THE LIBERATOR DJ'S
Biography

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The Liberator DJs have been receiving a lot of media attention, they are the hero's of 'London Acid city' and the underground free party movement. A scene which began five years ago, and is going stronger then ever.

The Liberator DJs are Aaron, Julian and Chris. Having met on the free-party scene in the late eighties, it was the rampant energy and DIY ethic of those early parties, like the punk scene before, that first inspired the Liberators. However while punk had now been embraced by the mainstream, and it seemed like any spoilt-brat american with a sob-story to tell could make a million by not being able to play the guitar, techno was something fresh, disobedient, and, judging by the full scale media hysteria, more than a little subversive. In short, the techno-scene was now something a damn sight closer to the original spirit of punk - it made no compromises, no apologies and welcomed all-comers with open arms, regardless of class, clothes or colour.

... So for Aaron, Julian and Chris, techno replaced punk, and it wasn’t long before they were running their own parties in whatever space was available, whether a deserted warehouse, factory or just a squat big enough to hold a sound system and several hundred up for it people. These parties led to the opening of their own regular club - "Nuclear Free" at the 414 Club in Brixton, a series of residencies at Megadog and finally in 1994 the setting up of their own Stay Up Forever Label.

Stay Up Forever - which joined The Truelove Label Collective in Spring 1995 after their 4th release - was set up with the intention of being a creative outlet for the motley band of free-party stalwarts, a close knit, but never cliquey family of such renegades as D.A.V.E. the Drummer, DDR, Guy McAffer, DJ Gizelle, Lawrie Immersion and, of course, the Liberators themselves. All of the above have found their efforts immortalised on S.U.F. vinyl under guises such as Star Power, A + E Dept., Cosmic Trigger and Secret Hero.

... Although initially a techno label, it wasn’t long before the Liberators found the obsessive purism of the techno scene too restricting, what did it matter which high hat sounds you used or what bpm a track was if it sounded good and got people moving, and so the criteria that defined the S.U.F. sound became - "if we want to play it and people want to hear it, we’ll record it." As a result S.U.F. broadened to include acid trance, techno funk and many bastard combinations of anything that takes their fancy - how after all do you define a label who are about to release an acid track with a sample of a legendary female blues icon. Well whatever you want to call it - we call it fucking ‘aving it.

S.U.F. was soon joined by the Stay Up Forever Remix label- a label designed to give their mates free rein to remix, reinvent and generally fuck up their material, which has featured work by Kris Needs, Jon The Dentist, Choci, Lawrie Immersion, John Truelove and home to the immortal "London Acid City" by Lochi. Its Not Intelligent ..And Its Not From Detroit....but it is F***Ing Having It"..

PICTURE © 1999 WAX MAGAZINE