A R Kane

Infobox musical artist
Name = A.R. Kane


Img_capt =
Img_size =
Background = group_or_band
Origin = East London, England
Genre = Alternative rock Dream pop Alternative dance Trip hop
Years_active = 1987 - 1994
Label = Rough Trade
4AD
One Little Indian
Luaka Bop/Sire
Associated_acts = M/A/R/R/S
In Rain
Sufi
Alex Ayuli
Also Known As = A.R.Kane
URL = http://www.maymarch.com/arkane
http://www.myspace.com/arkaneuk
Current_members = Alex Ayuli
Rudi Tambala
Past_members =

A.R. Kane (or A R Kane or A.R.Kane) were a British dream pop band. Their name derived from the "A" in Alex (Ayuli) and the "R" in Rudi (Tambala), the band's core multi-instrumentalist duo. The duo hailed from the East side of London. Often surrealist and usually danceable, due to its strong dub influence, the band's music is seen as a seminal influence on genres such as dream pop, trip hop, acid house, and post-rock. Their lyrics frequently dealt with such topics as water/oceans, love, colors, childhood, and dreams.

Alex was formerly an advertising copywriter, one of the very few black creatives working in the London ad business (1983-1990). He started his ad career at JWT before moving on to TBWA where he was associated with the creation of two pan-European Lego tv commercials. The director of one of these commercials, Matt Forrest, invited Alex and his art director team mate to write a music video for Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy's track "Unkiss that Kiss". The music video was filmed inside and outside the historic L'Escargot restaurant in London's Soho.

History

They began by releasing two 12" singles, each on a trend-setting U.K. indie label (One Little Indian and 4AD). They also were part of a surprise world-wide number one chart hit as the "A/R" in the collective M/A/R/R/S's "Pump Up the Volume" (along with 4AD label-mates Colourbox.

They then released a string of singles and two ground-breaking albums on Rough Trade Records. These albums were 1988's "sixty-nine" and 1989's "i". Critics found both albums difficult to define, genre-wise. "sixty-nine" was more consciously rock-based, and its sound could be likened to the nascent shoegaze movement; "i" was more slick/poppy, covering a wide variety of styles over twenty-six tracks (ten of which were short noise interludes). "i" also spawned what is arguably A.R. Kane's best-known song, "A Love From Outer Space". Both albums achieved wide critical acclaim, particularly in UK magazine "Melody Maker", where they were championed in particular by critic Simon Reynolds. The 6-track "rem"i"xes" EP featured remixes of songs from the "i" LP, done by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins and by A R Kane themselves.

Rough Trade went bankrupt in 1991, hindering the band's momentum and leaving them label-less. In 1992, David Byrne's record label, Luaka Bop, released a 15-song U.S. retrospective of the band's work, entitled "Americana". This is considered the band's first official U.S. release.

After an early-'90s hiatus, follow-up album "New Clear Child" (1994) was not received as well. The reasons were the seeming lack of a coherent direction and a feeling that the ideas were merely re-hashes of works that were completed more succinctly in the earlier two albums.

Post-breakup and reissues

Tambala then made ambient- and dub-based music under the alias Sufi, releasing the 1995 album "Life's Rising" on Caroline Records. Ayuli put out releases under the name Alex!. Tambala is currently working for Ministry of Sound as head of IT, and has previously worked for Virgin Digital, albeit in non-musical related roles. Since the dissolution of A.R. Kane, Ayuli was (and possibly still is) known to be a museum curator in the U.S. A R Kane's first two albums were reissued in the U.S. by One Little Indian in 2004; "New Clear Child" was reissued by 3rd Stone in 2000. 1990s artists who have cited A.R. Kane as an influence include Long Fin Killie, Slowdive, Dubstar, The Veldt, Apollo Heights and Seefeel.

Ayuli recently has recorded vocals with the Mexican record label Static Discos artist Fax on the album "Primario". He appears on two tracks, "Soulsong" and "Passage".

Personnel

*Alex Ayuli
*Rudi Tambala

Discography

Albums

* "sixty-nine" CD/LP - 1988 - Rough Trade, Rough 119 (Reissued on One Little Indian, 2004)
* "i" CD/LP - 1989 - Rough Trade, Rough 139 (Reissued on One Little Indian, 2004)
* "New Clear Child" CD/LP - 1994 - Luaka Bop, (Reissued on 3rd Stone, 2000)

EPs, Singles

* "When You're Sad" 12" - 1986, One Little Indian, 12 TP 2
* "Lollita" 12" - 1987, 4AD, BAD 704
* "Up Home!" 12" - 1988, Rough Trade, RTT 201
* "Listen Up!" 12" - 1988, Rough Trade, 229
* "Love-Sick" 12" - 1988, Rough Trade, 231
* "Pop" CD/12" - 1989, Rough Trade, RT 239
* "rem"i"xes" CD/12" - 1990, Rough Trade Deutschland, RTD 171 (Germany/ U.K.)
* "A Love From Outer Space" CD/12" - 1992, Luaka Bop/ Sire

Compilation

* "Americana" CD/LP - 1992, Luaka Bop/ Sire

References

External links

* [http://www.myspace.com/arkaneuk Myspace site]
* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifixqw5ld0e All Music Guide entry]
* [http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=ar_kane Trouser Press entry]
* [http://eyesore.no/html/interview/ArKane.WhereAreTheyNow.Q.article.html Whatever Happened To... A R Kane] (from January 1999 issue of "Q" magazine)