The Snapshot: Demus from 2 Banks of 4
Welcome to The Snapshot, a new “quick-and-dirtee” interview series focusing on the artists, producers, movers and shakers in the special music scene that Urban Landscapes supports. In the absence of time for a proper audio interview due to time commitments and the like, The Snapshot is an alternative way of feeding you with words, sounds and/or images from the people themselves. I hope you enjoy it, and as ever I welcome feedback and constructive dialogue.
Early influences of Urban Landscapes includes that of ambient, downtempo and acid-jazz. Two pioneers of the UK acid jazz movement, Dilip Harris (aka Demus) and Rob Gallagher (aka Earl Zinger) are the production duo that makes up 2 Banks of 4. The two gents go way back to the days of their outfit known as Galliano back in the early/late 90’s. They soon set up shop via their own label Sirkus (now called Red Egyptian) and formed 2 Banks. Each album raises the musical bar, and with vocalists such as Valerie Etienne contributing the quality soars.
Not long ago, 2 Banks of 4 released its third album, Junkyard Gods (Ed: thanks to Demus for correcting me on the title…argh!), Demus and Zinger treat fans and music lovers to more of the jazzy, spiritual vibe that has drawn much praise and respect. Demus was kind enough to share his thoughts from Londontown.
Velanche: What’s the origin behind the name 2 Banks of 4?
V: It’s been about five years since the release of Three Street Worlds. Moving forward, what sort of sound/vibe were you attempting to capture with Junkyard Gods?
Demus: For elderly gents like ourselves, consuming music for countless years, influences begin to become more difficult to specify. We seem to regurgitate all sorts of disparate stuff in the most inopportune and inappropriate manner.
Demus: Valerie is the voice of the project and has bought a discipline and focal point for us. We always enjoy challenging her with our compositions - making her sing just that little bit too high or one time too many - and we like to feel she delivers something to 2bo4 that she would not do for anything else (she does, after all, sing for alot of different people).
Demus: Jazzanova have always been really supportive of 2bo4 and their expressed desire to release this record allowed us to commit to it properly. Previous 2bo4 LP’s were made in a music business where limited exposure could still result in sales to support a project. In the current climate, a project like 2bo4 needs an established infrastructure to really underpin any release. With Zinger & myself in charge, the business never gets done and never gets done properly!!
Demus: Theres a plethora of mixes in production right now. We already have some luscious mixes from Season & Sygaire (”Shadowland”) , Roland Appel (”Junkyard Gods”), the mighty Manasseh Sound System (”Lights on a Satellite”), Matthew Herbert (”Queen of Crows”), Dego’s 2000 Black (”Go”) and Zero 7/Ingrid Eto (”Junkyard Gods”)…….there are more coming from alot of UK musicians who I find exciting at the moment (Max de Wardner, Tom Skinner, John Burnip in one of his many guises and the enormous Gramme).
We are always up for performances it just depends on on-the-ground promoters !!
Junkyard Gods is available on Sonar Kollektiv. Many thanks to Demus for his time. You can also check out the duo’s Myspace for current info and more.
