Bad Company UK

Last year, Bad Company UK came from relative obscurity to knock the d&b scene sideways. As they prepare to unleash another long-player, Knowledge trys to keep them still for five minutes... For a few years the four members of Bad Company UK operated as single and double entities in the middleweight sphere of drum & bass. Jason Maldini (Maldini) was collaborating with Darren White (D-Bridge) as Future Forces while Dan Stein (Absolute Zero) was working with Michael Wojcicky as Fresh & Vegas for labels like Renegade Hardware and Matrix's Metro imprint. In 1998 they joined forces to form Bad Company UK and released 'The Nine', a monster of a tune that promoted them instantly into the heavyweight league. Undeterred, they met the pressure with a leading left jab ('The Pulse' released on Rider's Prototype), a potent right uppercut ('Iraq' via Formation) and a killer left cross ('The Fear') that left the d&b fraternity reeling. Then they went in for the kill, unleashing a series of bass-heavy body blows and steely karate chops with their long-player 'Inside The Machine'. Within a year, Bad Company UK had climbed to the top of the heap and become the official Champions Of Drum & Bass. "I never expected us to blow up like we did," admits Darren. "I mean, we put 'The Nine' out first and that blew up on it's own merit. Then we found out about the Prototype release and at first we were like 'right, yeah, we've heard that before from other people', but then it happened, and in a short space of time which helped us a lot. I suppose we were like a breath of fresh air really, something that the scene needed." The support that the crew have had has been truly incredible, with everyone from Fabio to Grooverider and Andy C to Goldie speaking out in their favour. This is of course a large reason for their having come a long way so quickly in a scene that's almost hermetically sealed to outsiders, but there's no smoke without fire and the Bad Company UK boys have certainly set ears ablaze with their sound. "We just wanted to infuse some energy," states Dan. "We always used to talk about bringing back the hardcore, and although everyone's now taken that literally, it always meant just recapturing the energy of hardcore. At the end of the day I suppose we've established our own sound in the scene, which is a hard thing to do." In between now and then, the crew have been coping with the repercussions of the success of their first album, last year's 'Inside The Machine'. Fo

As published on Resident Advisor

• 1115
• 516
• 817
• 1018
• 219
• 121
• 322
• 323
• 324
• 225

UK 69US 14NL 9DE 8AU 7BE 6