Rowland the Bastard

Rowland the Bastard

Rowland the Bastard is an American noise and powerviolence group from California, active since 1991. The project’s listed members are Leila Abdul‐Rauf, Jesse Appelhans, Aimee Artz, Henry Barnes, W.T. Nelson, Jay Randall, Danny Walker, John Wiese, Eric Wood and Joel Connell. Its sound is also tagged as experimental electronic, noise, power electronics and powerviolence.

Background

Under the name Rowland the Bastard, the project begins DJ activity in 1993 and becomes associated with free parties in the south west of England. The name is said to come from a direct style of mixing rather than from attitude. Early work centres on dancefloor sets at illegal and underground events.

With Pigfarmer, Rowland co-runs a sound system that is known for a 30k rig and for appearing in fields, on beaches and in squats at short notice. By 1996, the pair work with Bristol party crew Sunnyside and help organise some of the largest parties Bristol sees, drawing up to 5,000 people a night during a two-month period on the city’s industrial estates.

Labels, crews and releases

Working with Sunnyside leads to contacts with London crews UN Sound and the Big Sexy Festy organisation, which results in bookings at venues and spaces including Parkway Cinema, North London Uni, The Rocket and Hackney Marshes. Rowland also works for the Exeter branch of Plymouth-based shop and label Urban Collective, where he develops the experience to start his own label, Bionic Orange.

The first Bionic Orange release attracts Chris Liberator, who then invites Rowland to work on remixes and production projects. Around this period, Rowland is also asked to play the house room at Dreamscape on New Year’s Eve 1995, where he plays a mix of acid, hard house and techno and shifts further towards acid techno.

He later remixes Geezer’s “Prozac” for Smitten Records, with engineering by Guy McAffer. This leads to a working relationship with McAffer, and in early 1998 Rowland and Geezer form Tarball & Lungbutter. The duo becomes associated with the acid techno scene and releases material on Smitten, Bionic Orange and Stay Up Forever, with support from figures including D.A.V.E the Drummer and Chris Liberator.

Tours and later activity

Rowland completes a first solo US tour in mid-1998, playing in cities including Chicago, Kansas, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, alongside mid-week club dates and radio appearances. At the end of 1999, he undertakes a second solo US and Canadian tour lasting six weeks and covering 22 gigs, with dates in cities including Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Toronto, San Francisco, Kitchener, Niagara, Chicago and Kansas. That tour also includes five radio shows and a television appearance on Electric Circus in Toronto, with satellite broadcasts across North America.

During the same period, Rowland and Mark Kinetec found Infectious Distribution to address distribution problems for techno and acid techno. This also leads to involvement with several labels, including Infected, Antidote, Cut'n Dry, D, Chunk, Twitch, Strata and F.u.2, where Rowland works in management and A&R. He continues to travel between Europe, the United States and Canada, playing a mix of deep techno and acid techno, running a distribution company, and producing tracks for his own labels and for others.