London Elektricity

History

London Elektricity began as a duo consisting of Tony Colman and Chris Goss, who were also the founders and backbone of Hospital Records. They worked on parallel projects under the names Peter Nice Trio and Dwarf Electro, but their track "Song in the Key of Knife" as London Elektricity brought them widespread recognition. In 1999, they released their debut album Pull the Plug on Hospital Records. Although session musicians contributed a range of live instruments and jazz singer Liane Carroll sang on two tracks, the album was primarily a studio work controlled by Colman and Goss.

In 2002, Chris Goss left to focus on managing Hospital Records, leaving Colman as CEO of the label and sole bearer of the London Elektricity name. The second album Billion Dollar Gravy came out in 2003. During its production, the session musicians began forming a band, and Colman decided to take the group live. The live line-up included Colman, Andy Waterworth, Landslide, MC Wrec, the Jungle Drummer, Liane Carroll, and Robert Owens, among others. A live DVD titled London Elektricity: Live Gravy was released in 2004, recorded in October 2003 at the Jazz Café.

Their third album Power Ballads was released in 2005, using some live band members on certain tracks. On 2 December 2005, at Pressure (the University of Warwick's drum and bass event), London Elektricity announced they had no plans to play live in the future. From 2006 onward, Tony Colman has produced and DJed drum and bass solo under the name London Elektricity. Colman presented the Hospital Records podcast from 1996 to 2019, which featured many Hospital releases and a wide range of drum and bass globally; it won Best Podcast at the BT Digital Music Awards in 2014, then amassing over 30,000 downloads per show. He also hosted the in-game Hospital Records radio station for the Forza Horizon series in Forza Horizon 2, 3, and 4 alongside Goss.

In 2007, London Elektricity won the BBC 1Xtra Xtra Bass award for best live act. The fourth album Syncopated City was released in September 2008, preceded by an Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 in August. The fifth album Yikes! appeared in April 2011, followed by Are We There Yet? in November 2015.