[i:Vibes] Riley & Durrant Artist Album...

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Riley & Durrant Artist Album...

18:33 - August 6, 2007

by Watts

It's often said that writing an artist album in dance music is one of the hardest things to do. As a producer of club music do you make ten bangers or do you drift into the 'artist' realm and make album tracks that bear little relationship to what you're initially known for?

Well for Nick Riley & Andi Durrant, award-winning radio presenters, international DJ's, remix and production artists for some of the biggest artists and labels in the world, the answer was easy. Create an album spanning a multitude of genres with such apparent ease that this could be one of the finest commercial dance albums of the year!

'Research & Development' features twelve killer tracks which see the lads drift effortlessly from the finest dirty house to deep techno, ambient interludes and of course not forgetting a dash of more trance-led moments all wrapped up in the finest production to give 'Research & Development' such a well rounded edge to create a modern master piece.

Featuring strong vocal collaborations with Gina Dootson on tracks 'Hollow', 'Dead Of Night', 'Tears Down The Walls' (alongside production skills of Paul Maddox) and 'Magnificent Love' the duo also work with vocalist Ben Renwick on 'My Enemy', producers Hauswerks on 'Experiment No.2' and a brand new version of their classic 'Candesco', this album will cross boundaries into many genres.

Having met behind the decks at the now deceased Gatecrasher in Sheffield, Riley & Durrant quickly formed a strong partnership. Andi already presented two of the highest rated speciality radio shows in the UK on the Galaxy Network whilst Nick promoted hugely successful nights in Sheffield and toured the world from New York to Japan on Gatecrashers world tours, the pair finally teamed up in 2004 when they launched their ‘Nu Breed’ radio show (again on Galaxy) a showcase for underground, unsigned and unheard of talent, alongside Andi’s two other shows the pair found themselves reaching more than ½ million people worldwide every week!

Through his radio work Andi recently won Bronze Award for 'The Music Broadcaster Of The Year' in the Sony Radio Academy Awards, falling behind Radio 1's Colin Murray & Steve Lamacq whilst beating Jo Whiley. The pair's hectic DJ Diary sees them tour the world with gigs taking them across Russia, Asia, Europe and USA regularly rocking clubs like Cream, Godskitchen, Slinky, Passion Goodgreef, Judgement Sunday and their diverse play list sees them booked them alongside the likes of Tiësto, Sasha and Pete Tong.

Both artists have strong musical backgrounds (between them, classically trained in piano, keyboards, violin, and drums) and early on the decision was to focus on their own production. Working out of a tiny bedroom studio in Andi's flat, their first track 'Candesco' (featured on this album) was a true trance anthem, picked up by the biggest DJ in the world – Tiësto and was a highlight of his record-breaking first 25,000 capacity 'Tiësto In Concert' show in Holland. Following this the remix work came flooding in and names that have been under the Riley & Durrant knife include Way Out West, Sinead O'Connor and Armin Van Buuren.

2006 saw the guys take a step back from remix work and take time to focus on their debut artist album 'Research & Development'. Stripping their sound back to basics they teamed up with a variety of hot singers, songwriters, musicians and engineers from scenes as varied as folk, indie, house, minimal, trance and electro making their first album impossible to pigeon hole without losing their unique sound. It's the same combination of electronic beats, big basslines, melancholic vocals, guitars, synths and strings that you'll hear in a Riley & Durrant DJ set, but carefully brought together to create something that works as well in the club as it does on a Sunday afternoon.

'Research & Development' drops on New State Music and will be joined by the monster first single "Hollow" featuring Gina Dootson. Also back in the remix world for the first part of 2007 they've worked on mixes for respected house label CR2 and Tall Paul & American producer Dave Audes single "Common Ground".

Riley & Durrant - Research & Development
New State Music
Released: August 13th