URBAN DANCE SQUAD
ORIGIN
December 20, 1986 marks the first UDS band meeting, intended for
just one jam session at a festival in Utrecht, the Netherlands, on
January 11, 1987. In a 45-minute off-the-cuff jam session a sound
cocktail is brewed that is literally unheard of. Here something
revolutionarily new and exciting is going on. Both press and audience
are baffled. New is the live strength: drums, bass, guitar, with added
elements from hiphop: rap and scratch. What was happening was so
different that a name for it still had to be invented. Ten years later,
the sound that UDS stumbled across is one of the most potent
contemporary genres in the music specter and is copied all over the
world. But it all started in the Netherlands on the initiative of
musicians who refused to be curbed by the pigeon-hole mentality of
the time. The non-committal character of a jam session soon grew into
the fixed form of a close group process that laid the foundation for the
band’s later international success.
UDS’s first two years are pretty chaotic. The band works very
selectielid on a series of fascinating club performances, strategic
supporting performances (with Red Hot Chili Peppers), well-chosen
radio and TV performances and 'special events' (with Masters of
Reality and De La Soul). The band’s live reputation expands like the
proverbial oil stain. The word is out, there is a build-up of nervous
commotion, everybody wants to be 'on time'. In this 'obscure' period -
no record yet, but live on MTV Europe - UDS sweeps the New Music
Seminar NY (summer 1989) off its feet. Wherever the Squad appears
there is disbelief and pure delight.
MENTAL FLOSS FOR THE GLOBE
The money made in these two years of playing live is used by UDS to
finance the recording of the first album: Mental Floss for the Globe.
The album is recorded at ICP in Brussels in the spring of 1989 with
the help of Jean-Marie Aerts (of Belgian band TC Matic). In August
1989 the ready-made mixed tapes are offered and just like the venue
managers line up to bill the band, record labels fight to take the credit
for signing UDS. Eventually UDS signs with Ariola/BMG.
Mental Floss for the Globe is a major success and receives universal
critical acclaim. It is an unprecedented combination of rock, rap, funk,
ska, hiphop, soul, trash, reggae and acoustic sounds. A true melting
pot of what used to be traditionally separate musical styles, full of
rhythmic and tonal boobytraps.
'The world at large' meets UDS. This is the start of extensive
international tours, among which two headlining club tours in the US.
UDS gigs at major festivals (like Roskilde with Lenny Kravitz and 24/7
Spyz, and Pinkpop) and seminars (like in Bourges, with e.g. Public
Enemy, and again the New Music Seminar NY, this time on the special
opening night with Mano Negra and George Clinton).
In the US the album acts as an eye-opener to a entire generation of
new musicians and bands. Here's a new approach, a new sound, and
buttkicking, noisy club gigs. In 1990 tracks like 'No Kid', 'Fastlane'
and 'Deeper Shade of Soul' are internationally regarded as classics.
‘Deeper Shade' even climbed to a 21st position in the bastion of
Billboard's Hot 100!
LIFE 'N PERSPECTIVES OF A GENUINE CROSSOVER
After an extensive American tour with Living Colour, the band starts
producing its second album itself in the spring of 1991. This album,
Life 'n Perspectives of a Genuine Crossover, is once again recorded at
ICP, Brussels, and released in the autumn of 1991.
Musically speaking this album is a more extreme and even more
caleidoscopic sequel to Mental Floss for the Globe. While press and
audience do their utmost to invent all kinds of superlatives, the record
company, especially with hindsight, seems to have been pretty
insecure about what to do with such a groundbreaking and
progressive album. Eventually the lack of an obvious hit single made
American Arista stop promoting this album.
Unfazed by such inconvenience the band concludes 1991 with
performances in the European and American club scenes. In March
1992 the band conquers Japan and a tour with the Rollins Band (with
Andrew Weiss on bass) wins over the German audience as well. A
long summer of festivals follows, in which UDS visits the large
European festivals like Torhout/Werchter (starring with Red Hot Chili
Peppers and others), Pinkpop (with Soundgarden and others) and
Pukkelpop (headlining with the Beastie Boys and others).
In September '92 UDS breaks with Ariola/BMG and locks itself into the
rehearsal room to write new material. In set-up this material seems
to be barer and more song-oriented. It cuts away the trimmings and
is intentionally less diverse than the previous two albums.
In the spring of 1993 the band decides to go on the road again and
try outnew ideas: a headlining tour of the French clubs, in Italy with
Primus and support performances for U2’s European tour. While on
tour, DJ DNA decides to leave the band; the remaining band members
take up the challenge and very successfully continue the tour as
planned from the very next day.
PERSONA NON GRATA
In the summer of 1993 UDS, now a 4-piece band, plays an impressive
set at a new major festival: Lowlands (with Smashing Pumpkins and
others); this gig is the direct reason for Virgin to sign the band in the
autumn of 1993. This new collaboration ends a label-less period that
has lasted 400 days.
In January 1994 the time is ripe to start recording the third album.
This time at Ridge Farm, London, with producers Phil Nicolo and Stiff
Johnson (producers of Cypress Hill, Urge Overkill, and G. Love &
Special Sauce). In March the final parts are recorded and
subsequently mixed in Studio 4 in Philadelphia. In May 1994 Persona
Non Grata is released.
In contrast to the first two albums, Persona Non Grata is an album
without overdubs, honest and straightforward. A trend, started by
UDS in 1993 as the original five-piece band, is present in a 'blownup' format on this album. The result is powerful and dynamic. This
album is also called 'the secret route to the musical heart of UDS'. In
the words of Rudeboy: 'In an era of ultra hype, it's back to
grassroots! It's still the music that counts...'
Upon release, Persona Non Grata is once again an immediate success
in Europe. 'Demagogue' is a clubhit everywhere and even enters the
charts in the Netherlands. Again the band bombards the European
club scene with a continuous series of shows and many festivals are
visited in the summer, such as Dynamo Open Air, Pinkpop (third
time), Phoenix Birmingham and Bizarre (with Biohazard). While on
tour, UDS flies in to London for an appearance in the movie Hackers,
performing 'Good Grief' in one of the film’s key scenes. The PNG tour
goes on without interruptions, appropriately rounded off in February
1995 with an equal billing show together with the Beastie Boys at the
Statenhal in The Hague. A month later the band leaves for the States
for yet another successful clubtour. The intimate atmosphere of the
American clubs allows the band to jam more frequently than during
the much more larger scale European tour of 1994. This will prove to
be essential when the band returns home.
Back in Amsterdam the recordings of these jams, soundchecks and
'song atmospheres' turn out to be a perfect starting point and rich
source of inspiration for writing new material. First the band decides
to improve the sound quality of the rehearsal room. To this end the
large hard, concrete space is reduced to one-third size with the help
of sound absorbing materials.
PLANET ULTRA
UDS changes its rehearsing routine: drafts and new song ideas are no
longer recorded carelessly with a small mono-cassette recorder, but in
full stereo in a simple 'close-miking' setting. This turns the rehearsal
room into a 'studio', called Ultra Dynamic Shaft.
In the extremely hot summer months of June and July 1995 the new
ideas ferment and mature almost by themselves, but when in
September, after a holiday, the material is listened to afresh, the
conclusion is short and drastic: direction, color and atmosphere of the
recordings are just right, but the original arrangements are not good
and extreme enough.
The final quarter therefore brings a third and decisive phase that
eventually generates over thirty songs that can stand the test of
criticism. The hiphop element in a number of songs is a Seda (Osdorp
Posse's beat creator) contribution. UDS then contacts Andrew Weiss
(producer of Ween, Butthole Surfers), Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock
(producers of Beck, Foo Fighters), Wim Tops and Peter Revalk
(Wizards of Ooze), and sends them tapes with the request for creative
input.
In January 1996 recordings start in Jet, Brussels and Orkater,
Amsterdam. With the help of Andrew, Rob and Tom the fourth album,
Planet Ultra, is recorded. There are guest roles for Seda, contributing
the musical bases for songs like 'Dresscode' and 'Pass the Baton right',
the Wizards of Ooze adding extra spark to some tracks with their
hallucinogenic keyboard sounds. Some tracks, recorded earlier at
UDS' own studio, turn out to be unsurpassed in atmosphere and
energy and finally appear on the album in their naked original form.
After about four recording sessions in three different studios, 21 songs
survive all recording processes and selection criteria.
In May 1996 Butcher Brother Phil Nicolo (producer of Persona Non
Grata) is called in for the mix. In his Studio 4 at Conshohocken, PA,
he mixes the songs into a powerful, coherent and very diverse album.
Planet Ultra has been born.
Once again UDS releases a kaleidoscopic album (although in a
creative sense in no way related to the first two albums), where
heavy centrifugal powers seem to be at work, but that is a unity, in
spite of its extreme palette of colors, because of the musical flexibility
and experience.
Planet Ultra displays a UDS that has succeeded in developing and
changing without denying their 'roots'. The 'classic' Squad sound has
been given an extra dimension, has been approached from a different
perspective, resulting in a new workable balance between form and
content. The drive and power with which the songs are performed
underline the subtle distinctieons of the arrangements and
compositions. Rudeboy still talks straight from the
shoulder, but his sense of humor and relativity are more obvious than
ever. As is apparent from what he says about Planet Ultra: 'The
'crossover' category doesn't exist, this band simply makes music! Also,
this is not a concept album, just an album with a lot of ideas that
reflect the way we live. Before you say it's all fiction, nothing about
reality, for there are not so many 'political' things said on this album
(everybody nowadays wants to be political - then it's real!!), I'd like
to point out that the reason why there's a lot of comic related stuff on
the album, is simply because I live comics, I eat comics, I shit comics,
I sleep comics, I f**ck comics, etc. Comics reflect the wishes and
hopes of individuals, to be better persons than they actually are, and
even if it's not possible to reach that goal, then at least the dream
lives on in a fully detailed, full-color, portrayed image. The title Planet
Ultra is just a reflection of the world in our heads, when things get too
boring, dull or hard to bear in life; it's things beyond the ordinary. No
big deal! If you can't see it, you're not supposed to see it. If you can't
hear it, you're not supposed to hear it!'
The enigmatic album Planet Ultra again seemed to puzzle the press,
but unperturbed by their evasive reaction the band hit the road,
knowing there has always been a vast and solid fanbase waiting out
there. The tour that followed from early October 1996 sees the band
in all the familiar places in Europe. UDS, by now playing in a fivepiece line- up, having asked the formidable young and gifted U-Gene
to join the band on keyboards, plays venues in Italy, Spain, France,
Germany, the Low Countries, appeared at festivals in Denmark,
Switzerland and Holland, and played the German Rockpalast (second
time), the biggest televised pop event in the world today, broadcasted
in many countries, watched by tens of millions.
One leg of the tour also takes the band to 'new territories', like
Prague, capital of the Czech Republic and Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia. Many factors combine to make the visit to Belgrade an
absolute legendary event in the band’s history. Impressed by the
overwhelmingly warm reception and the flawless logistics of the
concert promoters, UDS spends two unforgettable days in this city
that was craving for live music after four years of political and
economic embargo during the wars that followed the breakup of the
former Yugoslavia. The band plays two sold-out shows at the SKC.
The first one, on November 20,1996, coincidentally took place just
one day before a large crowd gathered right in front of the club, the
beginning of a long period of continued mass demonstrations for
democratic reforms in Belgrade and other Serbian cities. UDS
immediately understood the exceptional status of these shows and
decided to release the recordings of the first show as its first bootleg
album, called Beograd Live. The album contains 21 songs, mixed
directly to two-track without overdubs, and includes a jam version of
the Beatles song 'Helter Skelter'. This album is the de- luxe souvenir of
the 1996 UDS tour, that proved to be very successful.
Back at home in early 1997, the band sets out to prepare the releases
of Beograd Live and new singles. Four titles are pulled from Planet
Ultra as single releases, some of them in a remixed version (like e.g.
the Aphrodite's vinyl jungle remix 12" of 'Temporarily Expendable'), all
ofthem with extras and outtakes that had not reached the album.
Then in April 1997 UDS again surprises both insiders and outsiders.
An official press release on April 6, 1997 announces the renewed
collaborator of the five original founding UDS members, meaning that
DNA rejoined the band! He had left the band during the 1993 spring
tour and not much had been heard of him since by his former fellow
band members. By now, obviously only one telephone call was needed
to get the original Five around the table again in an Amsterdam bar.
At this meeting the new (!) band set out the plans for 1997. Two
objectives were agreed upon. The main goal was to write songs for
the fifth studio album, again by the original Five. The second plan
was instrumental to the first objective: just to check if it would feel
good to be on the road again in this renewed setup,it is decided to do
a limited club tour during spring and summer.
The band deliberately opt for the 'old style' of touring, like in the early
days: no crew, just a small van driven by one of the band, the band
members setting up their gear themselves, picking the smallest
possible venues they can think of (many of which had hosted the
band in its early formative years). This tour proves to be a great
success and the best decision the band could have made: besides the
goodwill it creates with a bunch of amazed venue owners, who could
suddenly afford this band again on their tiny stages, this was the very
thing that live gigging is all about: band and audience hugging each
other in sweaty hot and steamy matchbox size clubs. Of course, there
were bigger venues as well and festivals, like the in-line skating
convention at Lausanne, Switzerland in July, where 140,000 skaters
gathered.
Also part of the original plan in April is the decision to play the CMJ
Convention, scheduled for the first week of September in New York,
and a French club tour in November. So early September UDS plays a
short American tour centered around the CMJ Convention gig at the
Continental Club, NYC.
In New York the band takes the opportunity to have an informal lunch
Meeting with Peter Heur of LA based record label Triple X, the label
that stocks the first Jane's Addiction albums amongst a host of other
early indie-punk bands. Years before, Triple X had already indicated
that it was seriously interested in releasing UDS's back catalogue that
had once been released in North America by Arista/BMG and Virgin.
By now, these majors' licenses have terminated and UDS has
regained full ownership and rights of its back catalogue, which offers
a good opportunity for new talks with Peter Heur. It is agreed that
UDS will sign a license deal with Triple X as soon as the parties have
worked out the details of such an agreement.
At the end of October UDS starts a short three week tour of France as
the last part of their plans for 1997. To many French fans it is a great
experience to hear and see the original line-up play some of the old
tracks again that had been cut from the playlists for years during
DNA's absence, together with the songs from the last two albums,
now completely rearranged and cut up with special FX of a DJ.
On arrival back home in mid-November, UDS edits 'Warzone 109' and
'Grifter Swifter' for use as the main songs in a Dutch feature film. This
film, 'Temmink', premiered at the International Rotterdam Film
Festival in February 1998. Three other songs, 'Deeper Shade of Soul',
'God blasts the Queen' and 'Bureaucrat of Flaccostreet' are also
prepared for use as the score to a French film, 'What I did for Love',
that is released some weeks later in the spring of 1998.
ARTANTICA
Now it is time to prepare the next album and work out the many songs
and jams that had been gathered during the 1997 tour and in earlier
rehearsals. Having found a good working space to this end, UDS sets
out to arrange these new songs. Rehearsals took place in Amsterdam
during February and March 1998.
The band has decided to record the next album with two old friends,
Theo Van Rock (bass player of Nasmak and 'fifth member' and
engineer/ producer of the Rollins Band) and Peer Rave (producer of
Jeffrey Lee Pierce / Gunclub and also the Rollins Band). The album
would be recorded in studio Pablo y Pablo in Tienen, Belgium.
On April 1 UDS starts recordings and starts by putting the basic parts
of twenty-two songs on tape. With these parts on tape, recordings
proceeded in an on and off pattern, giving the band time to work out
the details of the pending release of the band's back catalogue in the
American territories.
After the summer break recordings start again in autumn and proceed
well. At this point the arrangements have to be topped off with lead
vocals. These vocal sessions are booked in Orkater studio in
Amsterdam, as had been the case with the vocal sessions of Planet
Ultra two years earlier. At Orkater, in a short burst of concentrated
energy, Rudeboy adds his raps and melodies to the rich instrumental
textures. Within ten days 18 songs are ready for mixdown.
So early December Theo and Peer kick in the final part of the project.
Their studio now being set in full mix mode, they unleash all their
creativity, finesse and experience and mix down all eighteen recorded
tracks into powerful, transparent and highly original songs. UDS select
their new album Artantica from these eighteen. The outtakes will
eventually be released as 'b-sides' on other occasions.
UDS has come full circle. Artantica is the true product of that
extraordinary musical chemistry between the five individuals that
make up UDS, and in its uncompromising diversity bears resemblance
to their early groundbreaking albums.
Artantica is released in the spring of 1999, preceded by a limited
petitiën vinyl release of the first single, Craftmatic Adjustable Girl. A
long summer of European clubs and festivals follows, in which UDS
visits the large European festivals like Festimad (with Queens of the
Stone Age and others), Pinkpop (with System of a Down and others),
Phaze festival (with Massive Attack and others) and Drum rhythm
(with Outkast and others).
During some of these gigs Rudeboy wears an original US Rangers
uniform, a personal gift from Steven Spielberg, that was worn during
the D-day landings in Normandy in 1944 and was later used in the
film Saving Private Ryan. This film from 1998 was one of the sources
of inspiration for the lyrics on Artantica.
The last concert of this tour at Axion Beach Rock (featuring
Lee 'Scratch' Perry) on July 17, 1999, later proves to have been the
very last UDS gig. When on February 2, 2000 Tres Manos announces
that he is to leave the Urban Dance Squad, the band decides to end
all its activities.
In the summer of 2000 all UDS albums are released in America on the
Triple X label. When UDS signed with Triple X in 1998 it was agreed
that Triple X would remaster all four studio albums and reissue them
with new artwork, each including a bonus disc containing a live
concert from the original release's corresponding tour. For this
purpose UDS selected four live shows from their own archives:
Hollywood Live 1990, Tokyo Live 1992, Chicago Live 1995, and New
York Live 1997.
From the very beginning, UDS emphatically chose to retain ownership
of its music, videos and artwork. As a result, albums were licensed to
record labels for a fixed period of time. When the last license deals
(with Virgin Records) expired in the summer of 2005, the band itself
moved to prepare the entire back catalogue for online sale. This
involved digitizing all(studio) recordings including outtakes, unfinished
early recordings, live concerts, associated artwork and video material.
At the same time the decision was made to release a Best of album
entitled ‘The Singles Collection’. The release of the UDS back
catalogue will be supported by a number of exclusive gigs in Europe.
The signing of a licensing deal with Sony-BMG in June 2006 marks
UDS’s return to BMG, the label that released the band’s first two
successful albums.
The Singles Collection is the Urban Dance Squad’s first release in six
years. The album will be for sale as from August 21, 2006, both online
and on CD. Also, a limited edition of the album will be released
including exclusive remixes on a bonus CD. The full Urban Dance
Squad catalogue will be made available online later this year through
the legal download platforms.
In August 2006 the band will play live for the first time since 1999 at
the Pukkelpop festival (with Radiohead and others) and Lowlands
(with Arctic Monkeys and others).