Jakkit, Jakkit

Serious stuff from some true originators of the European underground techno scene.

Ian B. Loveday and Peter Frank Adshead, better known as 'Eon' and Peter 'Baby Ford' respectively, have always enjoyed the admiration of most DJs and producers. Mostly due to the fact that they were of the first people to produce pure 'n' honest acid and techno music in England, when everyone were happily dropping 'balearic' tracks and establishing the UK version of 'acid house'. Baby Ford even had some commercial success with some of the weirdest traxx of this era, like 'Chikki Chikki Ahh Ahh' and 'Oochy Koochy' and a cover of T.Rex's 'Children of The Revolution', before retreating to the underground, obviously not in good terms with the commercial, full of vocals & nothing to do with 303s tendencies of the time.

The word' prolific' comes to mind easily if you take a look at the discographies of both of them. 'Helpful' should be the second thought, as you'll notice the collaborations with others to form cryptic labels, long-time or one-release projects, always under new names, or how easily they bring some new but talented face in, which will later gain fame on their own.
Mostly through the '90s releases on their labels they connected with guys like Mark Broom, Dave Hill, former Black Dog later Plaid members Ed Handley (aka Balil) and Andy Turner, Dimbiman aka Zip later the owner of Perlon, Kotai of the Elektro Music Department, Thomas Melchior & Tim Hutton aka Vulva, the Ongaku/Klang/Playhouse guys, the list goes on forever.
The Trelik sound was based more on Loveday's view of techno, perfect for open air raves or clubs without ever losing the basic minimal touch. Ifach keeped the clubby feeling but played a little bit more with deep, house and electro elements. The PAL SL releases were more introvert, minimal excursions, but nowdays it seems that this was the most influential label of all.

Now every respectable label owner would die to have a Ford release (all the big ones have at least one). Yet many new DJs don't even know who this guy is, even though what HE played fifteen years ago is now badly copied and presented as new by 'artists' that make money by releases in M_nus or Pokerflat or the millions of clones that copy them. Yet none can achieve the ability of Baby Ford at constructing repeating elements and simple drum patterns, perfectly fit for mixing yet strong enough to stand by themselves. As for Loveday, he takes me back to a field or two.

Well, right now I like my techno with an 808 in it. A real one.

VA - 1996, Trelik Volume 1
Part 1 - Part 2 - info here

Baby Ford, friends, related labels and more info here.
Eon discography here and here.

By the way, 'Smoking Jakkit' got some typical Luciano treatment and was printed again by the Exacta.udio label in 2004.