Meeting at Our Price
It was early 1991. Tony Clements and Chris Paynter would meet via the local UK music store Our Price over a mutual interest in a particular German electronic music band.
“You need to speak to Chris. He's into Kraftwerk as well” the underpaid shop keeper shared while Tony paid for the latest Kraftwerk LP.
Finding someone else into the same music, especially something as underground and innovative as the futuristic German sonic scientists, was pretty rare. Personal access to the internet and smartphones would be still almost a decade away for most people.
In those early first visits to Chris’ studio they would explore classic Kraftwerk sounds, the Roland TR808 reconfiguring those eager ears. It wasn’t long before they developed their studios and begun creating tracks together, eventually forming a self-released label Weirdo Wax and launching their first techno act Metamorphism, releasing the classic white label 12″ ‘The Mekanix EP’ in 1993, and the 2 track 12″ ‘Illusion’ the following year. Both these records quickly became successful, reaching many minds and would gain them the attention and ongoing support of Radio One’s evening disc jockey John Peel. This was where all the cool shit could be heard. These early records would also catch the ear of a young 16 year old lad and fellow Dorset local, but more on that later.
The proliferation of Tony in the studio quickly developed, bringing the noise and a greater aggression, shifting the sound, one probably most noticeable both in the 1994 B-side of Illusion ‘Meto (DB)’, a 15 minutes edited down jam of a hard, distorted, acid techno workout, and the 1994 ‘Sector One E.P.’ under their Waveforms alias released on Rock Hard Records. This new sound was a step away from their more trance-like melodic techno of Metamorphism, and into something far more industrial, surreal, and perhaps pulling harder on their early influences of acts like Front 242.
A new band name, and a new label was imminent.
A new sound A new label
The tail end of 1994 would mark the beginning of the new label Eurk. Its logo, although yet to don the records themselves and only available on the t-shirt, showed a woman spitting out her tea, eyes wide with shock. The image all very appropriate, as the 6 track sampler ‘Zyrcon EP’ under their new band name ‘Distorted Waves Of Ohm’, showed little in the way of holding back, and firmly demonstrated through its hard, erratic and distorted beats, a little of what was to come.
Aside from the massive success of the Zyrcon EP, fans become torn between the A-sides ravelike ‘Double Headed Attack’ versus the more sonically deranged B-side percussive and acidic onslaught. It was clear those melodic trance patterns and fun vocal drops of the earlier years were becoming less prominent, and a darker sound was emerging. This record wasn’t without its issues either. With so many tracks cramped onto the vinyl and some miscommunication along the way with the cut, the tracks ended up being cut bass heavy and too quiet to really explode the stylus in the way the lads wished.
The follow up 12″ and 3 tracker ‘Strange Rotation E.P.’ released in 1995, firmly corrected what wasn’t quite right with Zyrcon. The opener ‘Pacified Machines’, with its' percussive white noise claps and erratic yet tight sequencing hitting hard right from the off, with an intensity yet to have been heard from the two and comparable to classics from Caustic Window, DJ Hell’s Sprung aus dem Volken and Luke Slater’s Moave Violin to name a few. Holy shit this record hits hard.
1995 would be a busy year with more records released and played out by Jeff Mills, Adam X and Lenny Dee, yet despite the underground ethos held strongly by the boys, many requests started to emerge from distros and the like, to “make something like the last great hit”. Combined with the distros lackluster attitude to push the Eurk sound during what was a growing commercialism taking over the music, and with the many money grabbing pricks out there ripping people off, looking at you Kickin records, things began to get a little frustrating.
This frustration continued onto the final release of the year titled the ‘Girlz EP’ recorded under a new project name ‘Avanti’, a pumping house inspired but typically Eurk broken sound, scheduled for release October of 1995. Despite a small bundle of 20 test pressings being made and scattered about, the record funding was pulled out at the last minute and the record never officially happened. Discogs and the various bootleggers out there, will have you believe 100 copies were pressed, and conveniently they have some for sale, and at silly high prices. These are not legit Eurk records.
And then there was one
As the UK heatwave and summer of ‘95 was coming to an end, a surprise phone call came from regular supporter John Peel, as he stood down the road in a telephone box, hoping, on the off chance, Tony and Chris would be available to chat. With Chris unreachable and stuck at work, Tony and John sat down and chatted in the studio, whereby the chance of a Distorted Waves Of Ohms Peel session was agreed. The broadcast went out in November 1995, with music this time written entirely by Tony, resulting in what is arguably some of the most experimental and groovy music to come out from the Eurk studios to date. Despite this recent success and motivation however, with writing duties becoming almost entirely Tony throughout 1995, it was inevitable the creative relationship between the boys would suffer, and so it was eventually announced officially that Distorted Waves Of Ohm would now be the solo project of just Tony.
Along with the Untitled 12″ on Sonic Groove Records, 1996 brought only one Eurk release, a new 4 track E.P. ‘Surrealist Sketch Show’. The A-side ‘Cats & Dogs’, dipped into a more experimental, stripped back groove driven techno territory, drawing slightly from Dave Clarkes’ classic Red 2, with ‘Puppet Master‘ perhaps inspired by classic electro fresh percussion from the likes of Davy DMX. The B-sides ‘Beneath The Subconcious Lies A Distorted Mind‘, firmly grabs the listeners ears and rams them full of whatever had been hiding up until now, taking a familiar voice sample of “Ich lieb dich nicht” before throwing pleasant and familiar acidic burns into your cochlea. The final acid chapter ‘System Surrealism’, although probably not known at the time, would be the last heard from the Eurk label until 2001 and the largely overlooked ‘Mekandroids’ CD compilation, before Eurk went on pause.
Time to look forward
It’s 2024.
That 16 year old lad and fellow Dorset local is now 46, calling on their iPhone the familiar number that reaches Tony Clements.
“It’s been a while”
Having been a close friend since the mid 90’s yet somewhat in the background of those early Eurk years, it was inevitable the conversation around Eurk and the future of music would come up. It became clear these two minds were aligned once again, both sharing strong beliefs around the value of keeping things underground, and both keen to do more with Eurk some 30 years later.
A new partnership is born.
New material is created, vast archives are explored, as it quickly becomes very clear that there is much to do, and much to share and put out into the world, especially one so bizarre as it is now, although perhaps it was always this way, we just weren’t looking close enough.
The wait has stopped. The pause button has been lifted.
In the words of LFO “We Are back”.
“Majors are not interested in decent music, just teeny bop shit. It's all greed as far as they care!”
– Metamorphism