THE FORGOTTEN SOUND OF EAST LONDON
The 1980s were a magical time for music, both in the mainstream and underground. Artists like Prince and Michael Jackson were in their prime, releasing some of the greatest albums to this day - whilst hip-hop was entering its golden age and new genres such as new wave and post-punk, for example, were coming into fruition seemingly on the daily. Here in the UK, in my opinion we released some of the best music that has ever come out of this island; from the likes of The Smiths, Joy Division and Cocteau Twins to name a few. Among the array of groundbreaking British talent were two guys from Stratford, East London that would go on to be defined as the “Velvet Underground of their time – an act who inspired almost everyone that heard them to test their boundaries as well”.
Alex Ayuli and Rudy Tambala, of Nigerian and English/Malawian descent respectively, first met as children at Park Primary School in Newham and remained friends throughout adolescence into their 20s; where they’d go on to form the band A.R. Kane. Both had been a part of the music scene growing up, albeit in different genres. Ayuli had a background in the dub soundsystem movement, whilst Tambala had been around in the jazz funk scene, which he explained to be a “mix of gay and straight, black, white and Asian”.
The story of A.R. Kane begins in the year 1986, a few days after coming across Cocteau Twins’ music on the TV, Rudy Tambala found himself at a party being asked how he knew his friend Ayuli. As a spontaneous joke, he replied saying that they were in a band together with their sound being a mix between Velvet Underground, Miles Davis, Cocteau Twins and Joni Mitchell. During the 1980s, the internet had only just been launched and social media had not even been thought of yet, thus this description that Tambala gave of the ‘band’ was enough for an interested record label representative to contact him a few days later asking for a demo tape from a band that was virtually non-existent (if only it was still that easy!). One extremely lo-fi demo tape and a live performance later, (where they had to rely on friends who barely knew how to play their instruments), the duo were able to impress the founder of the alternative rock label One Little Indian and began recording more songs, eventually signing deals with 4AD and Rough Trade respectively.
The most commercial success Ayuli and Tambala were to have would be on their one off collaborative acid-house/dance hit with electronic band Colourbox in 1987 which went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart that year. Although this was far from the noise-rock origins of their music, it wasn’t any less forward thinking. ‘Pump Up The Volume’, which heavily sampled the hip-hop song ‘I Know You Got Soul’ by Eric B. & Rakim, released just a few months prior, is generally regarded as a “significant milestone in the development of British acid house music and sampling” (Bainbridge, 2014). Slant Magazine similarly stated that ‘Pump Up The Volume’ was a “milestone in the world of sampling culture, snatching bits of Criminal Element Orchestra's ‘Put the Needle to the Record’, Ofra Haza’s ‘I’m Nin Alu’ and old soul records long before Kanye played his 45s at the wrong speed”. Along with this, they also placed the song at #18 on their 2020 list of 100 Best Dance Songs Of All Time. It’s important to know that this collaboration was commissioned by the bands’ label at the time and was not something either group actually wanted to do. This came as a result of there being a vast difference in working methods and personalities in the studio as both groups had very different ideas for the sound they wanted to create. Nevertheless, Tambala and Ayuli still had a hand in producing this critically well-received and chart topping song, proving that they weren’t to be bound to one sound or genre, something they themselves have held in high regard concerning their music.
However, it was the music that the duo made after this one off hit that would cement them in the history books as pioneers. A.R. Kane released their highly anticipated debut album ’69’ in 1988 and they then followed this up with their sophomore album entitled ‘i’ a year later. Although both albums topped the UK Independent Charts and received critical acclaim, neither reached the same levels of mainstream success as ‘Pump Up The Volume’ and it was easy to see why. ‘69’ was as experimental as it could get: a blend of dub, acid rock, free jazz and pop, accompanied by psychedelic guitar feedback that was mixed with drowned out vocals. The album has been described as a “possession of a very stripped down sound with tracks that at times straddle the line between music and noise.” On their second album however, the duo tried their hand at a more electronic/dance based sound and in the process created a body of work that was still able to encapsulate the spirit of ‘69’, whilst making for an easier listen. ‘i’ has been referred to as a “largely overlooked and underappreciated masterpiece” by critics who have gone on to say that “it would be inconceivable to imagine that electronica and post-rock could ever have blossomed without it”.
Another point to consider in regards to the confusion around the duo’s music was that this was a time when Black musicians were usually relegated to being soul, hip-hop and reggae artists, especially in the UK. People at live shows would sometimes assume the group were a reggae band until they picked up their guitars and began to play loud, unsettling feedback. When asked in an interview how Tambala felt about the confusion and ‘racial shock’ that they faced, he replied "[I] don't know why they'd be surprised by our music; negroes invented rock music, dance music, free jazz and psychedelia. At least that's what mama says." After the release of ‘69’, fans and critics started citing the band as one of the most important and innovative groups of the era, even David Bowie was spotted purchasing a copy of the album from a Virgin Megastore around the time of release.
People couldn’t pigeonhole the band’s music and they didn’t know what genre to classify the sound as. Naturally, they would compare the duo to similar acts from in and around the time, many of which Tambala had originally named as the group’s inspirations. Eventually, Ayuli would coin the term ‘dream-pop’ to describe the genre of their music, which critics started using thereafter. Nowadays, dream-pop can be defined as the origin of shoegaze. The terms are arguably interchangeable, but both are ultimately considered to be subgenres of indie and alternative rock. It’s arguable whether or not A.R. Kane can be considered the first ever dream-pop/shoegaze band to exist but their role in solidifying the essence of the genre and pushing it forward whilst inspiring many musical acts that came after can never be understated. They have been referred to as an “important progenitor of musical developments such as shoegazing, trip hop, ambient dub and post-rock,” a number of these genres came into existence in the late 80s/early 90s and influenced bands both in the UK and across the pond in the US.
So how could it be possible that such an influential band went on to be forgotten 30 years later? A.R. Kane have been described as “arguably the most criminally under-recognised band of their era” as well as the “great lost group of the 80s” by critics. It’s not as if they didn’t get the credit that they deserved at the time, their situation is more on the lines of being lost in time. That being said, it’s strange how you’d more often than not hear bands such as My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain come up in conversations about dream-pop ahead of A.R. Kane when, in the case of the prior, you could hear the change in sound compared to their older music once Tambala and Ayuli arrived on the scene. Tambala took notice of this in a 2012 interview with The Guardian, saying “My Bloody Valentine were a jangly indie band until we put out ‘Baby Milk Snatcher’ in ‘88. Suddenly they slowed it all down and layered it with feedback, and they did it better than us, which was interesting”. One reason why the duo’s music became more and more obscure as the years went by is due to the fact that they stopped recording together after a while. Following ‘69’ and ‘i’, the group went on a hiatus until 1994 when they released one last album entitled ‘New Clear Child’ and soon after dissolved. As Tambala put it, “the energy had gone - whether you're lovers, musicians, artists or a political party, if you haven't got that kind of connection where you completely get each other on a telepathic level, then you're in trouble. For a while there Alex and I had that. Just listen to those tracks; we piled so many ideas into every fucking song!”. Along with the group ceasing to work together and musical tastes changing vastly throughout the next 3 decades, it’s easy to see why someone today would have to go out of their way to come across the duo’s music.
A.R. Kane are a moment to be appreciated, similar to how fellow East London musical experimenter Dean Blunt is now. Tambala explained the duo’s idea of ‘Kaning’ their music which entailed embracing the flaws of the music that they created. “The flaws leave a space, where the listener can still add something of her own - we were never daring or that great”. Maybe that’s inadvertently what made them so great, the concept of not trying to do something but just doing it anyway, on a whim, with whatever equipment or mechanisms you have available to use. This is where the creativity of the duo came through and led them to be cherished as the originators that they are, not trying to be perfect or trying to be different but just being themselves.
Written by Dillon Gohil