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Interviews >>
Brooks: You, Me & DeepHouseNetwork
Andrew Brooks is from Mantis Recordings hometown Derby. At the age of 15, he was
sneaking off with his brother to nearby free parties being held by Nottingham’s
DiY crew. These excursions into the house music underworld set
the young Brooks up with a definite direction to his early musical experiments.
At just 16 years of age Brooks released his first track ‘Electric
Dance Machine’ on the DiY Discs album 2922 Days. His
first single for Mantis was ‘Pink Cigarettes’, back in 1999, which Deep Dish
picked up on at the time, including the track on their well-respected Renaissance
mix album. But it’s hardly suprising that the fledgling talent was to find his
home at Mantis. With Derby being a small city, the Mantis crew were already
friends of this teen talent. This led to several collaborations with Atjazz (including the
fabulous ‘Joystick’ from his first album ‘That Something’).
Then shortly later with the aforementioned ‘Pink Cigarettes release it became
clear a unique Brooks ‘sound’ was fast emerging from the cellar studios of Derby.
The second single ‘Clix’ confirmed to many that this young and
talented producer was capable of writing dancefloor music with a depth of knowledge
leaps ahead of his years. When Mantis asked Brooks for an album the guys always
knew they were going to end up with something a little bit different on their
hands, but the resulting LP ‘You, Me & Us’ was beyond anything
they could have hoped for. It will undoubtedly be regarded as an ambitious debut.
Far from the sweet, loving sentiment you might imagine from a track entitled “You, Me & Us” instead the song deals with obsession, idolisation and self-mutilation. Brooks explains “I get obsessed with people and single them out above all others, so much so that I compare myself to them, want to become them.” “You, Me and Us” is about such a relationship where the obsession manifests itself to worrying consequences.
The track was co written with Dani Siciliano (Herbert), as
the song progresses we learn that through plastic surgery, you, me and us become
the same person. The old person gets put “Under the knife and under the stairs.”
Grim stuff indeed. This is followed by “Mastermix,” where the young Brooks is
out on a Saturday night and preoccupied only with eating sushi, drinking wine,
feeling horny and smoking blow.
It is exactly this contrast of dark and light, humour and darkness, youth and experience which makes “You, Me & Us” such a rewarding listening experience.
Brooks explains his musical style succinctly as….
“electromeetsorganicinadirtybasementclubwithwineandnibblesprovided”
And quickly rising to journalistic acclaim in the UK, this is what some of others have had to say about the album…
“A slow-burning, party-starting, future classic” Ministry Mag
“Cunning & weird…you’ll want this” The Face
“House & techno with thought and feel” Jockey Slut
”A fine, fine piece of work” The Guardian
“Simply essential” DJ album of the month
DeepHouseNetwork |
