EMPORER MACHINE

The Emperor Machine was born on last day of the last century spawned from a desirous and dirty relationship between an EMS VCS3 and a Roland System 100. The lust child that was not yet the Emperor Machine was abandoned at birth and spent a solitary existence in the backwaters of a county town, white noise and synthesizers its only source of company.

Dribbling with degenerate energy, it was inevitable that The Emperor Machine would soon come to the attention of the agents of DC Recordings, who are poised, ever ready to pluck any such mutated beast from the the drainage ducts of the musical sewer and cudgel them into their own sordid conduit.

Like the proverbial duckling that it never was the beast quickly ground down any resistance to its vile and apparent nature and thrived on the underbelly of the industry that could not speak its name.

The Emperor Machine forced its first offering through DC Recordings in 2004, the erotically charged and tantalisingly named “Aimee Tallulah is Hypnotised”.  Strengthened by the repsonse this garnered from a now salivating public, it embarked on a bolder series called Vertical Tones and Horizontal Noise, six powerful emissions that mutated into their own album-like shape.

The Emperor Machine is once again smearing itself over the studio, soon to unleash again in new and more powerrful ways…..

WHITE LIGHT CIRCUS

Dean Meredith’s White Light Circus is both a manifesto and a statement of intent. Demanding the immediate release of all robots from servitude, it is his hope that they will join his robotic army of rhythm, a million strong cohort conducted by his box of white light. The box of white light holds the magic that brings forth the fantastical sound of artificial intelligence discovering its soul, and when this harmonious broadcast flutters into perceivable sound waves, the light will shine, bringing transcendence to human-kind.

Growing up on a diet of ‘disco-funk-boogie-isms’ and taking inspiration from artists such as Thomas Leer, Began Cekic, Kebekelektrik, Yellow Magic Orchestra and Atmosfear, White Light Circus is a project of unashamed self indulgence. It is here that Meredith is able to develop ideas that lie beyond the parameters of his Chicken Lips and Big Two Hundred productions with Andrew Meecham, ideas that stem from his love of robots, their electro shuffle and the sound of the white light. Keep your eyes peeled but perhaps protected; the future is dazzling.

BIG 200

Big Two Hundred is Andrew Meecham and Dean Meredith, the Staffordshire based production team behind the widely acclaimed Chicken Lips project. Whereas their Chicken Lips alias finds them turning out fastidiously programmed dub-disco club joints, the sound of Big Two Hundred is as influenced as much by punk rock and no wave as by disco and acid house.

With Meecham picking up the bass guitar and Meredith getting behind the drum kit, their working process finds them recording extended live jams onto vintage tape, editing down the results and processing them as they see fit. With occasional live vocals and additional percussion and programming, this is purposefully raw music unafraid of grit and edgier themes. Whilst there are definite hints of an underlying polemic, they refuse to define a political agenda, preferring to let the challenges thrown up by their music reflect their position.

They claim that the name Big Two hundred has no particular meaning and that the project itself is not ‘necessary’ but might be somehow ‘important’, coming about simply because it was what they wanted to do at a particular time on a particular day. Such an oblique perspective perhaps reflects a reluctance to be typecast and a refusal to do or say what they might be expected to, a stand point that will keep their sound moving forwards in undisclosed directions.