Afronaught

Afronaught is the primary alias of Orin Walters, a chief instigator of West London’s broken beat scene. Not only is Walters one of the best producers in the field of broken beat -- a loose tag for a brand of heavily rhythmic breakbeat fusion that features chopped up beats -- but he’s also been behind the formation of the Bugz in the Attic collective, in addition to having released plenty of the scene’s recorded output through labels he has set up and helped run, like Mousetrap, Suckers Need Bass and Bitasweet.

Walters route into dance music began in the late ‘80s, when he began listening to pirate radio stations and frequenting warehouse parties. It wasn’t long before he was spinning house on London pirates and holding residencies at several clubs. He spent some time living in Chicago during the mid-‘90s and helped operate clubs like Kaboom and the Shelter. After returning to the U.K., he became a fixture at Ronnie Scott’s and began collaborating with Phil Asher as Blak ‘n’ Spanish. The Mousetrap label was initiated around the same time, and the constantly mutating/developing Bugz in the Attic group took shape, taking on production work and remix work.

Walters’ Afronaught productions tend to sound more directly soul-influenced than those of his counterparts -- for instance, “Transcend Me” resembles a hopped-up update of Roy Ayers’ early ‘80s projects like Sylvia Striplin and the Eighties Ladies, with the easy, freeflowing nature of those records supplanted with complex, sputtering drum programming. His debut full-length as Afronaught, the excellent Shapin’ Fluid, was released on R&S subsidiary Apollo in 2001. [See also: Works of Art; Spank da Monkey; Obsession; USC; Soul Tuition; Neon Phusion; Everyday People; Urban Soul Collective; Orange Water; Afro Force; LO:K8.] ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide