Freestylers are an electronica group hailing from Coventry, England who formed in 1996. Since their debut in 1998 they have released five studio albums, six DJ mixes, and have become one of the premier breakbeat acts of modern times.
The Freestylers could quite possibly be called one of the first ever electronica supergroups. The trio that formed the band were already massively acclaimed DJ’s and producers from Britain’s thriving dance music scene since the late 80’s, and in 1996 Matt Cantor, Aston Harvey and Andrew Galea joined forces to form the band Freestylers. Initially, the collaboration was between Harvey and Galea as the Sol Brothers, but after a string of five 12 inch singles, Cantor was recruited to make the band a trio. The Sol Brothers had already got some serious attention so the decision was made to change the name to Freestylers, named in homage to the act that they took their very first sample from, Freestyle.
Their first single “Drop The Bomb (AK-48)” was dancefloor hit on both sides of the Atlantic, as popular in the clubs of Miami as it was in the U.K. However, Galea became disillusioned with the creative path that the band seemed to be going down and left the group after the release of their “Freestyle E.P”. While initially the Freestylers were a relatively intimate collaboration between three producers, Harvey and Cantor transformed the band utterly when Galea left. They expanded the group to an eleven piece by adding two M.C’s, three breakdancers, a drummer, a guitarist, a bassist and a scratch DJ to compliment the duo’s production skills. Obviously this could have all blown up spectacularly but it actually worked, and their 1998 album “We Rock Hard” and its lead single “B-Boy Stance” were hits all over the world.
Ever since then, the Freestylers have remained one of the best breakbeat acts around, with four acclaimed albums released since their debut and a run of equally well received singles released under the pseudonym Raw As F**K. They were even embraced by a new generation of electronica fans when Flux Pavilion remixed their track “Cracks” into a true dubstep anthem with 25 million hits on YouTube alone. With Chris Bishop joining the fold as a producer in 2012, and a record deal with a subsidiary of Black Hole Recordings, there’s still no stopping the Freestylers over fifteen years after their debut. For that, they come highly recommended.
Kurt Vile
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