69db

At the age of 17 69db left his home on the west coast of scotland and moved to London to play drums for his psycadelic rock band. The year was 1988 and was the year that Acid house took the country by force. After 2 years of discovery in and around the many parties 69db being a drummer saw the potential in this repetative beat. At the same time as joining Spiral Tribe Sound System 69db enrolled in City of Leeds Collage of Music where he got his 1 st access to a recording studio. It was here that he compsed his first tracks for Spiral Tribe.




Over the 90's along with Spiral and its sub labels Network 23 and Stormcore 69db has worked under names such as SP23, R-ZAC and Liveset Dub.He has worked also on many labels i.e. Big Life, Drop Bass Network, Force inc. , Rabbit City , Trax Records Chicago , Labworks , Acid Orange and Expressillon.
69db 's music litterally grew up on the sound systems of the 1990's. He has played consistently in the european underground , installing his live on party after party for now close on 15 years. It is from this background that his love and need for improvisation has been established.

It was in 1997 that the now much respected and fruitful colaboration with Paris based Label Expressillon began. It has been a very open colaboration that has led to recordings that have created a world that explores Dub, techno, breakbeat, hard tec, and group improvisation.
Everything began with the album ''In Dub-technic'' a voyage into improvised jams fusing dub, techno and breakbeat. This was followed by ''Freestyling'' which highlighted the meeting between 69db and anglo jamaican M.C. Tablloyd. This brought a vocal-beatbox dimention to the improvisations. Following this came the albums ''Dragon Dub'' and ''Chip Jockey'' - two solo projects one Dub , one Hard- Tech . After that came ''New Weather'' a Jazz, tachno, dub fusion group that was a free improvisation between Sax, percussion, bass, vocals, electronic drums and chip jockey which brings us up to date with the new album from M.C. tablloyd and 69db Bedroom mixes from the soul .

The album ''Bedroom mixes from the soul'' is based upon the fundamental belief that no matter what shit life throws at you the trully spiritually connected will always stand firm. It is for this that all tracks are one take improvisations to put our tust in the spontaneous communication of the spiritual, in other words to let the moment talk!

69db has always fought to preserve a feeling of freedom and spirituality in his music. He has always felt a strong inluence from musicians such as John Cotrane , Miles Davis , Jimi Hendrix , King Tubby , Talking Heads, and Frank Zappa.
It is open minded nes s that can bring about fusion and it is only fusion that can bring about together nes s

This brings us to present times where 69db has spent the last 6 years refining a new sound based on his love of all things funky. Hereo's such as George Clinton, Bootsy Collins , James Brown, Grand Master Flash and Prince come to the forefront , mixed in with his love of Cat's gives birth to a new Label Cat Wax and a new stage name Catnip. Projects will include artists such as Mc Soom T ,Radioactive man, Chocolaté, and long standing collaborator Mc Tablloyd. The fusion this time blending Funk with Acid house and dub to create a new world of positive vibes to beat back the negative forces dominating night life these days and bring us back to the source of this Raving tradition.
The 69db project will be taking on a decidedly Dub technic direction. The present rise of Dub Step has been warmly welcomed as a way to bring down the tempos ( something that was really difficult for a long time) In this new climate the 69db project can at last go further into dub world and surf that delay pedal etc. The first of this will be the new ep Bass race on the Expressillon sub label Dub Technic. The track features sampled vocals from Tablloyd, someone who will be a close ally on this dub trail.