PA Orca

There was a time when there was no division between house and hardcore.  It was the late eighties, and as house moved into the mainstream, hardcore remained resolutely underground.  Over the years the split has grown (and just to confuse matters so have the respective splits and sub splits within each category).  You can argue the usefulness of categories, but there's no denying the recent mainstream acceptance of jungle has spun many previous prejudices on their heads.  The music press might find the more intelligent drum & bass style more acceptable than the traditional ragga influenced  jungle sound (which leaves them wide open to racist accusations), and it's certainly the area of common ground more and more techno producers are discovering.

Darren Beale and Kristian Townsend are two producers from Bristol who stand out (not only by having crossed the divide between trance, ambient and jungle for a number of years, but they just as easily make "jump-up" jungle as well as intelligent).  As orca (their first name and is still their most well known) they were one of jungle's coolest labels, Lucky Spin, first signings in 1992, and they've recently signed to the trance equivalent, Pink Plonk, as Alpha Proxima.  This diversity is reflected in this summer's two debut albums: Orca's "Submerge" and Alpha Proxima's "Soundbite".  "You've got to show all your talents open an album", reckons Darren.  "Another good thing about an album", agrees Kris, "is that you've got a few floor tracks on there, and a couple of others your can experiment with.  Maybe use some influences to open people's minds a bit to other types of music."   Influences like slow hip-hop beats and dub on the jungle album and old school bleep and electro on the trance.

Darren and Kirs met as students in 1990 through their shared interest in acid house and making music (Darren was in a rock band, while Kris was just starting out as a DJ).  At first they only messed around and experimented with the studio equipment, but by the following year they had enough tracks to release  "Waves of Extinction", a self financed cassette.  Only five hundred were made to distribute around shops in the Bristol area, but one of the tapes found its way to Lucky Spin in London, and the rest, as they say, is history.  "We didn't send them off to people hoping to get a deal or anything like that", says Darren.  We just wanted to put some music out, make a bit of money and do some more."

Firm advocates of the free party scene, there is no doubt their location is behind their refreshing, upbeat attitude to music.  Jungle's traditional image of dark urban menace couldn't be further removed from the peaceful ambience of their surroundings.  "The first party I went to was a free party", says Kris, "and as far as I'm concerned the atmosphere you get at a free party is a lot more open.  Whatever happens, we will always fully support free parties, the Criminal Justice Network and all the thing like that.  We'll use the situation we are in to spread the word to as many people as we can".    Whilst not being overtly political, Kris and Darren have always been concerned about issues (the name Orca was chosen because of their environmental concern for dolphins and whales) and new-age spirituality, and all provide an unconscious message in their music.  Unconventional to the last , and long may it continue.

Orca's links to Fantazia

Orca appeared on the Fantazia albums:

Fantazia The First Taste
Fantazia Twice As Nice
Fantazia Twice As Nice Remix