The Schematix Info Page

SCHEMATIX...THE STORY SO FAR...

A long time ago in a sleepy little town somewhere in the garden of England a young lad with a love of Sci-Fi and Hip-Hop is buzzing with the prospect of a trip to the USA with his school. The chance to actually see where his beloved breakdance culture comes from. On return Phil the hero of this story makes up his mind to strive to find the perfect beat.

In 1985 Phil obtains his first piece of equipment that will set him on the road to the mysterious world of electronic music where he dwells today.

All through his scholl life Phil collected all styles of electronic music from Electro to Hip Hop to Funk (The home of all breaks) and beyond. After leaving school Phil got a job as a bank clerk. Several years of toiling over a hot calculator helped Phil financially towards his goal of composing music. A bank loan, a bit of forced saving and slowly Phil started to build his studio up, item by item. A Roland 101 here a Roland 727 there and finally an Akai 950 Sampler

Inspired and fuelled by his avid record buying, the first recordings were a mixture of hardcore Breakbeat and Hip Hop. Local friends came and went leaving loads of unfinished tracks but still there were no future classics.

1989 and another local band were playing their first gig at the Grasshopper Banqueting Suite as part of the usual Funk and House night.

Two lads going by the name of Orbital were going to perplex the crowd of youngsters with an intro taken from a Youth Training Advert followed by Music that sounded like Acid House mixed by Punk band Crass. It had rough edges, strange vocal samples and weird chords structures.

The whole gig a gaggle of lads crowded round the bands meagre array of equipment laid out on a couple of pub tables trying to work out how the music came from those little grey boxes. One of those train spotters was Phil...

After the gig Phil kewn he was on the right track with his music. More experiments , more scapping of pre-conceptions and finally the Contradictions EP was written

In 1994 driven by the mass exodus of friends and by leaving his four year stint at the bank Phil moved to London.

Meeting people with like minded ideas and mutual love of all thiongs electronic and funky Phil bumped into a young man who was in the throws signing to a new record label. The young man was Simon Bowring of Pentatonik , the label was Deviant Records.

After chatting to the labels head honcho and agreeing to have Simeon in on Production duties Contradictions the EP was finally set in stone and released on Deviant Records in September 1995. Good reviews and encouraging DJ returns were met with reasonable sales and the reording of Schematixs second EP Discrepancies. Yet agina more interesting reviews and DJ returns but the second single only sold the same number of units.

After little communication between Deviant and Phil , no more contracts or recordings were agreed upon.

Back to the Drawing Board...

After a couple of months writing and working as roadie and run around for Orbital and Pentatonik, new tracks began to emerge. These new tracks were different, they were like soundtracks to pragrammes not yet made. Slightly cheesy, slighty funky but definately Schematix.

1996 and Phil has an urge to play live, contacting friends who promote clubs both in London and regionally, Phil arranged three live sets.

First off was Oscillate, a club in Walsall run by electronic pioneers Higher Intelligence Agency (Bobby and Magda). The crowd loved it and a great review of the gig followed in Muzik magazine. Next up was the weird beats from collective at the Jazz Bistro in the bohemian heart of London. Once again Phil tunes were met a good reception and the promise of more gigs. Last but no means least was a Sunday nighter at the Rumpus Rooms run by the merry pranksters again in the smoke of London. A capacity crowd was swayed and bathed in the Schematix sound. Onlookers included Paul from Orbital, Mickey Mann from Pressure of Speech and Simeon from Pentatonik.

Well...that brings us up to date.....

At present Phil has several tracks ready to come out on Mindfood Records in Chicago later in the year and also has other projects under way for Nation Records and Sinistral Records in the Uk.

Any labels wishing to contact Schematix for live support slots or more information then please email LOOPZ.

Copyright 1997 Steve LOOPZ Price - All web contents cannot be copied or duplicated without written permission