To whom ever should find it interesting.
In the name of audio empowerment i scribble these lines in celebration of Dub influenced musical advance. Might i spare you all of the long talk and let the music speak the deeper truths...... no because i'm feeling emotional in a truly content way might i add. Pigeon holes and genre alignments, tribe, gang marketing speak and media manipulation will forever have us fussing and fighting to the point where we can not remember what the hell the problem was in the first place.
As an active solo recording artist it was always my plan to build a circus around my art form. I'm a communal animal and traveling to the world singing for my supper on my jack jones was never going to work. Hiring session musician is a swear word in my mind, i like to think of the people i ask to be my touring party as an exclusive creative sparring entity in itself.
So it was only natural to give the gang a name. Banana Klan was born in 2001 a loose collective of primarily Roots Manuva, Ricky Ranking and Gordon G. The first recording was a Cover version of "yellow submarine" by the Beatles and it went down like a submarine. The response from radio and club was the familiar zero play... once a again i was back in zone of "that dude don't fit in." Weird that you may think, this was a year after "Witness" and i must stress that "Witness" may have grown to be a much remembered song but the Chart actuality was not top forty or any where near it. "Witness" stuck out like a sore thumb in radio and video land and was never designed for more than my immediate audience who frequented the underground and alternative Hip Hop events of the Uk and Europe.
In light of this i put my hand on my heart when i say i did not give a shit about radio play or playing in what is more tailored towards the pallet of middle Briton. And so the frosted
reactions from my peers veered from "dude your brave" and "shit man you can get away with anything" to "Roots.... you've gone too far" we're nothing new to me. And yes i went to the outer limits to find a direction and reconnect with calling that first called me to music: exploration, meditation and self definition.
Putting out records is risky to say the least especially if you expect to make your investment back quickly. I suppose i've made risk my motif. Banana klan home of the industry rejects and misfits. I had to get used to it quick. From the early days i was too hip hop for the reggae crowd and too reggae for the hip hop purist. But all in all i just keep it natural to instinct. Now please do get me wrong i ventured into music to make money. I worked for years as a community studio assistant engineers. Through this access to studio equipment and regular contact with local aspiring creatives i had first hand experience of studio magic. Anyway all i'm saying is even if mainstream radio don't back us or give us merely token exposure the klan remit remains as firm as ever: Rebel music central. No we are not anti - bling of anti pop we are pop. It has been an Eight year Journey just till now and the building continues out of necessity.
"A yellow submarine for fuck sake" Banana klan the name you can trust for not toeing the line.
The remit here is anti- label. Just as you decide we are of one dimension more dimensions reveal them selves within the body of our rally cry.
Such is the nature of releasing recordings i thrive off the risk factor. Poor reactions still can't stop the Banana vessel sailing the dicey waters of babylon as in all that serves as distraction in us the underclass finding something positive to do with our frustrations. Gordon g is Banana klan's first A an R and management consultant. Ricky Ranking is the first general and Culture mentor. Since then Banana klan has grown as a creative development platform for all manner of like minded creatives from Hip- hop to punk, folk and reggae.
Shrouded in mystery our recruitment policy is real simply. What can you do for us? Never call us... we do the calling. In it's first tangible fabric the Roots Manuva live touring band is it's most public body but there is more to the entity than the Mc/producer/founder Rodney Hylton Smith. Behind the scenes Gordon G, Ricky Ranking and myself are gathering personnel for all manner of multi media rebellion.
I'll make a formal introduction to the rest of the crew another but in the mean time you can check our exploits here http://soundcloud.com/banana-klan
Two captain of procedure are pictured below:
Gordon G.
Ricky Ranking
We run this audio facility in love, peace and decency. We are here to connect the dots from all Uk Black conditions of adjustment. Music first business later... soon come. The story unfolds at a varied speed. Rebellion via the application of Dub current past, present and future.
Mutant in outlook: struggle recognise struggle.
We aim to cross pollinate through age, race class, sex, sexual orientation and any other man made boundary that the machine puts in our way.
There was no Choice Fm, 1Xtra or Mtv Base when i was growing up. Black music was hard to come by. Audio Cassette tape was the medium used to capture the playlist of the Black Majority music events. It is this sonic tradition that the creative entity banana klan push via the means of podcast, mixtape and 7" etc.
Dub College by definition is the gel that binds the unspoken about or hard to link from Jah Shaka to Kool Dj Herc to Soul II soul to London Posse to Ragga Twins to Roni Size to So Solid crew and all the between. Dub and a lot of the afore mention seemingly have little connection but the truth is if you can picture the sonic soundscape of UK music without Dub or the effect of Jamaican influenced recording technics there would be pop, rock, jazz, gospel, folk and classical and little else. The Dub in my mind is the essence of audio mutation that strips elements from all these forms and birthed new adjustment in sound exploration.
I love music, music pays my bills with Banana klan i give back with Dub college i announce the intention of mystic gathered learning, reason and celebration.
Roderic Manuva
Banana klan Founder.
