromising it’s pitch.

Goldie’s revolutionary recording processes were carried over onto his 1995 studio debut “Timeless”. This release included extensive use of jungle bass lines, breakbeats, and soul style vocals. The melding of these styles culminated in a complex but rewarding listen. “Timeless” was released as a double cd tallying in at 105 minutes and featured the 25 minute electronic symphonic title track as it’s centerpiece. The album received glowing reviews upon it’s release and has since been certified as a masterpiece within the d’n’b and jungle genre. It’s commercial outlook was also highly positive as it reached no. 7 on the UK Album charts and has since achieved gold status.

Proceeding his studio debut, Goldie issued a horde of singles and remixes. By 1998 he put out his heavily anticipated follow up “Saturnz Return”. This release was a moderate commercial success peaking at no. 15 on the UK Album charts and was strongly revered by select publications such as Pitchfork. This release was also a double disc set and opened with an hour long orchestral drum n bass piece. It was followed by several tracks, which showcased guest artists ranging from Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Anne Dudley (Art of Noise), David Bowie, Malcolm McLaren, Trevor Horn, and KRS-One.

A year later Goldie released his hour spanning EP “Rising Sun” and while it was deemed with positive reviews it failed to chart. Goldie shifted his attention to acting in the 2000s, appearing in movies such as the James Bond film “The World Is Not Enough” and the crime comedy “Snatch”. Goldie also worked on the film “Sine Tempus” and provided it’s soundtrack. After a 10 year wait Goldie released his 3rd studio album “Malice In Wonderland” under the alias, Rufige Kru and followed it up in 2009 with “Memoirs of an Afterlife”.

Growing up in South London during the 1980’s, Karl Francis fell head over heels in love with hip-hop both local and from across the Atlantic Ocean. That, along with the reggae, soul and rare groove music that he soaked up from events held in local parks to him made him want to create music. However, at first Francis was making musical equipment, apprenticing under anyone involved with it he could find to the point where he was creating amps and bass bins on his own by the time he was 15. From here he branched out into production, working with artists in his local scene and on his own material to the point where he was sometimes self-releasing two records a week. By the age of 23 he had 50 releases to his name, and that number was only going to get bigger from there.

With so much experience in self-releasing his records, rather than sign to a record label, Francis decided to create a number of his own own. While he remained as prolific as he ever was, none of them stuck until 1997, when he and his long-time collaborator Kevin King (otherwise known as Lemon D) formed Valve Recordings. Ever since then, Valve has remained Francis’ home base for his highest charting singles and his studio albums, the first of which, “Cybotron” came out in 2000 and the second a compilation called “My Sounds (1993 - 2004)” came out in 2004. However, Dillinja is a singles artist through and through, which has allowed him to release countless experiments with all forms of electronica and techno.

These have gone on to inspire multiple generations of artists from producers and DJ’s to legends like David Bowie and Bjork (both of whom have worked with Francis in the past). For anyone to have that kind of influence should be celebrated, and for being one of South London’s most celebrated musical exports of all time, Dillinja comes highly recommended.