With the Industrial/Dance scene ever-evolving, the race to stay ahead has never been more hard fought. New influences creep in week by week, new bands come and go, and what was happening yesterday will be out of favour by tomorrow.In such a climate, its those artists that try and remain individual that will ultimately survive...
...Which is precisely why Ultraviolence has been able to maintain a high profile for the past 10 years. Through that time musical styles have been and gone, but the diversity displayed over four albums for Earache (plus a multitude of remixes and singles), by Ultraviolence's mainman Johnny Violent has kept him ahead of the game. Incorporating hardcore-techno, classical elements, and concepts of life sex and death with a unique emotionally-charged, all-powerful live show has meant that Ultraviolence has forged ahead to create a scene that is, literally, all its own.
The appeal of Ultraviolence presents something of a quandary - whilst the music is undoubtedly rooted in the techno and Industrial genres, the name initially found more of an outlet via the rock press, who saw the anger-fuelled harshness of the debut Earache album 'Life of Destructor' as a direct electronic mirror of the extreme Metal scene. Yet Ultraviolence had been building a name in other areas prior to the release of '...Destructor,' issuing white labels such as 'Shout' (UV's debut in 1991) and 12" singles like the 'Vengeance EP' in 1992. '92 also saw Ultraviolence record a Peel Session for BBC Radio One, that brought the new noise they were making to the attention of Earache.
It was partly the association with Earache that immediately aligned Ultraviolence with the rock scene. The agressive nature of live favourite 'Hardcore Motherfucker' and tracks like 'Hiroshima' earned rave reviews from media like Kerrang!, although the material still found supporters among the gabba and hardcore techno dance scene. Unconventional was a word that best described what Ultraviolence was all about. Johnny Violent avoided the traditional DJing circuit, instead looking beyond the anonymity of the decks and envisaging a more theatrical performance on the rock circuit.
This vision was certainly expanded with the release of the second Ultraviolence album 'Psychodrama' in 1994,- it was nothing less than a full blown concept album. Ultraviolence dispensed with the traditional wisdom of cutting a white label 12" rather than an album. Instead Ultraviolence messed with the accepted formula and produced an epic album that told the story of Jessica and her struggles with the seedy side of life over 70 minutes.
It was the 'Pyschodrama' period that saw Ultraviolence begin to emerge as the head of the burgeoning London cybergoth scene, an outrageous gathering of over-dressed, confrontational party animals who enjoyed the beat-driven good-time dance ethic, but preferred the twisted, perverted path that Ultraviolence chose to take them down...
Again flouting convention, Ultraviolence found itself becoming a touring act. 1995 saw a US tour with industrial act Cubanate, and a personal request from Moby in 1996 saw UV support him across the UK on the "Animal Rights" tour. Headlining to ever larger crowds proved that Ultraviolence does translate the power of the albums to the live stage, aided and abetted by angle-grinders showering the audience with sparks amongst the general mayhem.
Reverting to the Johnny Violent moniker for the gloriously harsh 'Shocker' album of 1996, which, tongue firmly in cheek, returned to the extreme hardcore style for brainbashing tracks like 'E Heads Must Die' and the single 'North Korea Goes Bang'.Closing track 'Burn Out'- clocking in at 20 million beats per minute - took the speed battle to its logical and ludicrous conclusion........
A tour with punk veterans the Exploited, and the "Harder Than God" tour with contemporaries such as Oliver Chesler's Temper Tantrum (Brooklyn) and Dave Rogers Delta 9 (Chicago) led to the 'Killing God' record, and cemented Ultraviolence's truly unique position as flagbearers of the cyber scene.
Diverse touring had meant a fanbase of gabba fans, goths, punks, Metalheads and Noise merchants had formed their own clique around Ultraviolence, centering on the Electric Ballroom in Camden, and the Slimelight club in Angel, both in London. Ultraviolence seemed to be the crossover reference point for those that enjoyed the lunacy of Napalm Death and Industrial Strength Records on the one hand, and the darkness of Nine Inch Nails and Laibach on the other. Somewhere in between Ultraviolence had spiced this up with classical orchestration, provocative topics and an insane live reputation, and forged something completely independent from anything the rest of the music scene had to offer.
1998's 'Killing God' album showcased the varied Ultraviolence sound to the full, beginning with the pounding trancecore of 'Adultery' and 'Still' lulling the listener into a false sense of security, before the bomb-blasts of 'Strangled' and 'Masochist' set in........hard trance to annihilation in one album.Nice.
Further touring as part of the Earache NextGen 98 package alongside Dub War and Misery Loves Co reminded a a more metal-based audience what Ultraviolence was all about, and the multitude of headline shows including the UK's leading Cyber-fest "Infest", and fetish gathering "Carnival of Souls" proved that as off-the-wall as Johnny's musical vision may have been, there were plenty of people who 'got it'.
Ultraviolence 2001 - and new album "Superpower" continues the tradition - anthemic, hard-driven techno track "Elektra" is sure to have the cyberscene dancing their extensions off, but nods in an as yet unexplored direction are beginning to emerge with the sheer major league accessibility of 'Separation'....
29/06/05 - Ultraviolence Reactivated
Ultraviolence are now completely free of any obligation to Earache Records and are working on new material with the line-up familiar to those of you who caught the live shows six months or so ago. Mel Allezbleu joins the band as permanent angle grinder and vocalist - indeed she and Johnny were spotted Ultraviolence regular haunt Rubber Biscuit studios recently, recording yelping, whips, industrial machinery and vocal samples that will please fans of tracks such as Masochist. Charlie Sanderson will continue to provide vocals both live and in the studio but cannot be considered a permanent member of the band due to commitments to her own band Urban Space (check them out at www.urbanspacelab.com ) as well as her theatrical work. So a duo and a half then. Should make for an interesting photo shoot come August...
The live shows will also be coming in thick and fast...already confirmed to play The Garage on the 8th October Ultraviolence will be all over the UK in the Autumn playing new and classic tracks - please place any suggestions on the message board
As well as new Ultraviolence material Johnny has been mixing ace US horrorshockanddoom merchants Little Sap Dragon. Check them out at www.dungeon-recordings.com.
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