aaamusic | On 16, Jul 2010

Angels & Demons is the latest release from duo 00.db and is the third album collaboration between UK electronica stalwart John 00 Fleming and The Digital Blonde, aka Ricky Smith.

Released on John’s own label, J00F Recordings, Angels & Demons showcases a musical diversity across two discs in an unconfined deep progressive, trance inspired journey which continues the evolution of 00.db’s earlier works: Heaven & Hell (2008 Ministry of Sound) and Heaven & Hell Pt 2 (2009 Fektive).

In an era of ghost writers and clichéd samples every track on Angels & Demons is brand new and encapsulates 00.db’s song writing, partnering, engineering and production skills in an artist album that is a one hundred percent self creation.

With a completely different  approach to making music than everyone else in the trance scene John says, “We’re from a generation of producers who create our own sounds from scratch.”

“Ricky and I create each and every sound ourselves making our tracks unique to us. We don’t use sample libraries or pre-set sound banks.”

Angels & Demons stands alone in a genre saturated by repetition and patterned songs which lack flavour.

“Angels & Demons personifies a serious, more pure version of the trance genre and varies between a very deep and progressive 125 beats per minute up to a full on pounding 145,” John said.

“We wanted to create an album where you could play a whole DJ set. We’ve also created DJ tools, which simply put, is where we use track elements to test the dance floor  or bridge genres, this is the beauty of having a DJ program as one of the team.”

Like the previous album, Angels & Demons second disc is pure emotive chill out.

“It’s a movie length emotional musical odyssey in which we set out to write one chill track, not realising it would run for one hour! It really embodies us as producers and demonstrates another side to what we can do away from dance music,” John said.

Between them John 00 Fleming and The Digital Blonde have produced songs on over 200 mix compilations. With releases on labels such as Virgin, EMI and Warner Bros they have had 10 singles in the UK top 40 charts and have worked alongside artists like Simple Minds, Muse, Erasure, Vangelis, Moby and more recently Faithless.

Angels & Demons will also be available on a limited edition J00F USB stick.

Some Angels & Demons tracks are also soon to be released on an upcoming iPad/Sony Playstation space simulation game.

00.db: The history

John 00 Fleming and The Digital Blonde, aka Ricky Smith, are musical collaborators who shun the pop star lifestyle akin to many of their ilk, and together as 00.db, focus on creating trance influenced electronic dance music that is deep and layered with a progressive edge.

Their musical partnership, originating in 1996 after John signed Ricky’s track, Antheum, to his mix compilation, Reactivate, ignited a long time friendship and shared passion to the style’s more darker and  textured side in an antithesis to what is largely produced within the genre.

With a similar mindset to musical production their first release, The Main Voyage, created a synergy which manifested into not only commercial success, but in the release of three albums, headline performances at music festivals and focused industry attention.

In January 2008 00.db’s debut album, Heaven & Hell, was released as a bonus third disc on John’s Euphoria Psy-Trance 1 on Ministry of Sound. Heaven & Hell made it into the UK top 40 album charts and the album’s feedback and success quickly led to the follow up, Heaven & Hell Pt 2 on Fektive only one year later.

On top of album success, demand for 00.db also grew on the festival circuit. In 2009 they headlined the main stage at the esteemed Gatecrasher Summer sound system festival and performed on a dedicated 00.db stage at Goa’s Sunburn Festival, India’s biggest outdoor music festival.

00.db have continued their global success through recent performances at Tomorrowland in Belgium, and dedicated concert to over 4000 people in Manila, Philippines, and in mammoth club nights at 1015 in San Francisco, USA and back home for Ministry of Sound.

00.db has also jolted the music industry, with dance heavyweights Faithless requesting them to remix their next single, and electronica pioneer Jean Michel Jarre personally giving his endorsement to their remake of his classic Oxygene.

00.db’s name was born via a competition on John’s website forum. Fans were asked to send in suggestions for a band name and the result, 00.db, is formed from combining ‘00’ and by morphing the audio power term, decibel, with the Digital Blonde’s initials.

Tracklist:

1. Dying Isis / 2. Mejarka / 3. Angel / 4. Keymentia / 5. Timelapser / 6. Dharker / 7. Inka / 8. Sidewinder / 9. Melatron / 10. Samples Of 60 min chill journey