Ballistic Brothers

by Sean CooperThe Ballistic Brothers are something of a quintessential London post-acid house outfit. Combining the production talents of some of the most popular figures on the progressive house and acid jazz scenes (Ashley Beedle of Black Science Orchestra, Dave Hill of Nuphonic Records, and house-tech duo Rocky and Diesel), the Ballistics pursue a hip-hop/house/jazz/soul crossover that tends to spell party no matter where its played. Releasing most of their initial material on London club staple Junior Boys Own (including their 1994 debut London Hooligan Soul), the group established the Soundboy label in 1996 to release the follow-up, Rude System. The albums semantic-cum-stylistic switch came via Dave Hills trip to Jamaica just prior to recording the album, an inspiration that also led the group to pursue a remix project (similar to Mad Professors take on Massive Attacks 1995 album Protection) at Bob Marleys Kingston studio. Group members individual projects also include X-Press 2, Free Soul, Low Pressing Records, Blacker, Ill Sun Records, Yellow Sox, and the Uschi Classen band.