MAKE A BREAK
Breakbeat scenesters Atomic Hooligan on sliding the decks

Everyone enjoys lampooning dance music and it’s ever-spiralling kaleidoscope of pigeonholes, stereotypes and, most hilariously, moves. Little box, big box, Italian pepper-grinder… Throw any shape in a fit of laser-reaching euphoria on a Saturday night, and you can guarantee someone’s already thought of an embarrassing analogy. But no one can deny that it’s in ruder health than ever, despite, or even because of the current glut of bed-wetting singer-songwriters and chart-friendly guitar bands all starting with ‘The’. People have even stopped writing about the death of Ibiza, having realised that nowhere so embracing in its attitude to new and divergent genres can be all bad. And believe it or not, the illegal rave scene has started to resurface, after almost two decades of hibernation, offering a choice for those with a more ‘liberal’ approach to clubbing (or non-clubbing as the case may be). Dance music is here to stay, and there’s plenty of room for everyone.

Which is why I could ask Terry ‘Hooligan’ Ryan, without a hint of irony, where exactly the ‘breaks’ scene is headed, and whether Atomic Hooligan’s panoramic approach to the genre, faces retribution from the tight-knit scene under whose umbrella their music is lumped? Or something.

‘I thought people were going to have a go at us, but our first album did get accepted in the circles we wanted it to – in the bigger circles and the smaller circles. The more breakbeat-orientated people that I thought were going to say “holy fuck what are you doing with our music?” actually came up to us and said “thank you very much, you‘ve done something different”.’

But different from what? Well, the chances are you’ve already heard your fair share of breaks without knowing it. And you’ve probably loved it and all. I met Terry at a party in Camden on August Bank Holiday thrown by Thursday Club Recordings – the seminal ‘nu-skool breaks’ label founded by legend-in-his-own-lifetime Rennie Pilgrem. It is Pilgrem, and several more of breaks’ usual suspects such as Meat Katie, Stanton Warriors and Plump DJs who have pioneered their distinctive but flexible sound, characterised by big, bouncy beats, funked-up dubby basslines and hip-hop flourishes. ‘Tech funk’, ‘tough house’, ‘electro dub’… it can all be thrown into the breaks melting pot.

‘I think breaks is doing as well as it’s ever done. It had a flourish last year and the year before with [London club] Fabric on Fridays. It’s a really good scene and it’s healthy,’ says Terry, poker-faced, despite his particularly tragic combo, involving a pastel-coloured Pringles tank-top and plaid plus-fours – just about forgivable given the night’s ‘Golf Pro’s and Tennis Ho’s’ fancy dress theme. ‘Breakbeat’s always been going though - we’re getting new fans from all over the place. I think a lot of it started in places like Fabric, Glastonbury and [spin-off dance festival] The Glade. They really put the time in to stand behind breaks and push the DJs forward. But Atomic Hooligan’s not 100% hardcore breakbeat, so I’ve got a bit more of an outside projection of it.’

So who exactly are Atomic Hooligan? Aside from being incredibly popular – our snatched conversation is interrupted no less than five times by adoring revellers, all in similarly preppy get-ups – one attribute you can’t deny them is ‘hardworking’. Terry’s other half is producer Matt Welch, who balances his knob-twiddling roles with a homely lifestyle of ‘gardening and squash’. ‘Matt’s in the studio nearly 24 hours a day making the music. I go out and DJ and make our money! I give him half the cash and tell him to get on with it!’

Harsh but fair. After all, Underworld were at their best when its DJ Darren Emerson lent the then-three-piece much-needed perspective by being at the ‘coal face’ every night, playing the crowds. Terry does much the same thing, keeping Matt informed of where Atomic Hooligan’s sound should be going. And his touring schedule’s punishing: ‘Japan’s my new favourite [Hooligan’s album reached number 11 in the national charts there]. It’s almost like a sensory overload when you go there. But Russia and Canada are my two long-term favourites. Russia’s just ridiculous as a live experience – I’ve played to crowds of over 20,000 over there!’

But for all Terry’s ubiquity, Atomic Hooligan still managed to surprise everyone last year with debut long-player You Are Here. A sprawling, rock fusion of unprecedented ambition and confidence, it re-addressed everyone’s perception of the breaks scene. Most importantly, it gave breaks a benchmark; a point of reference for everything before and yet to come.

‘When people first heard You Are Here, I think they were expecting a collection of all our old 12 inches, but from the very outset we said to ourselves that we’re not going to put a tune on there that hasn’t been recorded specially for this album. Not to start afresh but flick to a new page in our careers, and I think that’s what we’re going to do with the second album.’

Rightly, their debut bagged the boys a prestigious breakspoll.com Album Of 2006 award, and doubtless drew a sigh of relief from the Editor of DJ Mag, who had the foresight to put Hooligan on the front cover as far back as 2004. Their melodic, vocal-led sound, honed over the years through several one-off 12 inches and high-profile remixes (most notably for Underworld, incidentally) was taken to new heights, and resulted in a touring 9-piece band – so wide was its instrumental scope. Though I suspect Matt just wanted an excuse to get out of the studio…

‘DJing gets a little boring for people to look at. I personally love it, but I think with a live set it pushes the music out to a wider audience – you can play at things like festivals and people take a lot more notice of you. We’ve always had some sort of live band – we just brought all the live elements in, to do as big a show as we could.’

Meanwhile, a compilation of You Are Here remixes is out this September, clearly designed to placate those on tenterhooks for the second album. And its lineup of guest DJs could well be a roll call of all that’s cool at the moment. But is there anyone left that Terry would to like to be remixed by? ‘Ermm…. To be honest, there are only a few remixes done of our tunes that I’ve ever been happy with, but that’s a personal thing. I’ll tell you who I was very happy with, and that’s three off the remixes album – by Aquasky, BLIM and Ils. Ils has pretty much been my favourite for a long time – The Next Level was the most perfect breaks track ever written.

And who’s left that you want to remix? ‘The Chemical Brothers, obviously! Plus, I’d really, really like to remix Hot Chip – they’re like a semi-electro type rock band [nominated for the Mercury Music prize this year]. They did a track called Over And Over, that’s the track I’d love to remix.’

And the so-called difficult second album?

‘Not being egotistical, but the new album’s going to be so much better than the last one. It’s a lot simpler, less cluttered, a lot more musical… I don’t want to tell you too much about it, but we’ve taken what we did with You Are Here way beyond our usual limits, and been very, very professional about it.’

Which obviously means long, dedicated stints in the studio, at the side of long-suffering Matt, right? Not quite.

‘Where’ve I come from tonight? Er, I just came up from Bournemouth – still on a bit of a four-day bender actually…’ And with that, Mr Hooligan strides confidently in the direction of the DJ booth, disappearing amongst the throng of tennis whites and tweed caps.

Alex.doak@blowback.co.uk

Alex Doak is the editor of QP magazine.