King
Unique = Dirty House
That’s all you need to know.
King Unique = Dirty House
You need details? OK, let’s get started…
King Unique are two guys called Matt who make rough-edged
dirty house music, Matthew Roberts and Matt “Watkins” Thomas,
a pair of studio junkies with a taste for bulldozer beats
and sick synthesizers.
Over the last five years their records, remixes and re-edits
have hit home with house-heads, nu-ravers and electro-rockers
alike, being championed by everyone from Sasha to Soulwax, Danny
Howells to
Tiesto, and Pete Tong to Zane Lowe. Their music has turned
up everywhere from Hollywood soundtracks to mobile ringtones,
not to mention countless compilations and mix albums.
Their decks’n’fx DJ sets have made them regulars
in some of the world’s most respected clubs and
biggest festivals, while the "King Unique Broadcast" radio
mix series regularly airs to countries across the globe. 2006 has seen them starting their own residency, "Curfew Time" at London's Turnmills, bringing Loud Electronic Dirt to the capital.
King Unique hit the floor running in 2001, claiming the
title of Undisputed Remix Champs by scoring five Essential
New Tunes in five months on Pete Tong’s BBC Radio
1 show. The King Unique sound has been in constant demand
since, appearing on dozens of remixes including King Dong
sized floor-fillers such as Underworld’s “Two
Months Off”, Las
Vegas rockers The Killers’ “Somebody Told Me”, Planet
Funk’s “The Switch”, Mutiny’s “The
Virus”, Jamiroquai’s “You Give Me Something”, The
Freemasons’ "Love
On My Mind", Luke
Slater’s “Nothing At All”, and Chable
and Bonicci’s “Ride”.
Most recently King Unique have reworked Teamsters "Feels Like Love", Mish Mash's "Speechless", and Suicide Sports
Club's “I
Don't Know”.
The productions make for an equally impressive line-up; "Dirty", "Sugarhigh", "Lighters" and
new cut "Flashing
Lights". “Obscene,
dirty, filthy, immoral” set out the King Unique
agenda on “Dirty” by Dirty, the first of
a series of singles released on Junior Boys Own. Next
they raised the stakes with “Sugarhigh”,
a track dreamt up in a tiny techno bar in Tokyo whilst
under the influence of too much vodka and too little
sleep. A melodic powerhouse of a track that fused classic
house and melodic Detroit vibes,
“Sugarhigh” gave KU a sixth Essential New Tune.
The next King Unique single “Lighters/Music Please”
followed in early 2003 and saw KU experimenting with new
sounds.
“Lighters” poured out a relentless cascade of
slow and heavy electro-house that “sound like it’s
raining synthesizers on your head” (Mixmag), while
the DJ-friendly “Music Please” delivered
a slice of psychedelic breakbeats favoured by Danny Tenaglia
and James Zabiela. KU closed 2005 with “Flashing
Lights/Curfew Time” another double A-side release. "Flashing Lights" is a big room grunge-house
monster with a dumb bass line that’d
make The Kinks proud; “Curfew Time” kicks
out a spiky slab of riff-house, then throws in a jungle-flavoured
break down of Amazonian proportions. (The
full list of more than 40 releases can be found
on the Trax page)
King
Unique's renowned DJ sets have made them regular
names in the world's biggest clubs and festivals,
playing everywhere from ultra-hip blacked-out
sweat boxes in Tokyo to euphoric crowds of thousands
on the tropical beaches of Madeira. Since their
first shows in 2001 they have consistently blown
minds (and speakers), bringing more than just
record boxes into the DJ booth. By packing their
studio into a pair of laptops, KU are able to
re-edit and re-work any track on the fly, creating
a four-armed, twin-headed, single-minded mash
up of CDs, custom made re-edits and live
samples. End result? You
may know some of the records, but you won't have
heard them sound like this before.
This
hotly demanded sound has made it’s
mark at all the best UK clubs; Turnmills (home to KU's own "Curfew Time" nights), Tribal Sessions,
Renaissance, The End, Ministry Of Sound, Godskitchen
and Lush. Worldwide demand for the King Unique
sound has seen them playing Tokyo, Paris,
Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Malta, Moscow, Athens, Auckland, Bucharest,
Singapore, Sydney, Milan, Kiev, Buenos Aires, etc....
(you get the picture). Not forgetting the festivals;
the huge Skol Beats in Brazil, the UK's Global
Gathering, Weekenddance in Madeira and the renowned
Exit festival in Serbia amongst others.
On the very few days they aren’t making
tracks in the studio or diving into DJ booths
the Matts can be found chopping up the very latest
cool and dirty music from across the globe, reassembling
it into the "King Unique Broadcast" radio
mix series. Broadcast
through an ever increasing network of stations
from Argentina to Iceland, these
are no ordinary radio mixes; each KU Broadcast
features dozens of tracks, with single tunes
built from pieces of three or four different
records, cut up and re-assembled into exclusive
King Unique edits and mash-ups. Many of the biggest
tunes in King Unique's DJ sets started life as
tracks for the KU Broadcast shows; the re-edit
of Mylo's "In My Arms" that was picked
up for the single release, and "Big Dirty
Dreams" that mashed up the Martini Bros
with the Human League. Despite huge support for
the track from Soulwax, Tiga and Erol Alkan
it proved impossible to clear "Big Dirty
Dreams" for release
- guaranteeing it legendary status. DJs eh? Many
more custom made edits and mash-ups are locked
away in the King Unique vaults; the Nine Inch
Nails and LCD Soundsystem collision of "Nine
Inches Of Love", Tiefschwarz
and Soulwax butting heads on "Any
Muthafucking Excuse" and Alter Ego doing
battle with Midnight Mike to create "Hot
In The Bush" - to name just a few.
So that's the first five years, not a bad start. What
are King Unique cooking up next?
King Unique = Dirty House
That’s all you need to know.
