Pest are a band from South

London 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 majo ...

, formerly signed to

Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visit ...

, writing and playing music that mixes elements of

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

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 major ...

and

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and UK ...

. The band consists of Ben Mallott ( DJ and

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

), Matt Chandler (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

), Tom Marriott (

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

), Wayne Urquhart (

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

) and Vesa Haapanen (

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s). Former band member Adrian Josey (aka Pasta/Saffrolla) worked as DJ, co-producer, lyricist and vocalist on albums ''Necessary Measures,'' ''All Out Fall Out'', early singles, and distribution of the band's pre-signed white labels.

History

Chandler and Marriott grew up together in Matlock,

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Chandler studied music in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and Marriott in

where Marriott met the others and the band began. After releasing their first tracks on

white label A white label record is a vinyl record with white labels attached. There are several variations each with a different purpose. Variations include test pressings, white label promos, and plain white labels. Test pressings Test pressings, usua ...

s, they were signed to

and in 2003 they released their debut album ''Necessary Measures'', followed by their second in 2005 – ''All Out Fall Out''. Pest have toured extensively, headlining many UK venues such as Koko, Cargo and The 100 Club in London, The Tuesday Club in Sheffield, and many festivals across Europe including Les Transmusicales in Rennes, as well as completing a short tour of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in 2009, for which they independently released the limited edition EP ''Meanwhile Backstage''.

Band members

Ben Mallott is an established exponent of

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time (4/4) and often ch ...

with his live hardware-based shows, and has played such festivals and clubs as Bloc, Glade, Boomtown and Berghain (in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

). A DJ, writer and producer, he has numerous releases through labels including Bonusround, Victim, Seed, Sleep Debt and Panic Bridge. Matt Chandler’s work in recent years includes many projects with Youth (

Martin Glover Martin Glover (born 27 December 1960), better known by his stage name Youth, is a British record producer and musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of the Fireman, along with Pa ...

) for artists such as

Poly Styrene Marianne Joan Elliott-Said (3 July 1957 – 25 April 2011), known by the stage name Poly Styrene, was an English musician, singer-songwriter, and frontwoman for the punk rock band X-Ray Spex. Early life Poly Styrene was born Marianne Joan Ell ...

and

The Orb The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 19 ...

. With a background in

, Matt has also written and self-released albums "After Midnight" (2009) and "It Goes Like This" (2011). Tom Marriott has been a longtime member of the

Bollywood Brass Band The Bollywood Brass Band is a brass band playing Bollywood and traditional Indian music, based in London, England. The band was formed in 1992 to perform with the Shyam Brass Band from Jabalpur, India, at the International Festival of Street Mu ...

and he also plays with experimental improv band Snorkel (with releases through the label Slowfoot), and has a solo

project under the moniker ‘Fedka The Irritant’. Wayne Urquhart, a classically trained cellist, has played for

Roots Manuva Rodney Hylton Smith, better known by his stage name Roots Manuva (born 9 September 1972), is a British rapper and producer. Since his debut in 1994, he has produced numerous albums and singles on the label Big Dada, achieving commercial succes ...

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

, David Gray,

Kosheen Kosheen are a British electronic music group based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The group consist of singer-songwriter Sian Evans, songwriter-producer Markee Ledge and producer-songwriter Darren Decoder. The name Kosheen derives from the name of ...

Mark Ronson Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British-American DJ, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He is best known for his collaborations with artists such as Duran Duran, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, Robbi ...

and

Jocelyn Brown Jocelyn Lorette Brown (born November 25, 1950), sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American R&B and dance singer. Although she has only one ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name, she has an extensive background in the musi ...

among others, and is an experienced composer and dubbing mixer for TV, film and radio. Vesa Haapanen is a producer, composer, teacher and multi-instrumentalist, and has collaborated for many years with Martin Newnham and plays/produces with many artists including The Hanging Baskets, Mystery Fax Machine, Sixto "Sugar man" Rodriguez and the band Leaving Atlantis whose 2011 debut album was released through Vesa’s own label Dental Records Music.

Discography

Albums

*''Necessary Measures'' (24 March 2003) *''All Out Fall Out'' (12 September 2005)

Singles

*"Slap on Tap" (3 December 2001) *"Jefferson Shuffle" (13 January 2003) *"Chicken Spit" (22 September 2003) *"Pat Pong" (18 July 2005) *"Wu Ju" (21 November 2005) *"Kill It" (date unknown)

Song appearances

* The song "Duke Kerb Crawler" was featured in the video game ''

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland ''Tony Hawk's American Wasteland'' is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the seventh entry in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series and was released initially for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox in ...

''. * A remix version of the song "Pat Pong" was featured in the racing game '' Blur''. * The song "Delucid" features in Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights * The song "Chicken Spit" is featured in the ''

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

'' original series '' IGPX''. * An edit of the intro to the song "Try Again" is used as the theme music for ''

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast ''Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast'' (or ''RHLSTP'' ()) and ''Richard Herring's Edinburgh Fringe Podcast'' are two related comedy podcasts, created and hosted by British comedian Richard Herring. Hosted on The British Comedy G ...

''.

References

External links

Ninja Tune websiteAdrian Josey's site Saffrolla Sounds Record LabelMatt Chandler's websiteBen Mallott's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pest (Music) Ninja Tune artists English electronic music groups