4hero

Style

4hero's style was initially uptempo breakbeat, house and techno, and has progressed to breakbeat hardcore, oldschool jungle, and drum and bass. Comparisons have been drawn between them and East London band Shut Up and Dance, with both bands evolving in the early 1990s as a rapprochement between the breakbeat-driven African-diasporic musical structures of hip-hop and reggae, and the dark, European reconstruction of the techno sound popularised by the likes of Joey Beltram, CJ Bolland and Mundo Muzique. 4hero both embraced the dynamics of populist rave culture, and maintained an avant-garde status as innovative and experimental producers. They trailblazed genre-crossing studio techniques such as timestretching and pitch-shifting.

Early history

The main players in 4hero first met and came to prominence in the late 1980s when they were involved in the Strong Island FM pirate radio station. Marc Mac and Gus "Reinforced Gus" Lawrence set up Reinforced Records in 1989 to release their own productions as 4hero, with the group being completed by Dego and Ian "Da Rebel" Bardouille. Their first release was the 1990 single "All B 3 / Rising Son". In addition to 4Hero, Clair also recorded under the aliases Manix, releasing tracks that have gone on to be club classics in their own right ("Feel Real Good" in 1991 and "Try To love Me" in 1992) and as the jungle/bass act Tom & Jerry with 1994's "Maximum Style," which sampled Maxi Anderson's 1975 song "Lover To Lover."

The follow-up EP, Combat Dancin', underpinned the sub-bass pressure of the bleep 'n' bass artists associated with Sheffield's Warp Records, such as LFO and Nightmares on Wax, with mid-tempo hip-hop-style breakbeats. It also brought the group to the attention of the rave community due to the track "Mr Kirk's Nightmare", which pivoted around the "Get Into Something" break (taken from the Isley Brothers) and a morbid vocal sample ("Mr Kirk? Your son is dead. He died of an overdose.") taken from the Bobby Susser, anti-drug hit "Once You Understand" by Think. 4hero were among the first proponents of what would become known as "drum and bass", which began to grow in profile via a series of releases on Reinforced. Another drum and bass figurehead, Goldie, met 4hero at a performance in London's Astoria. Marc and Dego went on to collaborate with Goldie and bring the sounds he envisioned to life, forming the Rufige Cru and MetalHeadz monikers.

The band's debut album, In Rough Territory was released in 1991 on Reinforced Records. This would be the only one of the group's albums to feature Reinforced Gus and Da Rebel as full members, with future releases being created by Marc Mac and Dego either together or in parallel.

Parallel Universe - present

In 1995 NME voted 4hero's second album Parallel Universe the album of the year in its dance category. In 1997 one of their tracks, a remix of Nuyorican Soul's "Black Gold of the Sun", was released to critical acclaim with Louie Vega himself describing it as "...one of the best remixes ever...".

The next year, 4hero rose again to mainstream visibility with their third studio album as 4hero, Two Pages (1998). Released on Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud record label, the double CD blended jazzy double bass, flowing breakbeats and a brew of mysticism, spiritualism, astrology, U.F.O.s, and environmentalism. Luke Parkhouse provided the drums while Ursula Rucker, Carol Crosby and Face V. Walsh provided vocals alongside veteran singer Terry Callier and a few other special guests. The album gained critical acclaim and a place on the shortlist for 1998's Mercury Music Prize as well as picking up a MOBO award in the same year.

4hero's fourth album Creating Patterns (2001) featured another Ursula Rucker collaboration, an appearance from Jill Scott, and a cover of Minnie Riperton's classic 1970s song Les Fleur with Carina Andersson as the lead vocalist. The latter was featured in a Baileys TV commercial and series 4 of Top Gear (both in 2004).

In 2004 the group released a compilation album consisting of two discs. The first disc contained 4hero Remixes, while the tracks on disc 2 are remixes of 4hero tracks by other artists. This was released on their new label Raw Canvas. In 2006, 4hero was featured on the track, "Bed of Roses" by Jody Watley, on her album, The Makeover.

Six years after the release of Creating Patterns, Play with the Changes was released in February 2007 to critical acclaim. Mixmag described it as "their finest album to date" and awarded it the title of Album of the Month in its January 2007 issue.

Albums

Singles & EPs (selected)