Propellerheads
| Propellerheads | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Bath, Somerset, England |
| Genres | Electronica, big beat, breakbeat, trip hop |
| Years active | 1995–2003 |
| Labels | Wall of Sound |
| Members | Will White Alex Gifford |
Propellerheads were a British big beat musical ensemble, formed in 1995 and made up of electronic producers Will White and Alex Gifford. The term propellerhead is slang for a nerd, and when Gifford and White heard a friend from California use this in a conversation, they thought it would be the perfect name for their band.
Their first release was an EP named Dive!, released in 1996 through the independent label Wall of Sound. They gained fame the next year by providing a remix for James Bond movie composer David Arnold's Bond tribute album Shaken & Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project covering John Barry's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", the theme song to the sixth James Bond film, re-orchestrated by Arnold. They also collaborated with Arnold on the track "Backseat Driver" for the soundtrack of the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. The single "History Repeating" followed, a collaboration with Shirley Bassey (also well known for her James Bond music), fusing big beat with jazz. "History Repeating" was used as the theme for So Graham Norton and was also featured in the Farrelly Brothers' film There's Something About Mary.
The Propellerheads album Decksandrumsandrockandroll was released in 1998 by Wall of Sound in Europe and DreamWorks in the US and Japan. The DreamWorks versions include collaborations with hip hop veterans De La Soul and Jungle Brothers, and the Japanese version is a two disc special edition including some of their earlier singles. A track from the album, "Spybreak!", became widely known after its use in the lobby scene in the classic 1999 feature film The Matrix. They are also noted for providing "Crash" (a big-beat cover version of Brass Incorporated's "At the Sign of the Swinging Cymbal", perhaps best known as the theme song of BBC Radio 1's Pick of the Pops) as the theme tune to Radio 1's 'Official Chart Show' between 1998 and 2002, when Mark Goodier was the host. This song was also used in the 1999 hit comedy film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.
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