KingUnique with Bill Pettinelli, B.Original Nov 23rd

[djqwest]

King Unique

King Unique is the production team of Matthew Roberts and Matt "Watkins" Thomas, long-standing collaborators who decided to join forces full-time at the start of 2001 and make some 21st century noise. The result has been a series of diverse remixes and productions mixing funky and techy house elements, tied together with head twisting production.

From obscurity to four Essential New Tunes, a couple of Buzz Chart No. 1s and a pair of bona-fide Ibiza classics in twelve short months. Chuck in the solo releases and remixes as Mainframe,UBU and Watkins, plus live decks and FX sets at dozens of clubs (including Cream, Renaissance, Code, Ministry, Elements) and it’s not hard to see why the two Matts are a) happy and knackered.

Their drugged-up remix of Mutiny’s ‘The Virus’ seduced and battered clubbers in equal measure, making it one of the big club tracks of the summer. On a more soothing level the chilled yet hooky remix of Baz ‘Believers’ sound tracked more than one Ibiza sunrise. Meanwhile a quick name change and a killer vocal sample yielded ‘Dirty’ by Dirty, an Essential New Tune and Single of the Week in 7.

Highlights of the year include making Steve Lawler play Madison Avenue at Code; getting the chance to remix tracks like Chocolate Puma’s ‘I Wanna Be U’, Stylus Trouble’s ‘Sputnik’ and Foremost Poets’ ‘Moonraker’; doing the Essential Mix; hooking up with the Junior posse to make dirty (and Dirty) tracks. And then there was Cream in Tokyo – early morning earthquakes, Afro-Ken frenzy, tiny techno bars, pissed pole-dancing and the very first KU stalker - “93!-93!-93!-93!â€.

Rounding the whole thing off, the countdown to New Year set at Tribal Sessions.

Twelve more months like that please…

Matthew Roberts

Matthew Roberts got the house music bug at the age of 15 whilst supposedly studying for his High School exams. A rather more useful education was gained by taping Manchester’s Key 103 house show every week, and he soon became wise in the ways of house (while failing most of his grades). As soon as he looked about old enough, he visited the now legendary Hacienda, staying with older brother Leon who was working in a Mancunian artificial limb unit at the time. Things got pretty twisted, but there was of course, no going backFor the next couple of years, life pretty much revolved around The Hac every Friday, with a Thursday weekend warm-up at a small club in Chester, where Matthew cut his DJ’ing teeth. The main crew there included fledgling decks-wizard DJ Lottie, a clothes shop assistant called Darren Hughes who would later start some club in Liverpool called Cream, a gang of blokes with a drum machine who were thinking of calling themselves K-Klass and various other social misfits and deviants. The excitement and hedonism of that period was so intense that Matthew even got a normal job for a short time to get the cash necessary for the Friday night out. The horror of 9-5 life quickly led him to the realization that he just had to make music for a living. One of his proudest achievements is the fact that he has not had a proper job since 1989.

After Manchester went gangster-city, Leon moved back to Wales. Both brothers spent every penny on vinyl, being connoisseurs of finest US house, silly Italian party music and elusive mutant Hac tunes. Unsurprisingly they soon found themselves being turfed out of the parental home to “make that bloody racket somewhere elseâ€, thus commencing a long career of vinyl hording, music obsessing, and weed smoking. Matthew’s initial hook up with cheeky ticket-tout James Barton’s Olympic label spawned some innocent DIY house mostly made under the Bottom Dollar name, very much influenced by the heroes of the day such as Todd Terry, MAW, Kevin Saunderson, MK, and Slam. These were good times.

In 1996, after 3 years of spinning at Olympic records little offshoot club, Cream, Bottom Dollar became Funk Force. Leon had come on board, and the brothers’ studio skills had developed nicely. Increasingly bored by the corporate sound of the UK record labels, the brothers set out to subvert the cause, greatly inspired by the almost punky attitude being dished from Chicago label Relief and the then on-form Armand Van Helden. Their first tune, “Mind Games†was a dark n’ sleazy Twilo throbber signed to Ultra Records. This picked up support from dark house DJ’s of the time such as Terry Farley, instantly dispensing with the Bottom Dollar vibe. They remixed for the likes of Jay Williams (Testify), U2 (Mofo), Way Out West (Ajare),Olive (You’re Not Alone), and the Sneaker Pimps (Post Modern Sleaze). The Funk Force brothers were now getting cheeky and more creative, making everything in their own crappy little studio, and soon scored a biggie with Revival 3000 “The Mighty Highâ€. This was a dirty, raw and ruthless cut up of The Mighty Clouds of Joy’s “Mighty Highâ€, a 1975 down-home gospel LP track. They cut a slate, and passed it on to Doc Marten who broke the record all by himself.

So, those were the good old days. Now it’s 2002, and Leon has decided that he’d rather live in San Francisco, where the weather is warm and the KFC actually tastes of chicken. Matthew is now spending all his time making records and DJ’ing with Matt Thomas as King Unique and Dirty, and with Leon as Ubu.

Matt Thomas

Matt 'Watkins' Thomas is a studio junky who has spent the last few years releasing dirty tech-house under the Watkins name, and tougher more progressive tracks as Mainframe. 1999's Watkins 'Heavyweight EP' found favour with Pete Tong, DJ Dan and Norman Cook (who was still playing it 18 months on at his Brighton beach bash). More recently Nick Warren, Deep Dish and Pete Tong championed the eponymous Mainframe single on Fuju, and the Mainframe remixes of Stylus Trouble 'Sputnik' led to howling, screaming and gibbering in clubs across the globe. Any attempt at providing an organized, coherent personal history is doomed to failure, due to the disorganized and incoherent events that have made up Matt's career to date.

However, the following may help:- Matt entered the glamorous world of showbiz when, shortly after discovering a corpse in Leicester, he spent his entire year's rent on a synthesizer. His first taste of success came providing the music for an animation shown on BBC children's TV classic Take Hart. He still hasn't received any royalties.

He spent the best part of the 90s working in various Liverpool studios where he helped nine million identical sub-Las guitar bands record nine million identical jangly guitar tracks. In his spare time he kept his underground house credentials intact by not setting foot in Cream even once, little knowing he'd eventually be booked to play there. Shortly after catching a final ferry across the Mersey and moving out into the wilds of Wales he acquired the Watkins name, taken from both a 1950s tape-echo and from a small furry cat known as Mr. Woo. In addition to his Watkins and Mainframe alter egos Matt releases collaborative tracks under a variety of different guises including King Unique, Fatty Acid and Headhuntaz. He has also worked as a programmer and engineer with various remixers, adding his unique 'bonus bleeps' to dozens of releases. He has more recording gear than he knows what to do with, but wants more. Matt Thomas can also occasionally be found damaging eardrums in good, honest northern clubs with his live filter-abuse sets.

For the KingUnique Discography click here:

http://www.discogs.com/artist/King_Unique

For the KingUnique website click here:

http://www.kingunique.com/

For more information on B.Original the show click here:

http://newyork.metromix**********/forum/thread-view.asp?threadid=525&posts=46&start=1

[djmikebugout]

MUSIC PLEASE:D