The Barrow Boy

Never get out of the boat! It might have been one of many nightmare moments in Coppola s Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now, but, more importantly, it kickstarted a golden age in contemporary British dance music. Until then, DJs, dance fans and clubbers alike had been bludgeoned into submission by post-Beltram hardcore trauma, and even the early stages of Hardfloor fuelled acid indulgence had lacked an original identity and sound.
Large-scale parties and raves on either side of the channel were fast losing their appeal, due to a combination of formulaic music and the criminal element ruining everybody s fun. 1992 was a time when many yearned to return to smaller, sweatier venues that encapsulated the original excitement of acid house. When The Aloof arrived on the scene with their fresh-sounding take on techno-house, they came laden with tunes that would inspire a whole wave of British producers.
Never Get Out Of The Boat was followed by killer club tracks like On a Mission and Purity , and all of a sudden Progressive House was born. Lazy media monikers aside, the music produced during the 92- 93 period was the freshest house to appear in the UK until the Nuphonics, Papers and U-Stars of this world started to appear last year. Percussive, hard, tribal tracks like the early Leftfield material, the Fabio Paras Shiva Shanti project and practically anything on the Guerilla and Cowboy imprints were championed by open-minded jocks like Weatherall, Perry, Robertson and Emerson. Meanwhile, the Aloof, who had initiated proceedings, did a Lord Lucan and went into hibernation.
As singer Ricky Barrow explains over the phone, it was a case of progressing from Progressive House: What we do nowadays as a band is a progression from that time. It took a while for us to sort it out, but you grow up musically. I would never be ashamed of being part of that scene, but we outgrew it. It would be pointless to still be stuck with that sound, trying to emulate it. What is called Progressive House nowadays hasn t got the balls or originality it had three years ago.
While away for the year, the band picked up on different musical styles, not least through Aloof member Dean Thatcher s adventurous DJing: We would only listen to techno or house in the past, which got a bit monotonous. Then, after the Aloof formed we started picking out what is good in all types of music, explains Ricky. It s all down to Dean being a DJ his set was right across the board. You never knew what he was going to play next. People used to go to and watch him just to see what he was going to play!
It was Thatcher who also discovered Barrow, although they had been mates for years. Barrow was working in a mundane job, incinerating medical waste, when Thatcher heard a dance demo featuring an unknown male backing singer. When the identity of the mystery voice was revealed, Barrow became an integral part of the band. This new direction in Barrow s life was not the result of matey favouritism but the realisation of Ricky s burning ambition: I d always wanted to sing, and I used to turn up at parties and do vocals over the tracks that were being played. I d known Dean for a while, but he never knew I was a singer. Being in the Aloof isn t comparable to having a full-time job, it s more like meeting up with your mates down the pub!
Despite the informal set-up, the band have produced two top-class long players during the last few years. Their debut platter, Cover the Crime, was as much a sign to the world of rock music as Underworld s debut from the same year, Dubnobasswithmy headman, that dance music had matured considerably. This was computer music for those who did not like bangin techno, avin it house or all the other dismal drivel mass-produced in the name of electronica. Having had their fill of playing off DAT tapes to glammed up Sharon n Darrens we did the whole PA circuit in the early 90s and got pretty sick of that The Aloof, along with Underworld, Leftfield, Orbital and The Prodigy, brought the genre from the dingy nightclub to the accessible concert hall, where the music could be appreciated by many more.
Ricky is in agreement on this point: I really understand the appeal of live music, but at the same time I m still amazed by the popularity Underworld and Leftfield have enjoyed, because the music they play out is still cutting edge. At the same time, a lot of my mates are in rock bands, and when they first saw us live they realised that dance music had eventually crossed over. Dance music can be pretty faceless, so when we play live we have a live guitarist, drummer and bass player, so we are actually a proper band. Having said that, no-one can touch Underworld when they play live.
If this is true, then the Aloof come a very close second to Emerson s riotous mob. Their recent UK dates, promoting their second, bluesier and ultimately darker album, Sinking, left full venues the length and breadth of Britain screaming for more of their 90s funk, and the accompanying pre and post gig antics left even a stalwart caner like support DJ Kris Needs desperately in need of a holiday.
Kris is the one who instigated the whole thing, he s pretty full-on, Ricky jokes before adopting a more serious tone, but I do think that the media were wrong to cast us as wild men. I mean, when we get together and get drunk sometimes things get broken, but not in a Oasis rock n roll way. I love drinking, and moved to where I live now because it s beside a pub. In fact If I wasn t doing what I was I m sure I d be murder to live with.
Right now, the Aloof are one of the few dance acts that should find a home in everyone s record collection. n