Tim Hutton
Tim Hutton’s musical career began in the early 80’s playing drums and bass for two bands, The Mob and Zounds, on the anarchist punk label Crass Records, and touring Europe and UK several times over.
A burgeoning fascination for funk led to him striking out on his own, enlisting Babylon’s help by signing to EMI and recording an album as the Neighbourhood, actually a seven piece band (including Dexy’s original horn section) which he had subsequently put together. More touring followed and a spot featuring as a singer on Afrika Bambaataa’s album The Light.
Two more solo albums and stints with the Horny Horns, Lee Perry and reggae singer Bob Andy amongst others were under his belt before the acid house boom took him, along with many others, in a different musical direction.
What followed was several albums, twelves and EPs under various guises on labels such as Reflex, Germany’s Source and San Francisco’s Reflective. This was purely electronic music, with no involvement of any instrument playing or singing. As a long time singer and player of guitar, bass, drums, brass and keyboards, this was a period of stripping back, influenced by the “faceless techno bollocks” represented by artists and labels such as Aphex Twin and Basic Channel.
This was followed by two albums of more pronounced musicality welded to the electronic and dance music values he had explored in the previous few years. These were his solo album Everything (on PIAS Recordings, an album of songs taking in lo-fi, jazz standard and electronic-tinged folk influences) and Variations, under the moniker Soul Ascendants (along with DJ Nick the Record, on Nuphonic). The latter was a mixture of house, jazz and afro-beat, featuring collaborations with Fela Kuti’s bandleader and drummer from the Africa 70, Tony Allen.
Both Everything and Variations were released in 2000, and it was at this time that Tim was asked to contribute as writer and vocalist to Groove Armada’s third album Goodbye Country Hello Nightclub. This preceded a period of touring with the band during 2001–2002 as vocalist, also helping on trumpet, guitar and keyboard duties, and featuring as vocalist on their next album Lovebox.
Moving on once again, at the end of 2002 Tim Hutton toured with Paul Oakenfold in the States as lead and bass guitarist and vocalist to promote the Oakenfold album Bunkka. He then toured as bass player with the breaks-based outfit Hybrid, providing live the bass parts Peter Hook had played on record. In 2004 he provided horns on several songs on Ian Brown’s album Solarized, one of which - Time Is My Everything - he co-wrote.
Tim has also formed Sugardaddy with Tom Findlay from Groove Armada and their debut album - It's Good To Get High With Your Wife - is out now. Alongside Sugardaddy, Tim is writing and recording another solo album, the next Groove Armada album, as well as further collaborations with Ian Brown, Hybrid and Terry Hall.
