Charles Webster (Peacefrog, UK)
Lil' Tony
Sat 14.10. @ Rose Garden, 22-04, tickets: 8 e
Now into his second decade as a true innovator in the electronic music scene, Charles Webster is one of the few real mould-breakers in an increasingly stale and predictable dance music world. He has sold over 100 000 albums worldwide without ever being considered "mainstream" or having a major hit single.
Charles Webster started making music at 15 in Sheffield electronic bands. After moving to Nottingham in 1984 he started working in studios, writing tracks for emerging hip-hop outfit The Rock City Crew, then with early techno/house bods T Cut F. He worked in studios with Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson and started DJing in clubs like Nottingham's Garage, Barracuda, Eden and Venus.
Webster became in-house engineer at Square Dance Studios. He began working as Sine, released three singles; all were well received. Sine became the starting point for the now-trademark deep/soulful/house sound that culminated in the booty-busting club classic "Belgium" under the name of Megatonk.
Involvement with the underground sound system scene led to the birth of the Love From San Francisco label. Charles explains, "One phone call was enough. I was out there and six twelve inches later I'm still out there, so to speak, in between regular visits to Europe to record, DJ, remix and feed the cat." On return to Britain in 1995 he started Remote, a kind of a British, San Franciscan label concentrating on deep, funky, atmospheric grooves.
Charles has DJ'd in many many many countries. He was nominated by ledgendary DJ Harri (Sub Club) as favorite DJ in DJ Magazine's top 100. He toured relentlesly with Presence all over the place through 1999, taking the Presence sound on stage with a full live band. Presence album got 11 out of 10 in DJ Magazine, album of the month in just about all the others, selling over 50 000 copies and voted best of year in lots of mags.
2002 saw worldwide acclaim and success for his first album under his own name, "Born On The 24th July" (Peacefrog/Statra). Perhaps the closest thing yet to a full depiction of Charles's musical vision, it is a deep yet uplifting, soulful, diverse collection - and makes for a truly coherent album, rather than a patchwork of club tracks and fillers.
A remixed version of "Born...", featuring such leftfield luminaries as Herbert, UFO ,Theo Parrish and Pepe Braddock, was released to acclaim in late 2003. Currently, new Presence demos are being recorded, and more releases are lined up for the much-feted Miso Records (including the return of the Furry Phreaks moniker), so you'll continue to hear a lot more from Matlock's finest export.