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Pendulum (drum and bass band)

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For the Australian ambient house band, see Pendulum (ambient band).
For other uses, see Pendulum (disambiguation).

Pendulum
Pendulum at Glastonbury Festival 2009
Pendulum at Glastonbury Festival 2009
Background information
OriginPerth, Australia
GenresDrum and bass, breakbeat, electronic rock, electro house, dubstep
Years active2002 (2002)–2012 (on hiatus though DJ sets are played)
LabelsBreakbeat Kaos, Warner Bros., Warner Music, Ear Storm, Atlantic
MembersPaul Harding
Ben Mount
Past membersRob Swire
Gareth McGrillen
Peredur ap Gwynedd
Paul Kodish
Kevin Sawka
Websitependulum.com

Pendulum is an Australian/British drum and bass group[2] founded in 2002 in Perth, Western Australia by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen, and Paul Harding.[3] Rob and Gareth also constitute the electro house duo Knife Party.

The group was notable for a distinctive sound, mixing hard rock with electronic music, and developing to cover a wider range of genres. Swire and McGrillen were members of the metal band known as Xygen. After hearing Konflict's "Messiah" at a club, they were inspired to enter into the drum and bass genre.[4] They founded Pendulum with Harding, who was a veteran DJ in the drum and bass scene. In 2003 the band relocated to the United Kingdom.

While Hold Your Colour holds true to the drum and bass genre, Pendulum have since experimented with mixing other genres into their work, as can be heard on In Silico and Immersion.

History

Formation and early years (2002–2004)

Pendulum formed in Perth, Australia and released their first song, "Vault", as the A-side of the Kingz of the Rollers EP in 2003.[5]

Hold Your Colour (2004–2007)

After releasing several singles such as "Spiral" / "Ulterior Motive" and many tracks to be included in their forthcoming release, Pendulum released their debut album, Hold Your Colour in 2005. Notably, the album has successfully become one of the most popular drum and bass albums ever sold. The album has sold 225,000 copies in the UK alone. It entered the top 40 of the UK Albums Chart for the first time on 25 May 2008, peaking at No.29 by 16 August.

The cover design of the album was done by Vince Peersman, one of the most prominent graphic artists for drum and bass music covers.

The album was re-issued in 2007, and had a slightly different track listing. The final two songs, "Another Planet" and "Still Grey" were replaced by "Blood Sugar" and "Axle Grinder". As well as this, the re-issued version also erroneously contains gaps at the end of each track, causing the album to lose its original sense of flow.

In Silico (2007–2009)

Their second album, In Silico, was released in May 2008. This release saw the band's first deviation from the drum and bass genre and incorporated more rock sounds. The second single from the album, "Propane Nightmares", peaked at No.9 in the UK Singles Chart, and brought the band mainstream success. In 2008 in support of the album, Pendulum played at numerous European music festivals and undertook their first tour of North America. At the end of the year the band filmed a live DVD on 4 and 5 December 2008, at the Brixton Academy. This was later released in June 2009.[6]

Immersion (2009–2011)

Pendulum once again toured Europe in 2009. During this tour they announced that they were working on their third studio album, Immersion. It was announced in December 2009 that Pendulum would be touring for their new album in May 2010. The release date of the album was announced to be sometime "in May" during the live preview party at Matter, and was then announced to be released on 24 May.

Pendulum previewed their album Immersion at the Ear Storm night at London’s Matter nightclub on Friday 22 January, as well as streaming the material on their official website.[7] "Salt in the Wounds", a track from their new album, was Zane Lowe's Hottest Record in the World on BBC Radio 1 on 25 January 2010. It was stated however that it was a street-level release and was not an official single. On Zane Lowe's show, it was also announced that he wanted to join the band and the first single from the new album would be called "Watercolour".[8] also received its first play on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 8 March 2010, and was his Single of the Week for that week.[9] The music video for "Watercolour" was released on 31 March and premiered on their MySpace page, and also in the members area of their official website, The Other Side. A day later, on 1 April, another music video was released, this time for "Salt in the Wounds". The video is unique in that it is, according to the band's website, "...the world’s first 360° interactive music video." Viewers can move the camera around in the video. Six letters are hidden throughout the video. Once these letters are found, the viewer can enter them as a code and claim a free download of "Salt in the Wounds".[10] Otherwise, "Watercolour" claimed the No.4 spot in the UK Single Chart, making it their biggest hit to date.

On 21 May 2010, the band headlined the annual Radio 1's Big Weekend festival which was held at the Vaynol Estate, Bangor, Gwynedd.

The second single from the album, "Witchcraft", was released on 18 July and charted at No.29 in the UK Singles chart, making it their third highest charted single in the UK. The third single from Immersion was "The Island", and just missed the UK Top 40 at No. 41. Rob Swire had stated that if it had achieved greater success than "Witchcraft", he would have released a song entitled "Ransom", which was taken off Immersion before the album's release. "Ransom" was previewed however and became a fan favourite. As it did not do better, Swire revealed the original files for "Ransom" were corrupted, and that he has no plans to recreate them, therefore it will not be released. However, on 6 April 2011, Pendulum released "Ransom" as a single via their website with all proceeds going to the Help for Japan fund post the tsunami. "Crush" was released as the fourth single in January 2011.

In January 2011, Pendulum released a Deluxe Edition of Immersion via iTunes which contained the album's original 15 tracks and a collection of remixes of "Watercolour", "Witchcraft" and "The Island" by other artists including deadmau5, Tiësto and Chuckie. Both the UK and US store were also given the music videos of those three tracks in the release. However, more remixes were released in the UK store along with extra videos, including a trailer of footage from their live show at Wembley Arena that took place on 28 May 2010.

Progression and hiatus (2011–2012)

On 26 October 2010, Swire announced via Twitter that a new record is in the works. This new record is set to be heavily punk influenced.[11] The next album is expected to be a significant departure from usage of drum and bass tempo, for a faster tempo in the form of punk, and a slower tempo in the form of dubstep.[12]

On 29 March 2011 via Twitter, Swire revealed that there would be no "new album" for a while. He added that there would be "def new material" later in the year.

Pendulum opened for Linkin Park on several selected dates during the band's 2011 "A Thousand Suns" North American tour.,[13] also headlining their own tour and being supported by Innerpartysystem.

Pendulum played at the 2011 Download Festival,[14] Oxegen,[15] The Eden Sessions,[16] Glastonbury Festival[17] and T in the Park,[18] V Festival, headlined Global Gathering, an exclusive London show at South West Four[19] and finally headlined the first night of Bestival on the Isle Of Wight.

On 5 April 2011 Pendulum announced via Twitter and the band's website that a previously unreleased track from Immersion, titled "Ransom", would be released on Pendulum's website, with 100% of the proceeds going to help disaster relief efforts in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.[20]

Pendulum headlined at Rhythm & Vines 2011 in Gisborne, New Zealand. The band took a break from touring in 2012 in order to take part in side projects.

Pendulum is part of major Headliners on Main Stage line-up at LovEvolution 2011 Dance Festival & Parade in Oakland, California, which has over 50 DJs and 15 or more parade floats. Pendulum headlined Friday night at the Isle of Wight Bestival.

On 3 January 2012, Pendulum announced via Twitter that they would be taking a hiatus from touring while thanking their fans for the last several years. They went on to state that they might create a new record in 2013.[21] Swire stated on his personal Twitter that Pendulum is on hiatus, as Knife Party is now his primary project.[22]

On 16 June 2012, Rob Swire announced via Twitter that there will be no further Pendulum live shows and there are no current plans for a new album in 2013. Although there are no live shows taking place in the near future according to the band, El Hornet & MC Verse still perform DJ Sets across the world.

Knife Party

Main article: Knife Party

In 2011 Rob Swire and fellow member Gareth McGrillen announced in various interviews and on Swire's Twitter that a project called Knife Party had been created. The side project is not linked in any means to Pendulum and will consist of electro house, dubstep and other club genres, and is now the duo's primary project.

Musical style

Bassist Gareth McGrillen at Blue Oyster in 2007
Gareth McGrillen performing live in the band Pendulum at Carling Academy Newcastle in 2007.

When Pendulum was formed, their musical style was considerably more drum and bass sounding than the work they were known later in the career. Signature tunes such as "Masochist", "Vault", "Back 2 You" and "Voyager", which were released on labels such as Uprising Records, 31 Records, Renegade Hardware and Low Profile Records, have a darker, more amelodic air to them which is substantially absent from their later productions. The band's newer work is regarded as generally leaning heavily towards a mainstream, dance-driven sound. Early work such as "Another Planet" seems to indicate an early affinity with a more global sound, similar to other Breakbeat Kaos artists such as DJ Fresh and Adam F.

The group has produced various remixes of other artists also; one the best-known being the remix of "Voodoo People", originally by The Prodigy. In 2008–2010, they covered/remixed songs including Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", Linkin Park's "The Catalyst", Calvin Harris's "I'm Not Alone", Coldplay's "Violet Hill", and Metallica's "Master of Puppets". Pendulum's versions of "I'm Not Alone" and "Master Of Puppets" both exist as studio recordings but have not been officially released, and are only previewed during DJ sets. The original live version of "Master of Puppets" was played as an instrumental introduction for "Slam", and was featured on their first live album/DVD. During their American tour as the supporting band for Linkin Park, the song was played in its entirety, with Rob doing vocals. Pendulum have also remixed their own music and, on occasion, television theme songs, such as Australian television's "ABC News Theme" in May 2010. The remix proved to be immensely popular with listeners of Australian youth radio station triple j, polling at number 11 in the 2010 Triple J Hottest 100 countdown.[23]

Pendulum's musical style consisted of a fusion of drum and bass (along with other electronic genres), alternative rock and heavy metal, with the inclusion of acoustic instruments. This creates a sound reminiscent of electronic rock, albeit with much more prominent drum and bass and, more recently, dubstep influences. Some songs, such as "Slam", "Propane Nightmares" and "Witchcraft" are synth-led, whilst others, such as "Showdown", "The Tempest" and "Comprachicos", are guitar-led. Bassist Gareth McGrillen stated in an interview on Channel 4 that they use 13 computers during the live performances, all of which are mixing the sounds produced by the instruments in real time. Rob Swire stated in issues of TJECK magazine and Rock Sound magazine that he would like to begin producing songs with a punk style to them, excluding the inclusion of electronic sounds in the near future.[24] Pendulum were known to be fans of progressive rock and progressive metal bands, which may have inspired them to fuse multiple genres of music together, which is standard practice in those genres.

Controversy

In 2006, Pendulum's old label Breakbeat Kaos released an album containing a 2-year-old Pendulum DJ mix without their permission, resulting in group member Rob Swire later denouncing the album on public Internet forum Dogs On Acid.[25] This issue has since been resolved; DJ Fresh is included on the list of acknowledgements in the Immersion booklet, and Pendulum is now working with Breakbeat Kaos again, on the vinyl release of the singles "Witchcraft" and "The Island".[26]

Electronic musician Goldie has criticised Pendulum's single "Granite" for being what he calls a "shit single", and accused the band of not acknowledging the drum and bass scene from which they came.[27] For the band's part, in an interview with The Times Swire cited "Goldie making concept albums about space and his mum"[citation needed] (in the words of The Times reporter) as one of the reasons why he was not initially keen on the genre; he claims to have been more into "breakbeat, straight up house and hardcore" before Gareth McGrillen, who is Pendulum's bassist and was Swire's bandmate in Xygen, introduced him to "more electronic" areas of the genre.[28] This issue has since been resolved as well, according to Gareth McGrillen in an interview on The Age.[29]

Members

Despite the live band no longer performing, Swire has stated he may do another album, just not until after 2013. Paul and Ben however still actively perform the DJ set.

Final line-up
Former members
Timeline

Discography

Main article: Pendulum discography

See also

References

  1. ^ Knife Party's Remix of Swedish House Mafia's 'Save The World'. rollingstone.com (2 June 2011). Retrieved 12 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Pendulum at Contactmusic". Contactmusic.com. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  3. ^ Pendulum interview. dnbforum.com (23 March 2003). Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  4. ^ Knowledge Magazine (July 2005, vol. 2 issue 58). Pendulum. publishing.yudu.com. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  5. ^ The full Pendulum discography. Pendulum.com. Archived on 28 September 2008.
  6. ^ "Live at Brixton at Play.com". Play.com. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  7. ^ "Pendulum to showcase new album 'Immersion' in London this month". gigwise.com (7 January 2010). Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  8. ^ Pendulum MySpace blog entry about "Salt in the Wounds". MySpace (26 January 2010). Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  9. ^ "First play of 'Watercolour' tonight!". Pendulum.com (8 March 2010). Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  10. ^ "360° video and free download of 'Salt in the Wounds'". Pendulum.com (1 April 2010). Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  11. ^ Rob Swire's Twitter feed. Twitter (26 October 2010). Retrieved 27 October 2010.
  12. ^ Pendulum start work on their new album. Nova FM (1 November 2010). Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  13. ^ "Linkin Park news release (15 November 2010). Retrieved 20 November 2010". Pendulum.com. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  14. ^ Bhamra, Satvir. "20 more bands announced for Download Festival". Amplified.tv. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  15. ^ Oxegen Line Up has finally arrived. "Oxegen Line Up has finally arrived | Oxegen". Oxegen.ie. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  16. ^ "Pendulum and Pretty Lights gig at Eden Project". Edenproject.com. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  17. ^ "News – Pendulum At Glastonbury". Pendulum. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  18. ^ "THE ONLY OFFICIAL T IN THE PARK WEBSITE ::: **BEWARE OF FAKE TITP WEBSITES** inc. tinthepark2011.com!". Tinthepark.com. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  19. ^ "SouthWestFour Festival – Pendulum". Southwestfour.com. Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  20. ^ http://www.pendulum.com/news,download-ransom-now_182.htm?pg=4
  21. ^ https://twitter.com/#!/PendulumMusic
  22. ^ https://twitter.com/#!/rob_swire
  23. ^ www.abc.net.au/triplej: Hottest 100 2010: No.11 Pendulum – ABC News Theme. triple j (26 January 2011). Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  24. ^ www.tjeck.dk: Pendulum Interview 2010: Wanna make a punk album. tjeck.dk (25 August 2010). Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  25. ^ "Re: 'junglesound Gold'". Dogs On Acid (1 March 2006). Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  26. ^ Breakbeat Kaos release schedule for the next few months. beatsfortheplanet.com (25 September 2010). Retrieved 28 September 2010.
  27. ^ "interview goldie @ turbulence newcastle". YouTube (4 April 2008). Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  28. ^ Pendulum: the kings of loud just got louder. The Times (12 June 2009). Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  29. ^ Pendulum happy to be far from home. The Age (17 August 2010). Retrieved 26 October 2010.
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