A Man Called Adam

A Man Called Adam (sometimes abbreviated to AMCA) are the British electronic music artists Sally Rodgers and Steve Jones. Although chart success eluded the band, they are regarded as pivotal in the development of the electronic music genres, acid jazz and Balearic house.. Test Pressing magazine described them as "Britain’s unsung pop heroes."[1]

This article is about the musical group. For the 1966 film starring Sammy Davis, Jr., see A Man Called Adam (film).

Career

Recording for DJ Gilles Peterson’s fledgling Acid Jazz Records label, A Man Called Adam found that it was the remixed B-sides, "Techno Powers" and "Amoeba" — electronic versions of the A-side tracks, that became cult records, bridging the divide between the jazz, rare groove and acid house scenes.

AMCA later moved to Big Life Records and released "Barefoot In the Head".[2] Produced by Sally Rodgers, Steve Jones and sound engineer Mat Clark, the track features choral pads and strings coupled with bouncing Roland 909 and 727 rhythm tracks. The Channel 4 documentary A Short film about Chillin' featured the band along with The Farm, DJs Andrew Weatherall, Danny Rampling, Terry Farley and Rocky and Diesel, and charted their journey to Ibiza with club promoter Charlie Chester, and a couple of hundred British ravers on the first organized clubbing holiday of its kind. The vocal sample, of American actor Rod McKuen intoning 'I put a seashell to my ear' to the sound of waves lapping the shore, meant the track would ever be associated with sun-drenched beaches and the term 'Balearic House' came into use.

Around the same time, Paul Daley left the band to form Leftfield.[2] Rodgers and Jones, went on to release their debut album The Apple in 1991. Following the release of several singles from the LP ("I Want To Know", "The Chrono Psionic Interface" and "Bread, Love And Dreams"), AMCA left Big Life to set up their own label, Other Records.[2]

Through the mid-1990s, AMCA released several singles and contributed to The Café del Mar series of compilation albums, as well as creating a side project, Beachflea,[2] and their Planet Jazz and Other Stuff compilations on Other Records. Rodgers also compiled High in a Basement for Heavenly Records, a selection of works from notable British artists and labels such as Faze Action and Reel Houze.

The second AMCA album, Duende, was released in 1998 and included the singles "Easter Song", "Que Tal America" and "All My Favourite People".[2] It also featured the song "Estelle", which though never released as a single, continues to be included on numerous Chill Out compilations.

A third AMCA album, All My Favourite... was released in 2004 on Norman Cooke's Southern Fried label, and featured a selection of songs from the two previous albums alongside several new songs. It also included an acoustic version of their signature song, "Barefoot In The Head", which was released as a single.

Rodgers has since earned a masters degree and PhD from the University of St Andrews; she describes her research as "an impact narrative about how capture and recording technologies have, over time, changed poetic form... all the way from the Romantics to Bob Dylan and Hip Hop".[3] Jones is also studying for a PhD in mobile music[4] at De Montfort University,[3] having gained an M(Sc) in sound design from the University of Edinburgh. They have continued to work together as sound designers on museum, film and theatrical commissions, notably the BME (British Music Experience) — a museum charting the history of British pop music and The British Museum's exhibition Journey to the afterlife: The Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Reflecting their interest in avant-garde and art music, Rodgers and Jones recording as Discrete Machines, released an album and two EPs between 2011 and 2015.

In March 2019, A Man Called Adam bounced back into the scene with their album Farmarama. Lodown magazine reviewed Farmarama as "born out of a mature union of individuals who understand themselves fully as artists and have complete awareness of where they want to take their music [...] A Man Called Adam are a great talent currently displaying an acute sense of creativity unhampered by the constraints of genre."[5]

Ban Ban Ton Ton Blog says: "Mixing the resulting sometimes asymmetric building blocks with clank, glitch, and digital fizz, to reconstruct something fresh. Music that references their Acid Jazz origins, yet has all its beats broken in a 21st century way. While digging at the emptiness and selfishness of modern life, they are effectively a healing mantra. Embodying positivity and hope."[6]

Rodgers is also an in demand DJ playing at clubs and festivals worldwide.[7]

Discography

Albums
  • The Apple (1991, Big Life)
  • Duende (1998, Other Records)
  • All My Favourite... (2004, Other Records)
  • Space Tranquil, Vol. 1 (2005, Aureus Records)
  • A Man Called Adam: Collected Works Volume One (2010, Other Records)
  • A Man Called Adam: Collected Works Volume Two (2010, Other Records)
  • A Man Called Adam: Farmarama (2019, Other Records)

Singles and EPs
Year Single Peak positions Album
UK
[8]
1988 "A.P.B." — singles only
1989 "Earthly Powers" —
"Musica De Amor" —
1990 "Barefoot In The Head" 60 The Apple
1991 "I Want To Know" —
"The Chrono Psionic Interface" —
1992 "Bread, Love And Dreams" —
1993 "I Am, Is The Way" — singles only
"Love Come Down" —
1995 "Easter Song" —
1996 "Que' Tal America?" —
"The Jihad EP" —
1998 "Que' Tal America?" 197 Duende
1999 "All My Favourite People (Stay With Me)" —
"Easter Song" —
2004 "Love Forgotten" — All My Favourite...
"Earthsings" (feat. Brenda Fassie) —
"Barefoot In The Head 04" 97
2019 "Farmarama Remixes Vols. 1 & 2" —

References
  1. "REVIEWS ROUND-UP / MARCH". Testpressing.org. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  2. Colin Larkin, ed. (2000). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Nineties Music (First ed.). Virgin Books. p. 5. ISBN 0-7535-0427-8.
  3. Rampling, Danny; Weatherall, Andy. "Interview / Sally Rodgers / A Man Called Adam". Banbantonton.com. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  4. Vidani, Peter. "The Carry Principle". Steranko.tumblr.com. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  5. "a man called adam". Lodown Magazine. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  6. "A Man Called Adam / Farmarama / Other Records". Banbantonton.com. 20 February 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  7. "The Pool - Artist Management Bristol". Thepool-london.com. Retrieved 27 November 2019.
  8. "Official Charts Company: A Man Called Adam". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
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