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Soul Mekanik is Kelvin Andrews and Danny Mekanik.
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BIOGRAPHY:

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If, over the last 20 years or so, you’ve spent any time near a disco, radio or TV, you will have heard some of the quite marvellous sounds touched, in some way, by Kelvin Andrews and his younger sibling Danny Spencer.

Kelvin and Danny might not be household names but having written a number one single with Robbie Williams, remixed the likes of The Doobie Brothers and Aretha Franklin and been lauded as acid house heroes, they have helped soundtrack some of the last two decade’s most symphonic moments. 

Music has always been their first love. By the early 80s, Kelvin was DJing in an underground club called The Basement and soaking up the vast array of musical revolutions that seemed to be occurring on a weekly basis, as well as schooling his younger brother. House music was their real year zero though. Kelvin got his hands on an early copy of The House Sound of Chicago and the pair were hooked. In fact Danny went straight into the studio and fashioned Ride The Rhythm under his evocative This Ain’t Chicago moniker. 

After Danny’s brief flirtation with the mainstream with Candy Flip, the boys went underground. Having been one of the original residents at Stoke’s, Golden, Kelvin was adept at reading his dancefloor and alongside Danny he put these skills into the Sure Is Pure production team. Remixing the likes of Sister Sledge, Lulu and Dave Stewart into dancefloor gold, it appeared the boys could do no wrong.

During the mid 90s the brothers also initiated their Pharm imprint, displaying another glimpse of their dynamism by sending the magical Remember Me by Blueboy to the top of the hit parade.

This belief that music should not be dictated by genres, rather that there exists only two types of music: good and bad, and that within this framework anything goes, is an ethos from the days of acid house known as Balearic, something which their next project was full of. Sound 5 were an experimental pop band with big ambitions who never got the attention they deserved, listening to their No Illicit Dancing longplayer today confirms the idea that they were always just ahead of their time.

From this came their greatest success. Robbie Williams had long been a fan of Danny and Kelvin’s, so when he suggested they work together in the studio, Danny and Kelvin could finally put all their pop nous to good use. The resulting Rock DJ single gave them a number one single and an Ivor Novello nomination. Latterly, the brothers worked on Robbie’s Rudebox album. Indeed such is Robbie’s admiration for Danny and Kelvin, he has compared the duo to one of contemporary music’s most garrulous characters. “It’s like finding two Pharrell Williams in Stoke-on-Trent,” he has proclaimed.

This collaboration has continued with their ‘Central Midfield’ role on Robbie’s new album, ‘Reality Killed the Video Star’. Having spent the best part of the last three years camped out with Rob in LA and occasionally in Stoke, writing huge numbers of songs, the backbone of the latest album comes from those sessions with their guiding hand behind all but 3 of the album’s tracks. 

That’s not to say that they have left the house music underground for good though. Their involvement in the Creative Use re-edits and bootlegs continues to inspire, Kelvin can still be found at the DJ coalface indulging his passion for all things cosmic, whilst after the release of their recent 81 album, this year will see them both back as Soul Mekanik, with a slew of club tracks they’ve written in their spare time during the Robbie Williams sessions, showing the new kids how it’s done.

Make no mistake then, the history of all forward-thinking music, whether it be pop or underground, or both, over the last two decades is shot through with traces of Kelvin Andrews and Danny Spencer. Rest assured the future will be too. 


Ritorto is a Bristol based non-linear audio specialist & electronic music producer.

Ailsa Grace Chambers is following