Spring Heel Jack is an English

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

duo, consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales. Formed in 1993 in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, Spring Heel Jack began their career exploring drum and bass and

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

, but have since branched out into

free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. The term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

, collaborating with many musicians from Europe and the United States.

History

Wales was formerly a composer of contemporary classical music and leader of the band Crazy About Love, while Coxon was a successful remixer and producer (most notably for

Betty Boo Alison Moira Clarkson (born 6 March 1970 in Kensington, London), better known as Betty Boo, is an English singer, songwriter and rapper. She first came to mainstream prominence in the late 1980s following a collaboration with the Beatmasters ...

) prior to their joining forces. Their first three drum and bass albums released during the 1990s earned positive reviews for their innovative take on the genre. They also co-wrote and produced the 1996 track "Walking Wounded," a major UK hit for

Everything But The Girl Everything but the Girl (occasionally referred to as EBTG) are an English musical duo formed in Kingston upon Hull in 1982, consisting of lead singer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, producer and singer Ben Wat ...

featuring Ben Watt who had earlier been sacked from Crazy About Love. The cinematic ''

Disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organi ...

'' (2000) marked a transition for Wales and Coxon, and featured the British saxophonist

John Surman John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for dance performanc ...

, whose appearance was a harbinger of later changes. ''Masses'' (2001), the first of several albums for the cross-genre Blue Series on

Thirsty Ear Thirsty Ear Recordings is an American independent record label. It was founded in the late 1970s as a marketing company for the then-unnamed alternative music field, and expanded to issue its own records in 1990. Thirsty Ear came to prominence ...

, was an even more radical departure. Collaborators included saxophonists

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

John Tchicai John Martin Tchicai ( ; 28 April 1936 – 8 October 2012) was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer. Biography Tchicai was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a Danish mother and a Congolese father. The family moved to Aarhus, where he st ...

and

Tim Berne Tim Berne (born October 16, 1954) is an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and record label owner. His primary instruments are the alto and baritone saxophones. Biography Berne was born in Syracuse, New York, United States. He has said that ...

; bassist William Parker; trumpeters Roy Campbell,

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active i ...

and

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Free ...

; trombonist Paul Rutherford; drummer

Han Bennink Han Bennink (born 17 April 1942) is a Dutch drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured him playing soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, trombone, violin, banjo and piano. Though perhaps best known as one of the pivotal fig ...

; pianist

Matthew Shipp Matthew Shipp (born December 7, 1960) is an American pianist, composer, and bandleader. Early life and education Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford B ...

; and guitarist

Jason Pierce Jason Andrew Pierce (born 19 November 1965 in Rugby) is an English musician. Currently the frontman and sole permanent member of the band Spiritualized, he previously co-fronted the alternative rock band Spacemen 3 with Peter Kember from 1982 ...

. In 2006 Coxon and Wales began to operate a record label, Treader, releasing CDs by themselves and other associated artists, including some of their recent collaborators.

Selected discography

;Albums * ''There are Strings'' (1995) * ''68 Million Shades...'' (1996) * ''Versions'' (1996) * ''Busy, Curious, Thirsty'' (1997) * ''Treader'' (1999) * ''Oddities'' (2000) * ''

'' (2000) * ''Masses'' (2001) * ''Amassed'' (2002) * ''The Sweetness of the Water'' (2004) * ''Songs and Themes'' (2008) * ''Hackney Road'' (2018) SHJ and

with Pat Thomas and Steve Noble ;Live albums * ''Live'' (2003) * ''Live in Antwerp'' (2014) with Pat Thomas, Alex Ward,

Paul Lytton Paul Lytton (born 8 March 1947, London) is an English free jazz and free improvising percussionist. Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began ...

;EPs * ''Bombscare'' (Tugboat, 2000) with Low

References

External links

Treader (Coxon and Wales's label)
{{Authority control British electronic music groups Thirsty Ear Recordings artists