Total Science [step back]
The
pair who would become 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 and school girls. Distracted by the arrival of hardcore
in the early nineties, record collecting was quickly followed by DJing and eventually
production. 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 Q Project's monstrous "Champion Sound", which
really took his profile above and beyond the slew of anonymous white labels
that were dominating the music at the time.
After six years of recording singles for Legend and others, they established
the CIA label and changed their name to the now familiar Total Science guise
in the closing months of 1997. 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.
Total Science's pioneering of a revival in old-school sounds and arrangements,
together with Digital and Reinforced, dominated drum & bass throughout 2001.
During this period a heavy amount of remix work of old-skool tracks (i.e “Dublate”,
“NHS”, “Hardcore Jungilism”, “Jazz Note”)
furthered the movement that the duo championed. After this followed releases
on high-profile labels such as 31 Records, True Playaz, Reinforced and Soul:r.
2000 saw the founding of CIA’s sister label Advanced, created as a means
to keep up with the high level of production output from the duo and their confederates,
for which one label was no longer enough. Following from this came the renowned
Sektor series on Advanced. Initially created as a way of combining up-and coming
artists with those more established, the series was also developed as a means
to stress the importance more on the music than the artists. Featuring artists
such as Baron, Digital, D.kay, Lee, Juju, Beta 2 and Klute, the Sektor series
included seminal tracks such as “Squash”, and the ever popular “Champion
Sound” remix. This series continues to prove it's popularity by sales
and reputation, with several new volumes added each year.
During 2003 Total Science spent a significant part of the year touring all parts
of the world, including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Europe & Brazil.
Subsequently during this year CIA and Advanced became more focused on showcasing
other artists and nurturing the profile of then-up-and-coming producers such
as Beta 2, Zero Tolerance, Friction, Mathematics and Baron-whose remix of Total
Science's "Nosher" became without a doubt one of the year's biggest
dancefloor stormers, pioneering the jump-up resurgence of 2003.
2004 begins with a new studio set up, allowing Total Science to up the ante
on output and quality, with releases on CIA & Advanced, including "No.
1 Sound", "A.C.I & Voices" and a return to Metalheadz with
"Defcom 69/Loose Ends". In the true Total Science fashion of never
binding oneself to one particular musical form, liquid-style releases are also
due out on Creative Source & Defunked.
Last year saw the release of another full LP, "The Good Game", which
was played out heavily by DJs around the globe.
Further into this year there are plans for a re-launch of the currently dormant Skin Deep imprint, a hip-hop/modern soul album (currently in production) planned for release later in the year and several other projects in the works. With such a vast array of styles and concepts originated by Total Science over the past ten years, one can only guess what the future holds for this highly talented duo, except to say that surprises will always be expected!
At the same time they continued to produce seperately, with Q Project scoring
highly acclaimed releases on Good Looking Records, Hospital Records, Bingo Beats,
Liquid V, and Timeless records, amongst others. His most recent 12" on
C.I.A. "Greatest Thing" has proved to be MASSIVE, getting play from
virtually every DJ across the spectrum of drum and bass.