Artist description It was a dark and stormy night.....well, more like a few years actually, as rock music sank into dull predictability and forgot that its initial purpose was for dancing. A relentless desire for some new nameless music that had passion yet wasn’t moronic or mass-produced refused to go away . I wasn’t dead yet; it was too soon to turn square. Secret Archives of the Vatican was born from the simultaneous discovery of the Power of the Groove and the existence of a thousand musical genres from all over the planet which had been hidden from us by the unimaginative accountants who run the music business. We found ourselves taking drum’n’bass, dub, triphop, Indian, Persian and Arabian traditional music and more, mixing them up in our mighty Broken Drum Studio and creating something uniquely ours. The Politically Correct may (predictably) claim that what we do is neo-colonialist cultural appropriation. No; just as other artists in the Global Beats scene (such as Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawnhey) grew up exposed to many cultures and created their own sound from the masala of musical spices before them, we make music from our collective experiences, travels and training. Who are they to tell anyone what they shouldn’t do? We ignore them. The professional cynics of the British music press might attempt to dismiss us as white-boys trying to acquire some street-cred by proximity; are we trend-following tree-huggers attempting to be cool by tenuous association with the latest “world music” fashion? No way! Its not “world music”, its OUR music. Its better than the identikit guitar-noise of the so-called indie labels and its more intelligent than factory production-line girl/boy band pop. Its good and we know it is. Louis and me are on a mission from God.

Music Style Drum'n'bass, Jungle, Indian, Arabic, Techno, Trance, Dance, Hip-hop, Big Beat, Global Beats

Musical Influences Transglobal Underground, Talvin Singh, Red Snapper, State of Bengal, Natasha Atlas, Leftfield, Roni Size, Persian, Arabic and Indian classical musics.

Similar Artists Transglobal Underground,Talvin Singh,Natasha Atlas,Spaceport Orkestra of Benares, dZihan & Kamien, Ekova

Artist History The core of Secret Archives of the Vatican is Vince Millett and Louis Counter. We record in our own Broken Drum Studio and invite guest musicians to contribute to various projects. Our music is an eclectic and original combination of all the styles of music we like to listen to; this can include almost anything. Drum'n'bass, psychedelic trance, acid techno, Arabic and Indian music, medieval dance tunes, triphop, ambient, bigbeat and breakbeat are all absorbed and recreated as something original. Louis and Vince both deal with songwriting, sampling and programming. Louis plays Indian tabla drums, various Arabic drums and is into drum'n'bass and Indian classical music in particular. Vince plays guitar, guitar-synth, mandola, bouzouki, bodhran and various Arabic drums. He is into Arabic music and triphop. Louis deals with most of the technical stuff in the studio and Vince does most of the mixing but the working vibe is a democratic one and all SAotV tunes are true collaborations. Taking a studio based project on the road requires a fair amount of thought however we've managed to put together a band that is capable of fusing modern dance music with traditional instruments and traditions. The live band includes Emma Bentham on flute, keyboards and percussion, Ben Coburn scratching, Peter Sharpe on Bass, Tim (Monty) Mountford on keyboards and occasionally Gavin Turnbull on sitar. We've played at a number of festivals and concerts over the last few years including the Lizard Eclipse Festival in 1999 and Greenbelt Festival in 2001 and 2002. After several years of releasing privately-funded cassette albums into the international cassette underground, Vince joined forces with Louis and Reformation was their first CD release, recorded in their own Broken Drum Studio. Reformation can be bought at a variety of online stores including CD-Now, CD-World, Buy.com, CD-Universe and Amazon.com. A second album is currently nearing completion and will hopefully be released in 2002. The album will include a vocal version of Isa al-Hamid (featuring Efrem from Ministri of Defence) and the full version of Guru Rabbi Teacher both of which are available for preview or download from our BeSonic site as well as the original version of Dust. An EP, Dust: the remixes, was released in August 2001 and is available from the Merchandise page as is a limited edition 6 track album sampler. Check out the website at www.brokendrumrecords.com for more information.

Group Members Vince Millett and Louis Counter with various guest musicians.

Instruments Digital Guitar, Tabla, Keyboards, Sitar, Mandola, Bouzouki, Bodhran and various Arabic drums , Samplers, Sequencers, Squelchy Analogue Synthesisers (or at least good digital emulators!)

Albums Reformation

Press Reviews "The Middle East and Far East are certainly well represented different breaks are spun in to keep you firmly on the dance floor. On a larger system this would be awesome... it worked for me." -Sound on Sound....................."This is an incredible track!!"- Phillip Kim (N'Soul Records) speaking about the track Reformation......................"The whole album has a cohesiveness and identity that many artists fail to achieve, and the duo prove themselves to be a talented production unit.....with their obvious flair for the original and their unique production style, they deserve to do well." -The Mix magazine....................."..a mainstay in my player for months. Each listen is a new treat and highly recommended." -Bryan Baker, Gajoob (www.gajoob.com)....................."Croydon homeboyz Secret Archives of the Vatican impress with Reformation." -Dream UK....................."Huge numbers of new sounds, interesting atmospheres and inventive beats... Reformation takes you on a fascinating musical journey you will want to travel again and again." -Cross Rhythms magazine....................."Diverse and brilliant" - DJCoopoid (UCB Radio).....................�you must get to hear this. If it don't make ya dance then you've got no feet!!!.� � Martin Jones (Acid Attack Music)

Location Croydon, Surrey - United Kingdom

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