Jean Jaques Perry, Vangelis, Carl Craig, UR, Kraftwerk, Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Plaid, The Black Dog, B12, Art of Noise, Dj Pierre, MAW, Todd Terry, Brian Eno
Sounds Like
Reload, Reload & E621, Link, Link & E621, Jedi Knights, The Chameleon, Secret Ingredients, NY Connection, Mystic Institute, Roberto Edwardo Turner, Harmonic 33, Harmonic 313, Troubleman, Chaos & Julia Set, Series 7, Pulusha, Use of Weapons, Vertigo, Shaft, 28 East Boyz, The Modwheel, Cosmos, Amba, Schizophrenia, Fogcity, Spiritcather, The Bays, The Rebus Project, Tom Middleton, Mark Pritchard
We are therapy for your future, recorded in our past. GLOBAL COMMUNICATION: emotional expression through the medium of sound. Our society is well-practiced in intellect and rationality. We are trying to redress the balance by appealing to people on an emotional level. This does not mean we tie no value to thought. We merely wish to improve the status of emotion, and, individual and collective emotional experience. Can you really hear/ see/ touch/ taste/ smell? Aspire to feel! Absorb information... Use your senses... Expand your knowledge!
No other electronic dance act made so many recordings in such a wide range of styles (and with such impressive results) as the duo of Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton. After coming together in 1991, the pair began recording music whose range spanned all of electronic dance music, though many were recorded under aliases -- Reload, Link & E621, Jedi Knights, Secret Ingredients, The Chameleon & Global Communication. Their 1994 LP 76:14, recorded as Global Communication, was a notable high point of the early-'90s ambient house movement.
The partnership began in 1991, when Pritchard and Middleton formed Evolution Records (named after a Carl Craig track) to release their own dancefloor-oriented house and techno. (Middleton had previously recorded with Aphex Twin as Schizophrenia, their one track together, "Entrance to Exit" appearing on the seminal Analogue Bubblebath EP, while Pritchard had been half of the duo Shaft, responsible for the British Top Ten rave hit "Roobarb & Custard"). The first three releases on Evolution were EPs recorded as Reload (Pritchard) and Reload & E621 (Pritchard & Middleton) in 1992-1993. The records were excellent Detroit-inspired tracks, brooding and eerie but nonetheless highly danceable. Reload came to prominence with the 1994 full-length A Collection of Short Stories. Global Communication, which matched the unsettling ambience of Reload but with a focus on warmer rhythms, debuted with The Keongaku EP. Though Global Communication's full-length debut, Pentamerous Metamorphosis, followed soon after, it wasn't quite a proper album per se; it was in fact an extended remix, or "Re-Translation" of Chapterhouse's "Blood Music" LP.
With the ambient house boom in full force by 1994, Pritchard and Middleton's downtempo project came into full focus. They signed to Dedicated and released 76:14 in 1994. The album made many critics' best-of lists that year. In 1995 Global Communication released Remotion, an album of remixes, including material from the out of print Pentamerous Metamorphosis LP along with reworkings of material by Jon Anderson, Nav Katze, and Warp 69.
Pritchard and Middleton added another side project to their resumé in late 1994 when Jedi Knights released the debut single for nu-school electro label Clear Records, sparking an electro revival in England, and anticipating later Clear moonlightings by µ-Ziq (as Tusken Raiders), Matt Herbert (as Doctor Rockit), and Autechre (as Gescom). Their only LP as Jedi Knights, New School Science appeared in 1996. Jedi Knights also appeared on the 1995 label retrospective The Theory of Evolution along with their other Evolution projects such as Reload, Reload & E621, Link, and Link & E621, Mystic Institute, and The Rebus Project.
The duo debuted yet another project in early 1996, The Chameleon, which had first appeared in 1994 remixing Link's "Amazon Amenity." As jungle began to grow in popularity during 1995-1996, LTJ Bukem signed The Chameleon to his Good Looking stable for the single "Links."
'96-'97 saw the release of two new Global Communication singles ("The Way/The Deep," and "The Groove") signaling a new direction toward the lush sounds of dancefloor-friendly deep house and funk.
With the release of "the Groove" Pritchard and Middleton parted ways to focus on solo careers:
Pritchard, who also had recorded as NY Connection(House) and as one half of the various duos of Pulusha (Ambient - w/Kirsty Hawkshaw), Mystic Institute (Techno - w/Paul Kent), The 28 East Boyz(House - w/ Kevin Hann), Series 7(Techno - with Stephen Horne), and Chaos & Julia Set(Drum-n-Bass - w/Dom Fripp), continued with Vertigo(Drum-n-Bass - w/Danny Breaks), Use of Weapons(Drum-n Bass - w/Dave Brinkworth) Harmonic 33(Sci-fi-Soundtrack/ Instrumental Hip-Hop/ Library Music - also w/ Brinkworth), Roberto Edwardo Turner(Instrumental Hip-Hop), Troubleman(Dub-Step, House, Bossa), and Harmonic 313 (Detroit-style Instrumental Hip hop) as well as work as a DJ and as producer on albums by Beans, Steve Spacek, Kirsty Hawkshaw, Danny Breaks and multiple remix projects.
Middleton, who also had recorded as The Rebus Project(IDM?), Schizophrenia(Techno), and with Fogcity(Techno - with Matthew Herbert and Mark Darby) became a globe-trotting DJ with regular BBC Radio appearances and a slew of Mix CDs (A Jedi's Night Out, Mixmag's Weekend Warm Ups 1 & 2, Sound of the Cosmos, The Trips 1 & 2, Renaissance 3D) and continued producing and remixing as The Mod Wheel (House) Cosmos (House) and Amba (Ambient). He has most recently released an EP (Excursions 1) and an LP(Lifetracks), eponymously.
Global Communication has a slew of remixes, on top of their full-album remix of Chapterhouse, that are not to be missed! Some are on their Remotion Album, two are bonus tracks on the 2xCD re-release of 76:14, a few you have to dig a little deeper, but it's well worth it!
Gorecki [Global Communication Mix] - Lamb
Jazz Carnival [Global Communication's Space Jazz Mix] - Azymuth
Evolution Of The Beast (Part 2) [Global Communication Mix] - Palmskin Productions
Ride [Global Communication Dub Mix] - Soft Ballet
Natural High [Global Communication Re-Take] - Warp 69
Rollercoaster [The Global Communication Yellow Submarine Re-Take] - The Grid
Wild Horse [Global Mix Communication] - Nav Katze
Bless This [Global Communication Mix] - Jon Anderson
Amor Real [Global Communication Mix] - Jon Anderson
Civil War Correspondent [Global Communication Mix] - PJ Harvey & John Parish
Aspirin [Global Communication Remix] - Sensorama
Arcadian [Global Communication Remix] - Link
The Biosphere [Global Communication Remix] - Reload & E621
Just want to say a huge thank you for giving us 76'14". That album was played religiously every weekend for years. Fourteen years later and without mdma intervention it still sounds absolutely stunning. Thank you.
I first heard your work as a backing to some spoken word reading on Mark & Lard's late night Radio 1 show... Tried my best to follow all your incarnations from the Jedi Knights through Link and, em, some others... And, of course, you spawned The Bays too with your Groove single? Anyway, it was great to pick up the remastered 76.14 and, wow, if Remotion is not just the greatest remix compo ever, one of my favourite records ever - I probably listen to that the most!
O yeah... how can we forget that juicy one sided 9:25 promo single with morse code on the b-side... ;-) I am one of the lucky few to have it YIHAAHEEEEE!!!
