This months Soul:ution presents another amazing line-up:
Total Science (Metalheadz, Shogun Audio, 31 recordings)
Blocks & Escher (Narratives Music, Metalheadz)
Marcus Intalex (Soul:r, Metalheadz)
Bane (Eastern Bloc Records)
MC Fox (Soul:r, Critical Music, Signature Recordings)
Jason Greenhalgh and Paul Smith of Total Science first met in 1987, both living in and around the Blackbird Leys estate in Oxford, England and brought together through a mutual love of hip-hop. Greenhalgh was the first into the studio, with ‘Freestyle Fanatic’ launching his career in 1991. However it was the establishment of the Legend imprint and specifically Greenhalgh’s ‘Champion Sound’, which really took their profile above and beyond the slew of anonymous white labels that were dominating the music at the time. They recorded together for the first time in 1994, as the Funky Technicians.
At the end of 1997, with help from Brilo from Timeless, Greenhalgh and Smith established the CIA label and changed their name to the now synonymous Total Science. The release of their Silent Reign EP for Goldie’s Metalheadz breathed a new lease of life into the project, and the pair achieved a further boost with a well-timed Bad Company remix of ‘Champion Sound’ which conjured further interest in what they were doing with their own label. Their debut album Advance exposed a further field of interest, with down-tempo experiments logged as a series of ‘Breaks’ on the majority of their early EP’s extended to some superb deep house, this breadth was taken a step further with their Skin Deep imprint which has forged broken beat to considerable acclaim. The pair’s pioneering of a revival in old-school sounds and arrangements, together with Digital and Reinforced, dominated drum & bass throughout 2001. After this followed releases on high-profile labels such as 31 Records, True Playaz, Reinforced and Soul:r.