Hailing from the town of Tamworth in the UK, Andy Holt - AKA Redanka - has been involved in music, either as a drummer, DJ, producer or remixer for over 25 years.
His formative musical years were spent being fed on a healthy diet of punk, disco, ska, new wave, northern soul, Motown, reggae and electro - a complete mash-up of musical styles which goes some way to explaining his love of both dance AND rock music - and it’s this that informs the music that he produces today.
As with all bands in their embryonic stages Terroah, Andy’s first musical project, aped their heroes - U2, New Model Army, Killing Joke, The Pistols - and to some effect! They burned brightly for a good 12 months or so, only to fizzle out due to a lack of progression.
Terroah 1984. From left: Andy Holt, Pete Wright, Eddie Madden, John 'Rockin' Reeman
Andy took the decision to down sticks and join up with fellow Tamworth outfit The Dream Factory in the spring of 1985, a move which saw an increase in gigs, studio work and overall professionalism. They even had a manager - a soul and funk record importer/collector by the name of Neil Rushton (Neil later went on to be one of the first people to bring fledgling house/techno artists such as Kevin Saunderson’s Inner City across the pond from Detroit and Chicago, and started up the classic early house and techno label Network Records - more of which later).
Whilst already having a record deal by way of Neil’s own self-financed independent Inferno Records, they all knew that in order to go to the next level they desperately needed the injection of cash and marketing expertise that a major, or at the very least a bigger independent, could provide. Neil promptly set up a showcase with midlands-based label FM Revolver. The head guys loved the edgy pop/soul vibe The Dream Factory were creating, and showed genuine enthusiasm towards offering a deal. They had, however, another band in Manchester to check out first, and after seeing them they would make a decision on which one to sign............
Some years later a story appeared in the press about four lads from Manchester who were due in court for ‘re-decorating’ the office of their record company without permission. Apparently they’d been dragged into some record deal that was tantamount to slavery, so they took umbrage and decided to dish out their own brand of justice ‘Mancunian style’ via a few tins of paint carefully deposited all over the HQ of FM Revolver. The four lads in question went by the name of The Stone Roses.
Eventually, the constant pursuit of a deal - and the failure to land one - ground the band to a halt. ‘The Factory’ split amicably and went their separate ways. The year was 1987 and, unbeknown to Andy at the time, there was a new musical dawn on the horizon........something that would, in the same way punk had done a decade or so earlier, bleach the musical landscape and change it forever.
The hangover from being unable to secure a deal hung around in the 19-year-old drummer boy’s head for some years after the split. His hours were spent doing crap jobs, drinking with his mates in the pub and following his beloved football team Aston Villa FC to the four corners of the country every Saturday afternoon.
Music-wise during this period, Andy had done a fair bit of session drumming, both live and recording, with local bands, and had begun to show more than a passing interest in the workings of the studio. The local facility, The Expresso Bongo, was owned in part by former Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Elvis Costello sax king Paul Speare. Paul was very accommodating to an inquisitive young wannabe-Brian-Eno, showing him the workings of an Atari ST computer that ran some program called Cubase and a Mirage sampler that could sample and replay a massive 2 seconds of sounds or, indeed, someone else’s sounds!
The temptation became too much. Andy sold off his beloved Premier Projector drum kit and Zildjian cymbals and purchased a four-track recorder in the form of a Fostex 280, an Alesis effects unit and a dodgy microphone. This was it. He knew that this was what he wanted to do.
1993 arrived and progress had been slow due to one reason or another. Money was tight and studio gear wasn’t cheap. The dream was stalling but definitely not over.
Musically, Andy had scratched the surface of dance culture, taking in the albums of Laurent Garnier and System 7, The Orb and Future Sound Of London.
A chance meeting with former Dream Factory bass player Mark Mortimer revealed that he had rekindled his relationship with their former manager Neil Rushton, this time as a press officer for the Network Records dance label which Neil had started some years previous.
Mark promised to send some of what was on the label to Andy, and, true to his word, a package arrived days later containing several slabs of vinyl, a few CDs and a double cassette tape of ‘Renaissance: The Mix Collection’ mixed by Sasha & John Digweed. It was this mix that changed the way he thought about the current form of music that was infiltrating every speaker and every radio station across the country.
This mix wasn’t anything like the nonsense being churned out on the radio. This had a musical integrity and depth. Leftfield, Underworld, Fluke and Spooky. The early trance of V.F.R.’s ‘Tranceillusion’ sat side by side with the classic house sound of Digweed’s own mix of M-People’s ‘Renaissance’ and Kym Mazelle’s ‘Was That All It Was’. Remixes of guitar bands like E.M.F. got in on the act too, the D:Ream mix of ‘They’re Here’ being a stand out. A true masterpiece of not only blending styles but mixing music. No clashing of keys here. Every single tune was mixed to perfection. All-styles-and-no-styles - an ethos that Andy carries into his DJ sets to this day.
The fire was well and truly stoked now. A flourish of activity. The buying of computers, synths and samplers. The building of - albeit VERY basic - studios with like-minded friends. The weekly excursions into clubland to listen to the latest sounds. Revisiting the past to learn the history. Endlessly studying of how to make this music.............
It was spring 1995 and, having compiled a list of potential labels given to him by John ‘Quivver’ Graham - a good friend of now Network press officer Mark Mortimer - the first demo was mailed out.
It’s fair to say it didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but it did net Andy a remix on M & G Records artist Cie Hamilton’s ‘Set Me On Fire’, and provided some realworld experience of remixing other people’s material. He also got paid too which, after years of doing gigs and sessions for nothing, was an unbelievable bonus. That money went straight onto a new synth, and that synth went straight into the bedroom where Andy had now set up his primitive studio. It wasn’t Sarm West yet, but he would get there...........
The first recording to actually get signed to a label was ‘Scent Of Love’ under his ‘Redanka’ monicker. Using the same label list as before, demos were mailed and attracted interest from a couple of outfits - Skinny Malinky and Whoop! Records - both of London.
Although there was nothing to choose between the two, Andy went with Whoop! simply for the reason they’d been good enough to call him back and offer advice on the first demo. It was this personal touch that he found endearing and so a friendship that still runs through to this day grew from that initial piece of music.
It was through Joel Xavier & Andy Lekker at Whoop! that the next stage of Andy’s development as a dance music artist, and indeed a dance music engineer, manifested itself.
Fellow Whoop! labelmate Chris ‘Tarrentella’ Bourne had been looking for an engineer to help him on a couple of things he had ideas for. Nic Britton, the legendary Stoke-On-Trent engineer/producer, recommended Andy to Chris and their relationship flourished.
Initial sessions circa early 1998 bore fruits by way of, amongst others, Tarrentella remixes on the classic Bizarre Inc. anthem ‘Playing With Knives’ which dented the official UK charts at number 30 in the autumn of that year.
It was also a very creative period and so, not wanting to limit themselves to the ‘progressive’ style of house that was defined by their Whoop! output, Andy & Chris, along with ‘battle-hardened-scratch-master DJ’ Jase Harper and ‘Hammond-crazed-psycho-delicist’ Jim Mate formed Manfat 4, a curious blend that rode on the back of the ‘Big Beat’ scene. A couple of funk-fuelled-sample-heavy tracks were signed away to Devon’s Rinkydink Records and were soon being spun at places like the Big Beat Boutique and Heavenly Social by DJ’s such as Jon Carter, Norman ‘Fatboy’ Cook and the Chemical Brothers.
When Chris was asked to build up and run a record label and recording studio in Stoke in the summer of 1998 it became clear that the only man for the engineers job was Andy. It was a big leap from working in his bedroom, but it was one he was happy to make. Long hours with the soldering iron working on the patchbays, blistering the fingers as he went. It was all worth it in the January of 1999, when the doors opened and the ATC monitoring system was finally cranked up. The clarity and depth that sprung from that system was like nothing they’d heard before. This was the facility that Andy had dreamt of working in years ago. The tools were there. But did they have, individually or collectively, what it took to make it work?
The answers soon became apparent. From 1999 onwards there was a constant stream of creativity emanating from that basement in ST1. Andy and Chris had unwittingly played a major part in pioneering a new take on tribal and progressive house with their first ‘Tarrentella:Redanka’ remix of Jimpy’s ‘Talkin’’ which achieved classic status by way of inclusion on Sasha’s outstanding Global Underground Ibiza compilation. But this was just the beginning.........
As a duo they went on to remix countless artists for countless labels alongside which they also found time to make records with DJ’s like Sander Kleinenberg (SKTR), the incredible Satoshi Tomiie (Graffik) and a true dance music legend in New York DJ Danny Tenaglia, the latter of which they managed to prise from his Manhattan home and drag across to The Cable Chamber in Stoke. Quite a feat in itself! The three amigos moulded themselves into ‘DATAR’ and created the 100th release on the Hooj Choons label entitled ‘Be’ which was recorded in both the Masters At Work’s New York studio and the boys own Cable Chamber complex. The record went on to sell over 30,000 copies but avoided a chart placing due to it’s length. Close, but no cigar.
2001 saw the release of their debut mix compilation ‘Playback Engineering’ through Miami’s Bliss Recordings. A 11 track excursion through twisted tribal-tech, ‘Playback’ garnered them a new respect amongst their peers as they were now being looked at as ‘DJ’s’ as well as producers.
Having never really considered themselves as DJ’s - although Chris had some experience of playing at a couple of parties having ran a record shop, and Andy had had a brief flirt with the decks in the early 80’s - the pair now found themselves inundated with requests for them to play their productions out. And they were more than happy to oblige. Tours of America (North,South and Central), the Far East, Australia and Europe playing in all the worlds greatest clubs followed. It was the best of times. However, the good times had to end at some point.....
For five intense years they had built the studio up to a point where DJ’s and artists were coming from all over the world to work on productions with them both, or to work alone with Andy who it would be fair to say was rapidly gaining a fantastic reputation not only as an engineer but producer too. He would often go above and beyond the call of duty when working with clients - often blurring the lines between writing, production and engineering just to make sure the client got exactly what they wanted from their session.
With the studio complex getting busier - there were now 4 studios to look after - and with the label, Rip Records, taking off, Chris was afforded less and less time in the studio. Other things became priority and so slowly the pairs output decreased. As the output decreased, it became clear that things were going to change. Chris, now involved more and more with the label, decided to go and live in Miami and run the label from there. Andy on the other hand had given five years of his life to the Rip/Cable Chamber project, sleeping in the studio during the week and ‘visiting’ home at weekends. He missed his family dearly and they missed him, so it was inevitable that the day would eventually come around when he would pack his Protools rig into the car and head home for the final time.
The end of incredibly successful period had come to an end. It would have been easy to think that maybe that was that and it was all over..................
Having taken over the living room and turned it into a makeshift studio, much to the annoyance of his family and neighbours, Andy spent a few months messing with ideas for an album until one sunny October morning an email dropped into his inbox with a link to the new, as yet unreleased, U2 single ‘Vertigo’. Someone, somewhere had posted it up on a website and fellow U2 fanatic Mick Park (of Tilt fame) found it and shared the info with him. Having always wanted the opportunity to work with his favourite band in one form or another, Andy decided to do a bootleg - an unofficial version. Various studio tricks were utilised to get what he could from the original - reversing of phase, filtering, eq’ing and time-stretching.
Beats were slammed on top to create a club monster that he only wanted for himself initially, but felt it had turned out so well that he had to share it with others. He sent a copy to Radio One’s dance music guru Pete Tong, more out of hope than anything else, only to receive a call late one Friday night from U2’s radio plugger Dylan White telling him the band had heard the mix on Radio One. Andy feared the worst, thinking some kind of court case was going to arise from his stupidity, but the opposite was true. The band loved it and wanted to send the original parts across so he could do a proper job and the mix could get an official release.
Having been a fan since 1982 this was something beyond his wildest dreams. To see his name on the CD sleeve of a U2 record was beyond what he’d ever thought possible, but there it was on the ‘B-side’ to ‘Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own’ - a song which hit number one in the UK charts in 2005.
The interest that this generated was incredible. The mix was a Club and Buzz Chart number one, and DJ’s from all genres were playing it. Ali Dubfire, half of US house production duo Deep Dish, sent Andy a video of him and partner Sharam dropping the mix at Creamfields, South America to 50,000 crazy Argentinians. It was the stuff of dreams and suddenly Redanka was the name on everyones lips. The Happy Mondays, Fatboy Slim, Faithless, INXS, The Music and Snow Patrol (the mix of ‘Open Your Eyes’ was a number one in Brazil in it’s own right in 2006) were just some of the artists who requested the ‘Redanka’ sound, as he quickly gained a reputation for turning their tracks into dance anthems with a rocky edge. U2 offered more work from ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ - work that has yet to see the light of day but may well do in the future. Andy himself considers his mixes of ‘Miracle Drug’ to be some of his finest work to date.
By 2007, having felt like he’d remixed himself to death and burnt out, and with the scene showing signs of change, Andy decided to step back and concentrate on something that he’d long been waiting to do - an album project. The fruits of this, ‘Politeca’, will be unveiled sometime in the very near future. Suffice to say it’s going to be a bit special when it eventually does drop. Watch this space....
Having tired of the equipment not matching the colour of the walls, the family decided that the living room studio had to go and so, following a brief liaison with former Cable Chamber studio buddies Danny Spencer & Kelvin Andrews in the building of their studio in the town of Stafford, Andy moved lock, stock and barrel back to Tamworth and, ironically, to the building that formerly housed the Expresso Bongo studio - the place where Andy’s first band Terroah did their first demo 22 years previously.
It was a surreal moment to be back in that place - the ghosts of a thousand local bands’ demos were in the brickwork somewhere - the building had a definite vibe.
Something began to click. Artists began to ring to come and work with Andy again. Even Chris had returned to England from Miami, popping in to work on his ideas, this time without the added hassles of business admin. It had become almost like ‘Cable Chamber 2’ but without FIFA (a game the Stoke studio crew spent more time playing than they did making music!).
In recent times Andy has been, and continues to, work with former Underworld legend Darren Emerson in both a writing and engineering capacity, also undertaking the role as live engineer for Darren at last years Sonar, Barcelona and Lovelands, Amsterdam live shows with Jamie and Ben Cullum.
Further U2 work has ensued too - the guerilla tactics as used on ‘Vertigo’ coming into play yet again as Andy took on ‘Magnificent’ and more recently ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’, the latter of which has been reworked by the band themselves for inclusion in the set of the 360 World Tour......MORE than a bit special.
So now what? Well it’s more of the same for a while - remixes, tours, tracks, studio work both for himself and his guests. But later this year all attentions will be turned to the aforementioned ‘Politeca’ project, which if all goes to plan will turn into something quite special. As previously stated - watch this space..................
Dave Layzer, E-Mission press, 2009.
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