Rude Audio are a shadowy South London musical collective, specialists in dub techno and sleek chuggy cosmic disco. Based around the core of producer Mark Ratcliff, they've been pushing music my way for some time after I stumbled across some tracks in 2017. Since then Mark has become a friend, one of The Flightpath Estate team, and someone I've shared a DJ booth with on several occasions. Mark can actually do all the technical stuff, beat matching and mixing, and it's a pleasure to watch him play records/ CDs. Especially when in the middle of a set when he'll do something like randomly drop in Walk On by Neil Young from 1973's On The Beach amidst a bunch of dubby dance music and cosmic disco tunes.
Mark's music as Rude Audio has been picking up the right kind of support in recent times. Andrew Weatherall was playing it in 2019 and early 2020. Don Letts has featured Rude Audio tracks in his sets. David Holmes played his and Dan Wainwright's recent remix of Hugo Nicolson and David Harrow at NTS last week, a show you can listen to here. Much of the Rude Audio back catalogue and the tracks below plus the ones mentioned but not included in the mix can all be found at the Rude Audio Bandcamp.
- Revolvalution (Dan Wainwright And Rude Audio VIP Remix)
- Early Morning
- Big Heat
- Big Heat (Bedford Falls Players Remix)
- Railton Ruckus (Bedford Falls Players Remix)
- Rumble On Arab Street
- The Grinning
Revolvalution came out on Higher Ground recently, a seven track EP from the combined talents of Hugo Nicolson and David Harrow- both former Andrew Weatherall right hand men. Rude Audio and Dan Wainwright turned in two very long dubbed out, Sabres style remixes, the VIP the further out there of the pair. Dub bass. Space echo. Bubbles. Backwards ukulele. Dan and Rude Audio have worked together a lot, most extensively on their Psychedelic Science album from 2023, an eight track dub odyssey with Ram Das, The Grateful Dead and David Bowie all featuring as part of their blissed out, widescreen vision. The VIP Remix has the ability to make you feel like you've been up all night and imbibing even if you haven't.
Early Morning, another Dan Wainwright and Rude Audio collaboration, came out in 2021 on Tici Taci. Slo- mo dub splendour.
Big Heat was the title track of a 2022 EP that came with two remixes, one by the superb Bedford falls Players, and one from Rich Lane. It also featured Rudely Fresh and an Al McKenzie (from D:Ream) remix of Dust Devil. Big Heat turns up the tempos and the heat, a throbbing, chugging dub techno delight with squelchy bass. Rude Audio have tunes to spare and there are several digital/ CD EPs with B-sides and extra tracks that could easily have made the cut here- but then this mix would have been three hours long. The Bedford Falls Players remix is a joy, full of some of BFP man Mark Cooper's signature sounds and touches, a remix that keeps giving and keeps rewarding.
Bedford Falls Players also remixed the title track from the Railton Ruckus EP, from 2021 (a track also remixed by Hugo Nicolson). Railton Road runs between Brixton and Herne Hill. In the 1970s and 80s the Brixton end was the front line, a hotbed of radicalism, activism, squats, and bass culture.
Rude Audio have a long standing interest in Middle Eastern sounds and scales. Rumble On Arab Street came out on the Rude Redux EP in 2018 and then again in remixed form on Street Light Interference. The tracks on Rude Redux were the ones that first really captured my attention, To The Sun, To The Half Moon and Pipeline Screaming along with Rumble On Arab Street.
The Grinning was a vinyl only 7" release on Golden Lion Sounds in 2023, a split single backed with Richard Norris and Findlay Brown. It is a rumbling, tumbling, thumpy piece of dub techno with echo- laden timbales and intense synths quiggles, the musical equivalent of being blinded by the strobe (in a nice way).
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