Artist Details

Artist Bio

Please note that due to a ferocious new sound differing from ventures past, King Cannibal is the newest alias of South London based electronic producer, Zilla. Whilst Zilla sleeps at the bottom of the Pacific, King Cannibal reigns supreme as the undisputed king of the dancehall.

Art school dropout Zilla (government name Dylan Richards) began working on his own brand of super-evolved mixes towards the latter end of the nineties as a reaction to the glut of uninspiring mix compilations that had began to flood the industry. The first salvo against conformity was A Friendly Game of Chess, a self-funded, hand-sprayed, highly under-the-counter mix project with Lex Records DJ and friend Buddy Peace. The highly stylized, conceptual expression of work that combined a rich fusion of textures together with strong themes and motifs began to ignite more than their own imaginations, selling out in just 48 hours and earning high praise on a global scale.

A Friendly Game Of Chess was swiftly followed by solo mixtape strike One Foot In The Fire, One Fist In The Air which earned numerous comparisons to Coldcut’s 70 Minutes Of Madness. Comprised of almost 100 tracks from Autechre to Britney Spears, interviews and spoken word interludes, the CD sold out in a day, attracted attention from all corners, and ended up in many a Best of 2004 list. Among those with their ears to the ground were Trash supremo Erol Alkan, notorious London promoters Wheels Instead of Hooves, and the heads of both Ninja Tune and Warp Records.

After two appearances on the legendary Solid Steel radio show, the honor of being the first unsigned act to play at Strictly Kev & DK’s Solid Steel clubnight, four sets with Buddy Peace at Dedbeat ’04 in the course of one weekend, and a number of European dates, Warp Records stepped in and invited Buddy Peace & Zilla to compile a retrospective of the label. Released late September 2004 as part of the WARP VISION The Videos DVD, the mix entitled Watch And Repeat Play was a startlingly original tour de force, and for over 70 minutes the two DJs re-worked and re-wired the label’s back catalogue, twisting the already twisted into sonic maelstrom.

The Warp Vision Audio Visual | Resfest Tour followed, with appearances alongside artists such as Plaid, Chris Cunningham, Seiji, Mike Paradinas, and Funkstorung; and invitations to play at the Glade Festival, Trash, The Warp Summer Ball, and The Poke Xmas Rave. It was these shows and the experience of playing live that inspired Zilla’s latest mix, Grinted Teeth & Brawlsville. A year in the making, it was a more uptempo and aggressive (yet challenging) body of work that managed to find the link between the party-starting crunk of Lil’ Jon and the dancefloor destroying sonics of The Aphex Twin.

Once again the great and the good were suitably impressed with praise coming from the likes of Kid 606, Knifehandchop, and, again, Erol Alkan. The success of Grinted Teeth and Zilla’s growing reputation led to Domino Records inviting him to remix the final single from Test Icicles, Biggest Mistake, a remix which has been rapturously received by everyone from Laurent Garnier to Lo Recordings’ Jon Tye.

Punishing remixes of Black Grass (Catskills) and New Flesh (Big Dada) have followed as Zilla perfected his twisted industrial take on dancehall, dubstep, and drum & bass; in late 2006 he was asked to produce an EP for kid606′s Shockout label. Receiving massive support from Amon Tobin (Ninja Tune) and Combat Recordings, as well as Rag and Bone Records, the results were so good that the one EP quickly became two, under Zilla’s brand new new alias, King Cannibal. Recent highlights from the past few months have included the Zilla/Autechre remixes of Unique 3′s The Theme, Premier At Last featuring on The Chap’s The Chop EP, and King Cannibal’s Beneath The Surface on Uncharted Audio’s new Signals imprint.

2008 was a year of true Cannibal carnage due to massive radio support in the form of the recent Scorn vs. King Cannibal Soundclash Special and Aragami Style receiving heavy rotation both on Mary Anne Hobbs’ Radio 1 Show, planned collaberations with Bong-Ra, remixes for Ghislain Poirier and Ebola, and a number of releases for Combat Recordings including Scorn and Komonazmuk remixes, the debut EP on Bong Ra’s Kriss Records entitled Devil In The Dancehall, and an appearance at Scotland’s Triptych Festival.

LABEL: Ninja Tune

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