Ultraviolence (band)

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Allezbleu and Johnny Violent of Ultraviolence

Ultraviolence is a British gabber act headed by Johnny Violent (born Jonathan Casey, 1970). The Ultraviolence sound incorporates elements from various styles including hardcore techno/gabber, breakbeat hardcore, industrial techno, power noise, metal and rap, lyrics often telling a story in a concept album format. Johnny Violent has worked with several female artists on different releases, but as of 2005, singer, and angle grinding stage performer Mel Allezbleu has become a permanent member of the band.

Ultraviolence is popular within the cyber community of the UK with the track "Hardcore Motherfucker" often being a floorfiller in clubs.

[edit] History

Johnny Casey first experimented in making electronic music in his teens. After attending Goldsmiths College in London for a diploma in sound engineering and working in a record shop, he tried his hand at gigging locally with a college friend.

Johnny got into production in a serious way in late 1990 and adopted the name Johnny Violent (aka Ultraviolence) in reference to the film A Clockwork Orange. He saved up money for some studio time and recorded and handful of tracks including "You'll Never Sleep Tonight" which was played by John Peel on Radio 1 and gained the attention of London label Food Records, who signed Johnny in 1992.

The relationship between Ultraviolence and the trendy, indie-orientated Food Records was never likely to be a happy one and soon dissolved. In fact it was 1994 before the debut album Life of Destructor was released on Nottingham's Earache Records label. Earache had been previously known for releasing extreme heavy metal acts such as Carcass and Napalm Death. Nevertheless, the relationship between Johnny and Earache's label owner Digby Pearson proved a fruitful and durable one over the next decade.

It was the second Ultraviolence album, Psycho Drama (1996), that made critics start to believe there was more to the act than pure noise terror. Highly ambitious in concept and execution, Psycho Drama was a full-length gabber "opera", telling the tortured love story of the "Hitman" and "Jessica" characters.

In 1995, Ultraviolence toured the U.S. with Cubanate, (fellow UK 1990s industrialists). However, the limitations of Johnny’s one-man stage shows were becoming apparent and American audiences never quite took to Ultraviolence like Techno-aware European crowds. From this point on, Johnny usually appeared on-stage backed by various singers, dancers and showers of sparks from male or female angle-grinders.

The third album, 1998's Killing God marked a new transition to a new, more commercial Ultraviolence sound, dubbed "happy hardcore" by some, although the lyrical themes remained as bleak as ever. The album contained a cover of the Black Sabbath classic song "Paranoid".

In 2001, the fourth and (to date) final Ultraviolence album, Superpower was released, again groping for a wider market. Since then Johnny has remained quiet. However, he did perform live again in 2005 for Earache's Blown Away compilation of the best of the Johnny Violent and Ultraviolence tracks.