Lemon D
Encyclopedia
Kevin King embarked on his musical journey from a fairly young age. From the tender age of eleven, he was already b- boying: breakdancing and battling it out with the local crews in order to be eligible to receive the latest electro and pioneering hp hop mixtapes from the United States.
A few years down the line, however, Kevin became interested by the sounds of US House and the Detroit-influenced techno of Derrick May and Juan Atkins which had begun to filter its way through the U.K underground dance music scene. By the time U.K camps such as Nightmares On Wax, Renegade Soundwave and Unique 3 began to take these sounds on board, giving their own breakbeat and bass influenced offerings, Kevin was hooked, and made an almost complete switch to the house and hardcore sounds being exposed by both U.K. and U.S artist's. Like many of his cohorts, an investment in a pair of turntables in 1990 was the next step, and he was soon purchasing vinyl in vast quantities. With a friend he began Deejaying under the moniker of Le Monde - French for ' The World.'
After straying from the path of music for a couple of years hanging out with the wrong crowds, he decided to switch his lifestyle and re-enter full-time education. Being a grade-A student in art at school, he naturally went on to completing course in Art & Design and Desktop Publishing. He worked for a brief moment for an established music licensing company in London (Bruton Music a division of Chappel Music). After working there for approximately a year, Kevin decided to hang out and learn the going on in studios by booking in studio time and making rough tracks. After another twelve months of learning the basics of programming a sampler, he decided to make the crossover from playing tracks to creating them, and with a little re-shuffling of letters, the producer LemonD was re invented. Rather than putting tracks out on other already established labels, Kevin decided to firstly form his own independent label, and continuing the 'Worldly' theme, it was named Planet Earth. The label's first release in 1992, titled "I Need You", was produced by LemonD and engineered by Jez Wright of Liquid 'Sweet Harmony' fame . Planet Earth went on to put out five further colored-label releases, including the 1994 classic jungle track "Six Million Ways To Die", produced by the then unknown Dexxtrous, now better known as J-Majik.
As Planet Earth neared its final commercial release, Kevin began to explore deeper in the engineering side of the production process. Whilst on on the hunt for additional studio equipment needed in order to do this, he was introduced to Karl Francis aka Dillinja, a meeting which herald the beginning of a long term working relationship, a relationship which was to blossom fully some years down the line. In the meantime, LemonD was producing tracks for a plethora of Jungle / Drum and Bass labels, such as the reggae influenced deep bass fusion of 1995's "Jah Love" on Conqueror Records. Although he had been involved with labels previously and engineering works for J-Majik and working with Dillinja, by the time Kevin recorded his 1995 track "Urban Style Music" for Goldie's pioneering Metalheadz imprint, he was a Jungle/ DnB producer well in demand. Both he and Karl became infamous for being the first producers to champion the filtering drums technique, distorted basslines and unique Amen breakbeat patterns. This sound was unheard of from any producer at the time in any music genre and went on to influence drum and bass and dance music in general. Even to this day the basis of what they experimented and created can be found staple in a considerable amount of dance music productions even hip hop.
He went on to record tracks for V Recordings, Chronic (as Afro KId), Hardleaders, Prototype, Reinforced, Dread and Tru Playaz (as Eskobar), showing of his musical versatility to dazzling effect, as seen through the jazzy and soulful but never wanting for bass tracks such as the classic "Manhattan Melody" and the minimal soul "Going Gets Tuff" ; these serving as stark contrast to the devastating Amen smash "Fade to Black" in which Knowledge magazine stated as probably one of if not the best amen breakbeat-based tracks ever produced in Drum and Bass. In 1996 Kevin signed an album deal with R&S records in Belgium and a publishing deal with Sony ATV respectively. An album was in the process over 18 months but with R&S closing for business for a few years then being incorporated into PIAS the album was never completed.
During the Jungle production era he remixed En Vogue, The Art of Noise, BT. For Namco he remixed a track from the game Tekken also 'Thirsty' from the Blade 3 movie soundtrack. As well as many other Drum and Bass producers at that time he has worked with musicians from other genres. The legendary drummer Billy Cobham, Singer and actress Michelle Gayle, Gary Husband drummer and keys (Heaven 17) and The legend and God Father of Hip Hop Afrika Bambatta.
In 1997, Kevin's partnership with Karl (Dillinja) lead to the birth of their co-owned label Valve Recordings. The label started as it meant to go on with LemonD's aggressively funky "12.01" backed with Dillinja's brutal "Violent Killa". Test Recordings was set up as a subsidiary label at around the same time period - an anonymous more dance floor based label which itself had several releases. Kevin's art and design skills are a huge part of the Valve make-up and he was instrumental in the art direction of the sleeve as with many of the Valve releases. The Test label artwork was directed by King and constructed by Jon Black. The sleeve has appeared in various record sleeve based publications and has been noted for its innovative design within the electronic dance music scene.
In 2001 he went on to help in the construction of the Valve Sound System with Dillinja. They are both cited in press stating that they were fed up with playing on second-rate club and festival sound systems which they felt didn't do their tracks justice, they both decided to build their own - The valve Sound System - the world's first sound system designed and built specifically for drum and bass and most forms of bass driven music. This issue was all too often ignored by most club systems. The Valve Sound System made its club debut at London's Fabric nightclub in May 2001, and since then it has extensively toured the U.K and showcased at some the most prestigious venues the U.K. The popularity and reputation of the sound system spawned an influx and trend of many events even acts at the time to start even incorporating the term 'sound system' in their names or billing even though these groups did not even possess a bespoke tailored rig. This trend is still apparent in today's music scene. Being the innovators they are they invested in a Nuemann VMS 70 cutting lathe and started learning process of mastering and cutting to metal master lacquers. They became the first and only Drum and Bass producers and recording label to have their own cutting lathe and master their own music. Another first in the history of that genre. Once the rumors caught wind they became inundated with cutting dub plates and master's for labels within the scene.
In May 2002, Lemon D co-produced Valve Recordings debut album "Big Bad Bass" with Dillinja, an Lp which aimed to reflect the ethos of the Valve Sound System, an album which sold in excess of 50,000 copies independently and still continues to enjoy club success years later from the album's commercial release.
The second album "The Killa-Hertz" was released to critical acclaim in Sept 2003. It features a selection of hard dance floor tracks familiar to the many drum and bass fans and some experimental drum and bass veering away from the usual staple and formatted drum and bass frequenting the scene. In 2004 He and Dillinja won an UMA (Urban Music Award) for Best Drum and Bass Act / DJ.
In the next six years he continued to deejay internationally and also deejay the Valve Sound System. Worked and produced the music for T.V adverts with Dillinja. He produced music for 'FIFA Street 2' on EA Games and worked on other music projects outside of the dance music scene.
A few years down the line, however, Kevin became interested by the sounds of US House and the Detroit-influenced techno of Derrick May and Juan Atkins which had begun to filter its way through the U.K underground dance music scene. By the time U.K camps such as Nightmares On Wax, Renegade Soundwave and Unique 3 began to take these sounds on board, giving their own breakbeat and bass influenced offerings, Kevin was hooked, and made an almost complete switch to the house and hardcore sounds being exposed by both U.K. and U.S artist's. Like many of his cohorts, an investment in a pair of turntables in 1990 was the next step, and he was soon purchasing vinyl in vast quantities. With a friend he began Deejaying under the moniker of Le Monde - French for ' The World.'
After straying from the path of music for a couple of years hanging out with the wrong crowds, he decided to switch his lifestyle and re-enter full-time education. Being a grade-A student in art at school, he naturally went on to completing course in Art & Design and Desktop Publishing. He worked for a brief moment for an established music licensing company in London (Bruton Music a division of Chappel Music). After working there for approximately a year, Kevin decided to hang out and learn the going on in studios by booking in studio time and making rough tracks. After another twelve months of learning the basics of programming a sampler, he decided to make the crossover from playing tracks to creating them, and with a little re-shuffling of letters, the producer LemonD was re invented. Rather than putting tracks out on other already established labels, Kevin decided to firstly form his own independent label, and continuing the 'Worldly' theme, it was named Planet Earth. The label's first release in 1992, titled "I Need You", was produced by LemonD and engineered by Jez Wright of Liquid 'Sweet Harmony' fame . Planet Earth went on to put out five further colored-label releases, including the 1994 classic jungle track "Six Million Ways To Die", produced by the then unknown Dexxtrous, now better known as J-Majik.
As Planet Earth neared its final commercial release, Kevin began to explore deeper in the engineering side of the production process. Whilst on on the hunt for additional studio equipment needed in order to do this, he was introduced to Karl Francis aka Dillinja, a meeting which herald the beginning of a long term working relationship, a relationship which was to blossom fully some years down the line. In the meantime, LemonD was producing tracks for a plethora of Jungle / Drum and Bass labels, such as the reggae influenced deep bass fusion of 1995's "Jah Love" on Conqueror Records. Although he had been involved with labels previously and engineering works for J-Majik and working with Dillinja, by the time Kevin recorded his 1995 track "Urban Style Music" for Goldie's pioneering Metalheadz imprint, he was a Jungle/ DnB producer well in demand. Both he and Karl became infamous for being the first producers to champion the filtering drums technique, distorted basslines and unique Amen breakbeat patterns. This sound was unheard of from any producer at the time in any music genre and went on to influence drum and bass and dance music in general. Even to this day the basis of what they experimented and created can be found staple in a considerable amount of dance music productions even hip hop.
He went on to record tracks for V Recordings, Chronic (as Afro KId), Hardleaders, Prototype, Reinforced, Dread and Tru Playaz (as Eskobar), showing of his musical versatility to dazzling effect, as seen through the jazzy and soulful but never wanting for bass tracks such as the classic "Manhattan Melody" and the minimal soul "Going Gets Tuff" ; these serving as stark contrast to the devastating Amen smash "Fade to Black" in which Knowledge magazine stated as probably one of if not the best amen breakbeat-based tracks ever produced in Drum and Bass. In 1996 Kevin signed an album deal with R&S records in Belgium and a publishing deal with Sony ATV respectively. An album was in the process over 18 months but with R&S closing for business for a few years then being incorporated into PIAS the album was never completed.
During the Jungle production era he remixed En Vogue, The Art of Noise, BT. For Namco he remixed a track from the game Tekken also 'Thirsty' from the Blade 3 movie soundtrack. As well as many other Drum and Bass producers at that time he has worked with musicians from other genres. The legendary drummer Billy Cobham, Singer and actress Michelle Gayle, Gary Husband drummer and keys (Heaven 17) and The legend and God Father of Hip Hop Afrika Bambatta.
In 1997, Kevin's partnership with Karl (Dillinja) lead to the birth of their co-owned label Valve Recordings. The label started as it meant to go on with LemonD's aggressively funky "12.01" backed with Dillinja's brutal "Violent Killa". Test Recordings was set up as a subsidiary label at around the same time period - an anonymous more dance floor based label which itself had several releases. Kevin's art and design skills are a huge part of the Valve make-up and he was instrumental in the art direction of the sleeve as with many of the Valve releases. The Test label artwork was directed by King and constructed by Jon Black. The sleeve has appeared in various record sleeve based publications and has been noted for its innovative design within the electronic dance music scene.
In 2001 he went on to help in the construction of the Valve Sound System with Dillinja. They are both cited in press stating that they were fed up with playing on second-rate club and festival sound systems which they felt didn't do their tracks justice, they both decided to build their own - The valve Sound System - the world's first sound system designed and built specifically for drum and bass and most forms of bass driven music. This issue was all too often ignored by most club systems. The Valve Sound System made its club debut at London's Fabric nightclub in May 2001, and since then it has extensively toured the U.K and showcased at some the most prestigious venues the U.K. The popularity and reputation of the sound system spawned an influx and trend of many events even acts at the time to start even incorporating the term 'sound system' in their names or billing even though these groups did not even possess a bespoke tailored rig. This trend is still apparent in today's music scene. Being the innovators they are they invested in a Nuemann VMS 70 cutting lathe and started learning process of mastering and cutting to metal master lacquers. They became the first and only Drum and Bass producers and recording label to have their own cutting lathe and master their own music. Another first in the history of that genre. Once the rumors caught wind they became inundated with cutting dub plates and master's for labels within the scene.
In May 2002, Lemon D co-produced Valve Recordings debut album "Big Bad Bass" with Dillinja, an Lp which aimed to reflect the ethos of the Valve Sound System, an album which sold in excess of 50,000 copies independently and still continues to enjoy club success years later from the album's commercial release.
The second album "The Killa-Hertz" was released to critical acclaim in Sept 2003. It features a selection of hard dance floor tracks familiar to the many drum and bass fans and some experimental drum and bass veering away from the usual staple and formatted drum and bass frequenting the scene. In 2004 He and Dillinja won an UMA (Urban Music Award) for Best Drum and Bass Act / DJ.
In the next six years he continued to deejay internationally and also deejay the Valve Sound System. Worked and produced the music for T.V adverts with Dillinja. He produced music for 'FIFA Street 2' on EA Games and worked on other music projects outside of the dance music scene.
External links
- http://vlvmusic.com Official website
- www.myspace.com/lemonde73 MyspaceMyspaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page - http://twitter.com/kazeofficial on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...