A.R. Kane

Arguably the most criminally under-recognized band of their era, the British duo A.R. Kane anticipated virtually all of the key musical breakthroughs of the 1990s a decade before the fact, with the roots of everything from shoegazing to trip-hop to ambient dub -- even those of post-rock -- lying in their dreamy, oceanic sound. Formed in London in 1986, A.R. Kane were essentially the partnership of Alex Ayuli and Rudi Tambala; hailed in the press as "the black Jesus and Mary Chain" upon debuting the following year on One Little Indian with the single "When You're Sad," they moved to 4AD later in 1987 to release the follow-up EP Lollita, an impressively eclectic blend of gorgeous dream pop bliss and nightmarish squalls of feedback produced by the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie.

While at 4AD, label chief Ivo Watts-Russell suggested that Ayuli and Tambala team with roster mates Martyn and Steven Young of Colourbox, champion mixer Chris "C.J." Mackintosh, and London DJ Dave Dorrell to record a single fusing the rhythms and beats of classic soul recordings with state-of-the-art electronics and production. Dubbing the collaboration M/A/R/R/S, the resulting single, "Pump Up the Volume" -- a breakthrough effort heralding sampling's gradual absorption from hip-hop into dance music and ultimately the pop mainstream -- soon topped the British charts, the first 4AD release ever to accomplish the feat. Plans for a M/A/R/R/S follow-up never materialized, however, and A.R. Kane again picked up stakes, moving on to Rough Trade to begin work on their much-anticipated full-length debut.

The resulting album, 1988's 69, fulfilled all the promise of A.R. Kane's earlier work and more; cosmic yet funky, its liquid grooves immersed in waves of ecstatic noise, the record's mastery of atmosphere and mood -- in tandem with its nearly formless songs -- establish it as a clear antecedent not only of the nascent shoegazer sound but also much of the underground dance music to emerge in the years to follow. The duo's double-LP follow-up, 1989's i, was even more impressive in its scope, breathlessly veering from melodic dance-pop to eerie drone-rock to epic dub mosaics. And then...nothing: only three years later did the next A.R. Kane LP, Americana -- a handful of new tracks combined with past highlights -- appear on the Luaka Bop label. By the time of a proper follow-up, 1994's New Clear Child, the moment had clearly passed.

from Wikipedia:

A.R. Kane (or A R Kane or A.R.Kane) were a British dream pop duo consisting of Alex Ayuli and Rudy Tambala that formed in 1986. Their name was partially derived from their first names, the "A" in Alex and the "R" in Rudy. The duo hailed from East London. Ayuli and Tambala were also part of the one-off recording collective M/A/R/R/S, which included the group Colourbox, in 1987. Their song "Pump Up the Volume" became a surprise worldwide number one chart hit.

History

Critic Jason Ankeny describes A.R. Kane as "arguably the most criminally under-recognized band of their era," suggesting that the duo's innovate music was a seminal influence on later developments such as dream pop, trip hop, acid house, and post-rock. Their lyrics which frequently dealt with such topics as water/oceans, love, colours, childhood, and dreams were often surrealist. Their music was usually danceable, due in part to its strong dub influence, and ethereal.

Alex was formerly an advertising copywriter, one of the very few black creatives working in the London ad business (1983–1990). He started his ad career at JWT before moving on to TBWA where he was associated with the creation of two pan-European Lego tv commercials. The director of one of these commercials, Matt Forrest, invited Alex and his art director team mate to write a music video for Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy's track "Unkiss that Kiss". The music video was filmed inside and outside the historic L'Escargot restaurant in London's Soho.

Recordings

A.R. Kane began by releasing two 12" singles, each on a trend-setting U.K. indie label (One Little Indian and 4AD). The duo then released a string of singles and two ground-breaking albums on Rough Trade Records - 1988's sixty-nine and 1989's "i". Critics found both albums difficult to define, genre-wise. sixty-nine was more consciously rock-based, and its sound could be likened to the nascent shoegaze movement; "i" was more slick/poppy, covering a wide variety of styles over twenty-six tracks (ten of which were short noise interludes). "i" also spawned what is arguably A.R. Kane's best-known song, "A Love From Outer Space". Both albums achieved wide critical acclaim, particularly in UK magazine Melody Maker, where they were championed especially by critic Simon Reynolds. The 6-track rem"i"xes EP featured remixes of songs from the "i" LP, done by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins and by A R Kane themselves.

Rough Trade went bankrupt in 1991, hindering the band's momentum and leaving them label-less. In 1992, David Byrne's record label, Luaka Bop, released a 15-song U.S. retrospective of the band's work, entitled Americana.

After an early-1990s hiatus, follow-up album New Clear Child (1994) was not received as well due to a seeming lack of a coherent direction and a feeling that the ideas were merely re-hashes of works that were completed more succinctly in the earlier two albums.

A.R. Kane's first two albums were reissued in the U.S. by One Little Indian in 2004, and New Clear Child was reissued by 3rd Stone in 2000.

Post-breakup and influences

Since the dissolution of A.R. Kane, Tambala made ambient- and dub-based music with his sister Maggie under the alias Sufi and released the 1995 album Life's Rising on Caroline Records. Tambala is currently working for Ministry of Sound as Head of New Media, and has previously worked for Virgin Digital in non-musical related roles. He current records as MusicOne.

Ayuli was known to be a museum curator in the U.S. He put out releases under the name Alex!. In 2006, Ayuli contributed vocals on two tracks ("Soulsong" and "Passage") of the album "Primario" by the Mexican record label Static Discos artist Fax. He will also appear on Fax's forthcoming album, Zig Zag. Ayuli appears in Beautiful Noise, the documentary on the shoegazing music scene of the 1990s

Bands such as Long Fin Killie, Slowdive, Dubstar, The Veldt, Apollo Heights and Seefeel have cited A.R. Kane as an influence.