Altern8, Mr. C, Ralph Lawson (20/20 Vision) and Ray Keith, Rewire Renegade Soundwave Classics for October Release Series

Following the fantastic reception that greeted Carl Cox’s rewire of ‘The Phantom’ last week, the next four Renegade Soundwave rewires begin dropping today (Thursday 1st October).

Rewires of key Renegade Soundwave tracks have been dropping weekly since the start of September, and this month’s instalments have just been announced. First up is Altern8 with their redo of ‘Ozone Breakdown. Peppering skippy breaks and bleeps over a deep burrowing bass, the pace might be slower than some of their early 90s productions but the dubwise groove quotient is definitely present and correct.

Exploding onto the scene at the height of hardcore at the turn of the 90s, Altern8 — with their trademark dust masks and chemical warfare suits — struck a chord with first wave ravers everywhere. Tunes such as ‘Activ-8’ and ‘Evapor-8’ transferred from the raves into the charts, and in 1994 Mark Archer took sole ownership over the Altern-8 name. Mark has produced his rewire with acclaimed producer Shadow Child.

A week later, on Thursday 8th October eminent junglist Ray Keith drops the first of his reinterpretations of ‘Ozone Breakdown’. Ray Keith’s Jungle Techno Hardcore Rewire is a storming hard techno belter with punishing hardcore rave stabs and some energising jungle tekno breakbeat business to propel it forward at superfast velocity.

Ray Keith is one of the UK dance music scene’s true originals. A hardcore and acid house DJ who found his home in jungle and drum & bass as the 90s unfolded, he was responsible for searing anthems like ‘Terrorist’ (under the name Renegade, funnily enough) and the propulsive ‘Chopper’ in the mid-90s, as well as setting up labels such as Dread and Penny Black. One of the mainstays behind the counter at Black Market Records in London’s Soho for many years, Ray has remained a mainstay in the scene ever since.

Later on October 22nd, Mr. C — the former Shamen frontman who has made underground dance music his life for the best part of four decades — drops his rewire of ‘Probably A Robbery’, a key RSW track that actually crept into the UK Top 40 at the start of 1990. Starting with an infectious chant, Mr C’s Definitely Robbed Acid Rewire takes it deep and acidic, the burbling bass leading voyagers into a spacey synth journey through distant galaxies and beyond.

Mr. C was part of the original UK acid house explosion as a DJ, producer and MC before joining The Shaman full time after the tragic death of the band’s frontman Will Sinnott. With increased accessibility, The Shamen topped the charts with cheeky ecstasy record ‘Ebeneezer Goode’ and remained a successful techno-pop band for much of the 90s. In parallel, Mr. C opened The End club in London and started his Superfreq brand which continues to this day.

Finally for October 29th, Ralph Lawson in his 20/20 Vision guise provides a motorik electro take on ‘Ozone Breakdown’ that grooves and clangs in all the right places. Ralph is another legend of the UK scene, who first rocked up in Leeds to go to university at a fortuitous time at the turn of the 90s. Not fortuitous for his studies perhaps; he fell in with the embryonic Back To Basics crew and was the first DJ to play the first record at the very first Basics night in Leeds in 1991.

As the decade unfolded he became Musical Director at Basics and helped to bring over the likes of Daft Punk, Danny Tenaglia, Derrick Carter and Ron Trent for their first ever UK shows. Ralph started DJing all over the UK and then Europe, and by now had started his 2020 Vision label, which would go on to release tracks by the likes of Maya Jane Coles, Crazy P and Paul Woolford. Alongside musical partner Carl Finlow he started 20/20 productions, and after the millennium this morphed into the live electronic band 2020Soundsystem which toured the world for the next decade.

Renegade Soundwave are one of the most influential and innovative acts to emerge from the UK’s late-1980s electronic underground. They refused to recognise genre boundaries, blending sound system culture with heavyweight bass, breakbeats, house, industrial textures, punk attitude and dub production to create a sound that was years ahead of its time. Landmark releases including ‘The Phantom’, ‘Ozone Breakdown’, ‘Women Respond To Bass’, ‘Probably A Robbery’ and the seminal album ‘RSW In Dub’ helped shape the DNA of UK electronic music.

Now the RSW brand is back to inspire and delight a new generation. Founding member Danny Briottet approached the Jack Said What team with new music, and also the idea of reworking some of the RSW back catalogue. ‘RSW Rewired’ was born.