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EZ Rollers
Like many of today’s drum & bass crews, Alex and Jay go way back. "I was
right into hip-hop and breaking back in the day"’ says Alex, "While Jay was
into his rare groove, funk and soul. I had some little bits of equipment right
back in about 1983, and had tried putting together an album, but it was
rubbish".
Another stab at production came in 1991, when Jay and another friend of
theirs, (Andrew Riches, or as he would later be known, ‘Richie’), decided to
join Alex in a bid to make tunes. Once again, the results were decidedly
iffy: "We called ourselves the Plastic Clothes Mechanics, because Alex
worked in a plastics factory, Richie worked in a clothes shop and I wasn’t a
mechanic!", laughs Jay. "It was a steep learning curve as we got ripped
off in the studio mastering to an audio cassette , the pressing plant laughed
at us when we turned up with that!. In the end we got it pressed, all good fun".
Alex joined forces with another friend/producer
Danny Demierre (who would later become Flytronix) to form
‘Hyper-On-Experience’. This was one of the first wave of proper signings
to Moving Shadow in 1992 and they produced a number of old skool classics like ‘H.E.
Anthem’ and ‘Lords of the Null Lines’ . In 1993 Jay put his vast record collection together
With Richie’s to become another classic Shadow act – ‘JMJ & Richie’,
responsible for such cult tunes as ‘Hall Of Mirrors’ , ‘Free La Funk’ and ‘Montana’.
Despite these other projects, Jay and Alex planned to work together and in
1994 formed the E-Z Rollers and released the first single .Following this they
compiled ‘Storm from the East’ , a collection of tracks that showcased
the regional talent emerging from the East of England. For their own
production work, the pair decided on a vocal approach and enlisted local
friend Kelly Richards. Their first long-player together, ‘Dimensions Of
Sound’, arrived in 1996. Its gentle, jazz influenced hooks, solid
moving beats and melodic keys, were wonderfully enhanced by Kelly's smooth
vocals. Cuts like ‘Rolled Into One’, ‘Jazz Talkin’ and
‘Dropping Science Part 2’ helped make the album the classic it is today.
Their second album, ‘Weekend World’,was released in 1998.
It was an album that hit the spot at least as much
as their first, focusing even more heavily on those impossibly groovy
basslines that had been overtly hinted at on ‘Dimensions of Sound’.
Infectious singles like ‘Tough At The Top’ and the even bigger
‘Walk This Land’ , a cut that got to an astonishing No.18 in
the UK charts after being used for the British flick, Lock Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels, sent the E-Z Rollers popularity rocketing and prompted a
re-release of the album in 1999.
The E-Z third album for Moving Shadow “Titles Of The Unexpected” was released
in October 2002, this included some very special guest appearances such as old
school rapper Doug.E.Fresh and disco diva Sharon Brown.
Since the ‘Titles’ LP E-Z Rollers have concentrated on their label Intercom Recordings . Intercom has featured the Rollers huge single ‘Crowd Rocker’ taken from the two Lickable Beats compilation’s. The label is currently gearing up for E-Z Rollers fourth artist album which is due out June 2007. The album is called ‘ Conductor’. The 1st single from the album is called ‘Rancho Notorious/In The City and was released Februaryuary 2007. The E-Z Rollers will support the album with a full live band and DJ gigs, you can check out the band and new songs at myspace.com/ezrollers or intercomrecordings.com
Click here to request a booking for EZ Rollers...
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