Fear of Theydon is one Julian Peck, a former Sunday Best tea-boy whose ability has seen him quickly rise through the ranks in a style not dissimilar to a certain Rob da Bank all those years ago at Muzik Magazine (& their hair-styles aren’t too dissimilar either… hmmm?).
It didn’t take long for us to begin to realise that not only was young Jules a sterling worker and an all-round nice guy but that he also had real talent at musical production. The first thing to start pricking our ears was his superlative re-edit of Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’, under his Mr Whelk guise, that he subtly slipped onto the office stereo one raining Friday afternoon. It wasn’t long before the rain stopped, the clouds parted and Rob da Bank used the track to open his BBC Radio 1 Leftfield show. A remix of The Cuban Brothers ‘Love Is Alive’ quickly followed, as did several commissions to create Rob’s radio jingles, and a small army of high-profile admirers (Mylo, Touche, Seelenluft, Quiet Village, Mark Vidler, Mark Moore…) began to take notice and give praise.
While Mr Whelk is Julian’s alias for remixing massive pop hits as bootlegs that will probably never see a proper release (check www.myspace.com/mrwhelk for ‘Whelkbusting’ plus his versions of ‘Blue Monday’ and other gems), Fear of Theydon is all about remixing real new bands and songs he loves… and then getting them out there on a beautiful slab of vinyl for all to cherish!
The first fruit, the ‘This is Fear of Theydon’ EP, saw 4 bands receive the Fear of Theydon treatment:
Grand National ‘Rub Your Potion’ (Fear of Theydon Mix)
“Grand National was my first love on Sunday Best years ago – now I’m remixing them! Woohoo!” When Grand National first heard this remix of one of their b-sides they instinctively offered up every track they had ever made to the Fear of Theydon treatment. And when the mighty Global Underground gang heard the track they immediately snapped it up for their recent ‘GU: MIXED 2’ compilation. High praise indeed!
The Mount Cherries vs. Fear of Theydon – Disxotek Suixide
The Mount Cherries are a bunch of mad art students at Central St. Martins – hailing from England, France & Asia. Flamboyant stage costumes and shambolic synchronised dance moves – the works. Perfect material for the Theydon touch.
Olympus Mons – OK On My Own (Fear of Theydon Mix)
Julian discovered this band while sifting through demos sent it for Bestival 2006. They didn’t quite make it onto the festival line up, but they made it onto his computer where he reworked them into this little gem. The band have since won FOPP’s ‘Best Unsigned Band Award’ but are still unsigned… for now.
It Hugs Back – Soft Spot (Fear of Theydon’s Extra Whizz Extended Mix)
Another discovery from the big bag marked Bestival 2006 demos, they have since gone on to release singles on Tiger Trap Records and Too Pure Records, record a Maida Vale session for Rob da Bank on Radio 1 and play a great show at Bestival 2007…
www.myspace.com/fearoftheydonproductions
The Critics on Fear of Theydon:
• Nico De Ceglia (AKA/The End + various / BBC Radio 1 – London) “4 good mixes by Fear of Theydon. The Grand National and the Mount Cherries ones are hot.”
• Laurent Garnier (France) “Excellent – full radio support”
• James Talk (BBC radio 1) “The Grand National mix is fantastic! #1 in chart”
• Paul Hamill (BBC ULSTER) – thanks for this wicked little sampler, I hadn’t previously heard of this guy and am already a fan, his production has a lovely sound to it. I played Grand National last week and will be playing Disxotex Suixide on this weeks show…
• Fab (OrtzRoka) “Absolutely loving the Grand National track, nice one!”
• Pete Gooding (M8) “loving Grand National ‘Rub Your Potion’ (Fear Of Theydon mix) amazing, will play on the radio show on Ministry and will review in M8, also loving It Hugs Back ‘Soft Spot’.”
• Pathaan ‘Oh My God….loving the GRAND NATIONAL mix. Will review for IDJ too…’
• Demi (Deeper Substance) “That grand national mix is pretty stunning.”
• Ali B “Sounds Good”
• Rev Milo Speedwagon (London) “Very well crafted houser. Up my strasse”
• Cass (Cass & Mangan – London) “It’s the Grand National rework on here for me. As for the rest of the EP, it’s the usual inspired organic randomness we expect from SB. A trip to the stationary cupboard for some gold stars for all concerned I think.”
• Richard Dinsdale (Ministry Of Sound/Toolroom) “Beautiful EP: All 4 tracks are amazing, really well produced music, it makes a change to get some really nice tracks.”
• Anil Chawla (Turnmills – London) “Really nice EP – in particular – really dig the Grand National track and The Mount Cherries track is sublime…”
• Leo Belchetz (Chibuku Shake Shake) “Quality Productions, can see why you’re happy to have unearthed this young man… Would happily listen to them on the radio”
• Chris Coco (BBC RADIO 1 & 2) “This is sounding really good!” Disxotek Suixide is #7 in my August Eclectic chart
• Dave Mothersole (MOS RADIO) “Really like both ‘Rub your Potion’ and ‘Disxotek Suicide’. Gonna play em on MOS radio tonight.”
• Johnny Moy (Various/Spin 1038 – Dublin) “Really good – the mount cherries is banging, all round a great package”
• Alex Parsons (Brique Rouge/Urbantorque – London) “Rub Your Potion & Disxotek Suixide are great… Perfect early doors stuff for me.”
• Mark Vidler (Go Home Productions) “The Olympus Mons track is great. Love the effected backwards guitar action. This ones a grower. Lyrically on the money too. Cool Psych-Folk feel to the It Hugs Back track, which is kinda where my heads at. Excellent stuff. Great dreamy, summer blessed-out feel. Like this one. Brilliant build to ending too. The Grand National remix is cool. Loving the bleepiness.”
• Jamie McHugh (Brique Rouge – london) “Excellent – Grand National is the pick of the bunch for me, I can see myself wrapping up my late/afterhours sets with this.”
