Pest are a band from South

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, formerly signed to

Ninja Tune Ninja Tune is an independent record label based in London, with a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1990 by musicians Matt Black and Jonathan More, known collectively as Coldcut. The label was established as an outlet for Col ...

, 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 ...

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 came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

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

. The band consists of Ben Mallott ( DJ and keyboards), Matt Chandler (

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

), Tom Marriott (

trombone The trombone (, 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 lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

), Wayne Urquhart (

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

) 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 ...

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 of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Chandler studied music in

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, and Marriott in

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

white label White label may refer to: * White-label product, a permitted replication and rebranding of a product * White label record, records with plain white labels attached. * White Label Music, an independent record label based in the United Kingdom * ''Wh ...

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 is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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 tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

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 of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

). 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 musician and record producer, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of The Fireman (band), the Fir ...

) 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. She was recognized as rock's original Riot grrrl, t ...

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 ...

. 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 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 succ ...

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

, David Gray, Kosheen,

Mark Ronson Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British-American DJ, record producer, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year for Amy Winehouse's album '' Back to Black'' (2006), as well as two for Record ...

and

Jocelyn Brown Jocelyn Lorette Brown (born November 25, 1950), sometimes credited as Jocelyn Shaw, is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B and dance music, dance singer. She has a Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart entry solely in her name. Brown sang ...

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''. * 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 broadcasts Japanese anime and American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and currently produced by Williams Street, a subsidiary of W ...

'' 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 United Kingdom, British comedian Richard Herring. Hosted on The B ...

''.

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