Headline DJs
The Freestylers are all about moving your feet as the world discovered when the band's first album, We Rock Hard rocked dancefloors worldwide in 1998. A blast of sheer sonic exuberance nailed to the phattest beats and rhythms around, We Rock Hard was proclaimed one of the last century's most dazzling, dizzying debuts. One long party and 500,000 album sales later, the band are about to drop their third album up on Brighton label Against The Grain.
Freestylers producers Aston Harvey and Matt Cantor got together in 1993, through talking about the music they were into - electro, breakbeats, Afrika Bambaataa and the whole old school hip hop culture. But it wasn't long before they took their obsessions into the studio, running off what would eventually become the Freestylers' first U.K. single, Drop The Boom. "We're into really instant music," says Aston. "Too many dance artists are making jazz albums, because they feel it's the mature thing to do." And the upshot of that is - "there are plenty of great home listening albums. But not enough proper party ones." And for the Freestylers, proper parties are what it's all about. "A lot of the stuff the media will hype about, I don't personally think rocks the dancefloor," Matt continues.
The Freestylers took off fast on the Freskanova label before signing to Against The Grain where they released a string of singles under their Raw As F**k pseudonym. "We came up with the new name, because it was brash and would stand out and also because the tracks we were doing sounded really raw" explains Aston. "It was only meant to be a one off and now it's turned into our best album. Because we were working under a pseudonym we were judged purely on the quality of the music" Indeed all three Raw As F**k singles reached number one in DJ magazines Breaks & Beats chart. And to cap it all off, they were named as Best Newcomer at the international Breakspoll Awards 2003. The singles will all feature on the Freestylers album which is provisionally titled Raw As F**k. The album takes in a range of styles without compromising the Freestylers dancefloor credentials. Featured vocalists include Onallee (Reprazent), Million Dan (Demon Boyz) and newcomer Julie T who lends her angelic tones to two tracks.
Source: Coda
