Bad Company, Bad Company UK or simply BC (stylized as ƆEIƎC) is the
stage name
A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...
of the English
drum and bass
Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...
record producers
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
Jason Maldini (Maldini), Michael Wojcicki (Vegas), Dan Stein (
DJ Fresh
Daniel Edward Stein (born 11 April 1977), better known by his stage name DJ Fresh, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, best known for making electronic music. He is one of the principal members of the drum and bass group Bad Company, ...
) and Darren White (
dBridge
dBridge, also known as Velvit (born Darren White), is an English drum and bass record producer whose career began during the genre's conception in the early 1990s.IMO Records"dBridge Biography", ''IMO Records'', 17 October 2011. Retrieved 27 Oc ...
).
The abbreviation of the name, ƆEIƎC, is the group's logo as used on singles and album covers: the letters BC are mirrored on a vertical line (written as the letter I or as the pipe symbol , ), whereas the B looks like the number three or letter E and the C like brackets.
History
They formed in 1998 as "Bad Company" from the ashes of Renegade Hardware acts Future Forces Inc (
dBridge
dBridge, also known as Velvit (born Darren White), is an English drum and bass record producer whose career began during the genre's conception in the early 1990s.IMO Records"dBridge Biography", ''IMO Records'', 17 October 2011. Retrieved 27 Oc ...
and Maldini) and Absolute Zero (
DJ Fresh
Daniel Edward Stein (born 11 April 1977), better known by his stage name DJ Fresh, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, best known for making electronic music. He is one of the principal members of the drum and bass group Bad Company, ...
), although they had also worked together in various configurations: Stein, White and Maldini released The Code as ''Absolute Zero & Subphonics'' on Renegade Hardware; Stein and Wojcicki released Otto's Way as ''Fresh & Vegas'' on Metro Recordings,
The group is known in the drum and bass industry for their 12"
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
, "The Nine" / "The Bridge" (BCR001), which was later remastered and released again as "The Nine (Remastered)" in 2014. Bad Company went on to produce four
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s and various singles which were acclaimed with similar success.
* Inside the Machine (2000)
* Digital Nation (2000)
* Shot Down on Safari (2002)
* Ice Station Zero (2018)
"Book of the Bad" (2001), a
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
of their three ''Book of the Bad'' vinyl
EPs, featuring "Miami Flashback", "Planet Dust" (originally released on Prototype Recordings), and "Mind Games".
The name Bad Company has been in disuse since about 2005, but the artists still work in the scene. Fresh had left Bad Company to pursue several solo projects under different
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
s, such as Breakbeat Kaos, Ram Records, V Recordings, and Valve. D-Bridge kept producing alone as well, and started his own record label.
Maldini continued to cooperate with Vegas, recording under the name "Bad Company UK", a change which was needed because of a legal battle with the
band formed in the 1970s with the same name. Their main label is ''Bad Taste Recordings''. In 2010 the two producers formed the trio Blokhe4d along with Swiss producer Uman. Maldini and Vegas also created the Unique Artists
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
, with the participation of a variety of producers from the scene.
The group had a fan forum on their website, which later became
Dogs on Acid.
In 2008, readers of ''Knowledge Magazine'' voted "The Nine" as the number 1 drum and bass track of all time. Other significant tracks are "Nitrous" and "Planet Dust".
Comeback
On 8 February 2016,
UKF officially announced that the group was reuniting along with the new material being released that month. They released the single ''Equilibrium'' on 25 February 2016. Two performances in Bristol and London followed in March. In June, the group gave two concerts in the United States, Las Vegas for EDC and Baltimore for 3D Productions. They also performed at several festivals, including
Dour
Dour (; pcd, Doû) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium.
On 1 January 2006 the municipality had 16,810 inhabitants. The total area is 33.32 km2, giving a population density of 505 inhabitants per km2. ...
,
Paradiso and Nu Forms. In August, they performed at Imagine Festival in Atlanta. They are scheduled to perform at the New Years festival Northern Bass in New Zealand.
In September 2016, they released a remix of
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...
's "
The Day Is My Enemy
''The Day Is My Enemy'' is the sixth studio album by English electronic music group the Prodigy. It was released on 30 March 2015 by record labels Take Me to the Hospital/Cooking Vinyl in the UK and Three Six Zero Music/Warner Bros. Records in th ...
" which was also uploaded onto UKF's YouTube page. The remix was nominated for the Drum & Bass Arena Awards in the category Best Remix. The single "Nomad" followed in November.
In April 2018, the group announced their first album in 16 years, ''Ice Station Zero'', which was released at May 11, via Ram Recordings.
Since 2018 the group has continued playing live shows and going on tour. Most recently playing in February 2022, with more shows planned throughout 2022.
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
British drum and bass music groups
English electronic music groups
Musical groups established in 1998
British supergroups
Electronic music supergroups
RAM Records artists