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| Rennie Pilgrem - Christchurch, 31 June Son of a jazz trumpeter, Rennie started life playing tenor saxophone and sitting with his Father's various bands around Southern England. Later he formed various funk bands playing sax and keyboards.. After making rudimentary House music on the wrong kind of drum machines with soon to be Rhythm Section members Ellis Dee, Richard Thake and Nick 'Newton Scott, they had interest from (amongst others) the new British house label Guerrilla. Preferring to release their own material they formed Rhythm Section Recordings and became part of the wave of breakbeat house that went on to become known as Hardcore in the early '90's. Their third release 'Comin' On Strong' was so huge it stayed in the Dance Charts for 2 years. Rhythm Section played at pretty much every main party between '90-92' on the same bill as The Prodigy, Moby, Altern 8, Shades Of Rhythm and Bizzare Inc. In 1993 Rennie founded Thursday Club Recordings (TCR) as a medium for putting out his own material. Recording now as 'Thursday Club' he had a big tune with 'Thursday Theme' which was chased by Virgin. His Next release 'A Place Called Acid' (1995) was one of the biggest breakbeat tunes around and resulted in him being offered gigs around the World 1996 set up legendary London night 'Friction' with Adam Freeland, Tayo and Ian William and Along with DJs Adam Freeland, Tayo and Ian Williams, Pilgrem coined and defined the nu-skool genre of breakbeat music — a style that has stepped back from the filthy drum 'n' bass breaks for a more moderate bpm forged with techno's efficiency. Pilgrem began his career in the postacid, hardcore/guerrilla-house scene band Rhythm Section. But as the scene became increasingly insular, paranoid and aggressive, Rhythm Section pulled back, finally splintering in 1993. Pilgrem then launched into an exploration of the spectra of breaks, thriving through the scene as it progressed from the days when it was in backrooms. "Winning people from different scenes and crafting timeless tracks by moving between influences is the goal of breaks, " Pilgrem says. Even what he calls the "vodka cranberry" crowd, the more fickle and pretentious socializing set of dance fans, has taken notice. He's released records on Whole9yards, City Of Angels, Chrysalis/EMI, Mob and China Records to name but a few. He's collaborated with many top producers including legend Arthur Baker, BLIM (Breakpoll Best Single '2Freaks') He continues to DJ all over the world and wow audiences with his dancefloor-friendly funk-infused breaks sets. He has held residencies in Rome and London (at his own HUM night and now STIR). He is also part of the team responsible for the 'Breaksday' concept – which has had parties in Miami, London and The Glade Festival. He has been voted 'Most Valuable/Influential Person' at The International Breaks Awards four years running and also also picked up awards for Best Single (2Freaks) and Best Remix for the huge Emit/Collect by DJ Zero 2004 Rennie released a mix album on Perfecto 'Perfecto Breaks' which was the first mix album ever to utilise Ableton Live. Rennie was recently asked to do another track for Sony's next Wipeout Pure PSP game. He has written music for a couple of commercials and scored the Theme Music for The Football Factory. His label TCR currently has the biggest Catalogue of Breakbeat tracks in the World and last year passed its 100th 12" Release. 2005 Rennie formed 'Rennie Pilgrem & The TCR Allstars as a Live project. 15 gigs later including Glastonbury and The Glade Festival they have been included amongst the '20 Best Live acts to see' in IDJ Magazine. Amongst all this Rennie somehow finds the time to write reviews for IDJ Magazine (coincidence) and Big Shot Magazine in the USA. 2007 Rennie has a weekly Breaks Show on Galaxy Digital. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his 3rd Studio Album which will feature some Live Recordings made with members of The TCR Allstars. He is part of Stir which takes over renowned night club Heaven in London as an 'indoor Glade' concept in which Breaks rubs shoulders with Psy-Trance and other genres of dance music He has just released 'Live At The Cavern' a Mix album recorded Live in Exeter at the UK's longest running Breaks night. Featuring Rennie on Live Keyboards and mixing this is the first of its kind and has received huge critical acclaim. He is about to release a new single on TCR 'Dutty Work / Clobber' which looks set to achieve the same success as Eraser did earlier this year – already earning 'Single of the Month' titles in both DJ mag and iDJ magazine and receiving plays from Pete Tongs show on Radio 1 amongst many others. write your comments about the article :: © 2008 Jazz News :: home page |