A Guy Call Gerald

A Guy Call Gerald

An innovator, still innovating. A musician, still resonating.

From ‘Voodoo Ray’, the track that practically defines acid house, to modern day live gigs that will become the template for DJing of the future, this Berlin-based, Manchester-born pioneer, with 9 artist albums in a 25 year career, is an international name that has defied genres and continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the world of electronic music, both in the studio and in the club.

2010 and Gerald Simpson is still the revolutionary, making the concept of the DJ extinct in terms of how we once knew it. Not only is A Guy Called Gerald unique in that he brings his entire production suite into the club for every performance, but it is a genuine LIVE act; a constant interaction with the crowd, a fluid jam session with an instinctive keyboard riff just as likely as a flurry of bass, always pushing the sound system’s capabilities to the limit and then some.

There are no inferior-quality, compressed CDs or mp3s here, no pre-programmed laptop; this is the full breadth of the spectrum, this is untarnished, analogue sound for our digitally subdued world. Those lucky enough to have been part of the show - whether they be at Fabric in London, Panorama Bar in Berlin, Robert Johnson in Frankfurt or the Detroit Electronic Movement Festival (DEMF) – will testify to having been moved by it….. physically and emotionally moved, that’s exactly the point!! Music is a way of life for A Guy Called Gerald, an individualist since childhood, when he refused to conform to how a piano should be played, he instead began a personal adventure exploring new rhythms and sounds as well as testing the often disregarded relationship between sound and body. In other words discovering and challenging the shared moods and emotions of people in a club, who are quite literally on the same frequency each time a different pulse, rhythm or tone is introduced.


His genre busting reputation traces back to his heritage in black dance music, particularly reggae, jazz and electro funk. Of course his early contributions to acid house and techno cementing his place in dance music culture folklore but his sphere of influence also went deep into the beginnings of drum ‘n’ bass, before coming full circle to today and his proto-acid sound, descended directly from Detroit and Chicago.

An iconic name worldwide for sure, but it is as a forward-thinking pioneer that 20 years later A Guy Called Gerald is still leading the way, one step ahead of the pack, shaping the future just like he shaped the past. He releases the follow up to the acclaimed Proto Acid: The Berlin Sessions album, released on Laboratory Instinct in 2006, with ‘Tronic Jazz: The Berlin Sessions’, set for issue in spring 2010. On top of releases on seminal labels like Perlon, Sender and Beatsreet in the past 2 years, Gerald continues to release exclusives and rare back catalogue via his web-based labels A GUY CALLED GERALD RECORDS, SUGOI and PROTECHSHON.

 

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