Aphrodite - Lexicon

A new era has now dawned in Gavin King's life but it's one that is far removed from his production skills and music career altogether. One of the last of the dying breed of pony tailed ravers has endured a shear at the barbers! Is there then any subliminal messages in the fact he has tirelessly being trying to shorten his producer/DJ name to Aphro for the last three years? With a steady release of dancefloor tunes on his own Aphrodite Recordings, the Recuts series, various undercover projects and an album soon to be released on V2 featuring guest appearances from heavyweights like Big Daddy Kane, Rah Digga and Barrington Levy it's time to call up the one now known as Aphro.

Firstly the Recuts series has seen many greats from the Aphrodite back catalogue released over the last year and a half. Twelve inches including 'Rinsin' Quince', 'Summer Breeze', 'Tower Bass', 'Calling All The People', 'King Of The Beats' and 'Woman That Rolls' were all let out of the vaults as soon as Virgin's dance subsidiary V2 was happy that the Aphrodite compilation (released 1999) containing all these tracks had sufficient time on the shelves.

As a producer who has always focused on bringing vocals and more party orientated beats into drum & bass I wondered why Gavin thought popularity of just this style is making a come back. "I think it's because when you have a trend of of drum & bass it's all noise orientated with no vocals and can be quite deep. You lose lots of listeners basically, the only people who stay with the music are the hardcore fans. Most people around the world like melody and like vocals and if that's not in a style of music they won't go out."

Gavin points to the fact that when you walk in to some parties you can see that the audience can consist of 70 to 80 per cent males which is not such a good thing. He is confident however that the vocals, the funk and the feeling will once again preside in the music. He also points to the fact that the press could not get enough of Mickey Finn and Aphrodite when jump-up was in its prime due to its huge crossover appeal at the time.

Gavin is excited by the jungle vibe creeping back into the scene and also the disco-house impact that tracks like 'Spaced Invader' have brought. I wanted to know more about his unquestionable love for working with vocals. "Simply because I like it, I always have, I like working with vocalists, I like vocals in my records. I like rap and I also like drum & bass so I see no reason why I shouldn't join the two together. The only thing is that for a little period of time I seemed to be the only person who thought like that!"

As a much travelled international DJ it is clear that Gavin will be most experienced in the art of gauging audiences around the globe. On the US ravers: "They respond very well to a lot of hip hop vocals. You see the crowd instantly respond to it because hip hop to most of America has got the same kind of cultural background as rave music has for England and Europe. When you look at how rap music came about, it came from inner city areas where people made music, went to parties and then decided to take the bull by the horns and release things themselves.

Over here we had exactly the same thing going on but with rave music. So we listen to rap music, we like it, but we don't feel it in the same way that Americans do. We feel rave, drum & bass, house, that's what we feel." Spending an immense amount of time touring the States Gavin cites his one and only home as London, as that is where his friends and family are based, he also affirms that their driving rules literally drive him round the bend and he can't stand the US police. London is notably the epicentre of this music but should he have to move it would be a hard fought battle between Rio, Cape Town or Australia.

Latest Aphro singles have seen him team up with rap legend Schooly D and as mentioned his forthcoming LP sees another old school maestro Big Daddy Kane and also Busta Rhymes' nurtured Rah Digga. "My big inspiration in the rap scene came from electro rap, I like the odd rap tune now but I was heavily into the mid eighties period, that's the kind of stuff I really enjoy. I've never thought of how fantastic rap stars were because I've always been more of a beat person and a background person, the words are another instrument.

I've always liked the beat in Schooly D tunes and Big Daddy Kane. Gavin praises Busta Rhymes' newest single and vows that Busta and Eminem would make a great drum & bass track simply because of their blinding pace of speech and flows." The new Aphro album will see in addition to the CD three twelve inch single releases the first being the excellent teaming up with Barrington Levy on 'All Over Me'.

"I've done an album that will hopefully reach out of the drum & bass world and touch people who aren't regular drum & bass folk. My music has tended to have done that in the past which is the basic reason why I've ended up becoming a very international DJ."

Urban Shakedown, Gavin and Mickey's former moniker that saw the hit 'Some Justice' will be name of one of new record labels and Dramatix the other. The imprints will pave the way for the development of a number of up-and-coming artists whilst Urban Takeover concentrates on realising pure dancefloor smashers from some slightly more familiar faces.

'Blue Mystique' & 'The Time, The Place' is the current single on Aphrodite Recordings along with the latest in the Recuts series 'Woman That Rolls' & 'Mash Up Yer Know' and no girls Gavin still hasn't found a woman that rolls with his arrangement…