Lotek Hi-Fi

The sound of Lotek HiFi is the result of three distinct sensibilities and musical outlooks.

Wayne 'Lotek' Bennett is the ultimate studio nut. He left school as soon as he could and trained and began working at Rollover in London, where he quickly found himself in sessions with everyone from Leftfield to Peter Andre. But his first love was hip hop and he soon found himself inducted into the ranks of North London's most notorious rap collective. With them, he released tapes and records, organised parties and played his part in keeping hip hop in the UK going in the midst of a drought. He came to the attention of Roots Manuva, who asked him to contribute a couple of tracks to what would become his debut album, Brand New Second Hand. The musical relationship grew and, as well as contributing two of the standouts on Manuva's follow-up, Run Come Save Me, Wayne was asked to act as Musical Director for the Roots Manuva live show. It was while dealing with this that Bennett became certain he was ready to step out on his own and began piecing together the band which would become Lotek HiFi. His collaborations with Manuva have continued, though, many people feeling that "Move Ya Loin" is one of the stand-out tracks from Manuva's latest album, Awfully Deep. The Rootical One returned the favour, too, and appears on Mixed Blessings.

Wayne Paul, sometime black cockney football casual, raver and natural mystic, is the possessor of one of the finest reggae/street-soul singing voices this country has ever produced. Paul made a reputation for himself in the mid-nineties with his Take The Train release on Sound Of Money, which was played by the likes of Trevor Nelson, Jazzie B and Willber Wilberforce and eventually ended up on the first Fat City Mystic Brew compilation. Unfortunately for Paul, his personal life descended into a degree of chaos just as his professional life was about to take off. His triumphant return came on Roots Manuva's "Revolution 5" (from Dub Come Save Me) and, as a central strand of the Lotek HiFi sound, he is determined to make up for lost time…

Aurelius aka Dazzla has one of the most remarkable rapping voices you're likely to come across, deeper than a coal mine, a rich, velvety black. He also typifies something about young MCs from in and around the capital. As well as knowing his hip hop he actually made his reputation MCing live first at drum & bass events and later at UK garage nights, which is why he finds lightning double time verbalistics as easy as metaphor-laden trad-rap. But, as a true renaissance man with a bit of an eccentric side, Aurelius also plays a mean clarinet, adding licks to many of the Lotek HiFi tracks and providing yet another of the textures that makes their sound unique.