Pendulum

Pendulum are an Australian-British drum and bass/electronic rock band founded in 2002 in Perth by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen, and Paul Harding.Harding was a veteran DJ while Swire and McGrillen were part of the rock band known as Xygen, but after hearing Konflict's "Messiah" at a rave they were inspired into the drum and bass genre. In 2003 they relocated to the United Kingdom.

While Hold Your Colour held true to this intent, they have since experimented with mixing rock influences back in, with the rock-heavy second album In Silico, and the third album, Immersion, being a mixture of both, together with more electronic influences. Their newer efforts incorporate styles from genres such as dubstep, alternative rock and electro house. Pendulum are now better known for their energetic live shows[citation needed], with live band setup and advanced visual displays and incorporating their drum and bass background with rock. Contents

History

Pendulum formed in Perth, Australia and released their first song, "Vault", as the A-side of the Kingz of the Rollers EP in 2003. After several other singles, including "Spiral" / "Ulterior Motive" and many tracks to be included in their forthcoming LP, they released their debut album, Hold Your Colour, in 2005.

Their second album, In Silico, was released in May 2008. The second single from the album, "Propane Nightmares", peaked at #9 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2008, Pendulum played at numerous European music festivals and undertook their first tour of North America. At the end of the year the band filmed a live DVD on December 4 and 5 2008, at the Brixton Academy, which was released in June 2009. They toured Europe again in 2009 where they first announced work on their third studio album.

It was announced in December that Pendulum will be touring their new album, Immersion, in May 2010. The release date of the album was announced to be "in May" during the live preview party at Matter, and has since been confirmed to be released on 24 May.

Pendulum previewed their album Immersion at the Ear Storm night at London’s Matter nightclub on Friday January 22. This was also streamed on their website. "Salt In The Wounds", a track from their new album, was Zane Lowe's Hottest Record In The World on BBC Radio 1 on 25 January 2010. It was, however, stated that it was a street-level release, and it was not an official single. On Zane Lowe's show, it was also announced that he wanted to join the band and the first single from the new album would be called "Watercolour". "Watercolour" also received its first play on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 8 March 2010, and was his Single Of The Week for that week. The music video for "Watercolour" was released on 31 March, and it premiered on their MySpace page and the members area of their official website, The Other Side. A day later, on 1 April, another music video was released, this time for "Salt In The Wounds". The video is unique in that it is, according to the band's website, "...the world’s first 360º interactive music video." Viewers can move the camera around in the video. Six different letters are hidden throughout the video, these letters do change; once found, the viewer can enter them as a code and claim a free download of "Salt In The Wounds". Otherwise, "Watercolour" has claimed the #4 spot in the UK Single Chart, making it their biggest hit to date.

On May 23, 2010, the band headlined the annual Radio 1's Big Weekend festival which was held at The Vaynol Estate, Bangor, Gwynedd.

The second single from the album, "Witchcraft", was released on 18 July and charted at #29 in the UK Singles chart, making it their third highest charted single in the UK. The third single from Immersion was "The Island", and just missed the UK Top 40 at #41. If it had achieved greater success than "Witchcraft", then Rob Swire, lead singer and main producer of the band, would have released a song entitled "Ransom", which was taken off Immersion before release, but had been previewed and became a fan favourite. As it did not do better, Swire revealed the original files for "Ransom" were corrupted, and that he has no plans to recreate them, therefore it will not be released. "Crush" was released as the fourth single in January 2011.

On October 26, 2010, Swire announced via Twitter that a new record is in the works. This new record is set to be heavily punk influenced. The next album is expected to be a significant departure from usage of drum and bass tempo, for a faster tempo in the form of punk, and a slower tempo in the form of dubstep.

Pendulum will open for Linkin Park on selected dates of their 2011 "A Thousand Suns" North American Tour.

Pendulum are scheduled to play this years Download Festival 2011.

Musical style

When Pendulum were formed, their musical style was considerably more drum and bass sounding, than the work they are known for today. Signature tunes such as "Masochist", "Vault", "Back 2 You" and "Voyager", which were released on labels such as Uprising Records, 31 Records, Renegade Hardware and Low Profile Records, have a darker, more amelodic air to them which is substantially absent from their later productions, which are generally leaning heavily towards a mainstream, dance-driven sound. Early work such as "Another Planet" however, seems to indicate an early affinity with a more global sound, similar to other Breakbeat Kaos artists such as DJ Fresh and Adam F.

The group has produced various remixes of other artists also; the most well-known being their remix of "Voodoo People", originally by The Prodigy. Pendulum have also remixed their own music and, on occasion, television theme songs, such as the Australian "ABC Television News" theme in May 2010. In 2008-2010, they covered/remixed songs including Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", Coldplay's "Violet Hill", Calvin Harris's "I'm Not Alone", Linkin Park's "The Catalyst", and Metallica's "Master of Puppets". Pendulum's versions of "I'm Not Alone" and "Master Of Puppets" both exist as studio recordings but have not been officially released, only previewed during DJ sets. The original live version of "Master of Puppets" was played as an instrumental introduction for "Slam", and was featured on their first live album/DVD. It currently being played as a full song, with Rob doing vocals, on their American tour as support for Linkin Park.

Pendulum's current musical style consists of a fusion of electronica and alternative rock, with the inclusion of acoustic instruments. The band also occasionally employ electronic vocal effects similar to those used by the progressive metal band Cynic. Songs such as "Propane Nightmares", "Granite" and "Slam" are synth-led, whilst others, such as "Showdown", "The Tempest" and "Comprachicos", are guitar-led. Bassist Gareth McGrillen stated in an interview on Channel 4 that they use 13 computers during the live performances, all of which are mixing up the sounds produced by the instruments in real time. Rob Swire stated in issues of TJECK magazine and Rock Sound magazine that he would like to begin producing songs with a punk style to them, excluding the inclusion of electronic sounds in the near future.

Controversy

In 2006, Pendulum's old label Breakbeat Kaos released an album containing a 2-year-old Pendulum DJ mix without their permission, resulting in group member Rob Swire denouncing the album on public internet forum Dogs On Acid. -- Re: 'junglesound Gold' just gotta clear this up:

a) We had no prior knowledge of the release of this CD. The first we heard of it was on discussion forums linking it to the product being sold in shops. b) We mixed the CD back in mid-2004 - therefore the mix, as well as our tracks included on the second disc, do not reflect the Pendulum sound of today (for better or worse, thats up to you ;]) c) We never intended nor agreed to release 'Masochist VIP' - I did it in about 30 minutes as something special to play out at a show. It was only given to Fresh and Adam F in low quality mp3 format for them to play out as DJ's - not to be released. d) We didn't approve and in fact strongly disapprove of the 'Junglesound Gold' artwork, especially in relation to our name being unfairly used as an advertisement - plainly an attempt to link 'Junglesound Gold' to the recent success of 'Hold Your Colour'.

As a result of the above, we do not endorse 'Junglesound Gold' at all.

- Pendulum. __________________ www.pendulum.com Last edited by anscenic pendulum; 03-01-2006 at 12:36 PM.. --

This issue has since been resolved; DJ Fresh is included on the list of acknowledgements in the Immersion booklet, and Pendulum is now working with Breakbeat Kaos again, on the vinyl release of the singles "Witchcraft" and "The Island".

Electronic musician Goldie has criticized Pendulum's single "Granite" for being what he calls a "sh*t single", and accused the band of not acknowledging the drum and bass scene from which they came. For the band's part, in an interview with The Times Swire cited "Goldie making concept albums about space and his mum"[citation needed] (in the words of The Times reporter) as one of the reasons why he was not initially keen on the genre; he claims to have been more into “breakbeat, straight up house and hardcore” before Gareth McGrillen, who is Pendulum's bassist and was Swire's bandmate in Xygen, introduced him to "more electronic" areas of the genre. This issue has since been resolved as well, according to Gareth McGrillen in an interview on The Age.

Members

Rob Swire – vocals, synth, producer (2002–present) Peredur ap Gwynedd – guitar (2006–present) Gareth McGrillen - bass guitar, DJ (2002–present) Kevin Sawka – drums (2009–present) Paul "El Hornet" Harding – DJ (2002–present) Ben "The Verse" Mount – MC (2006–present)

Former members

Paul Kodish – drums (2006–2009)

Discography

   Hold Your Colour (2005)
   In Silico (2008)
   Immersion (2010)

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendulum_%28band%29

http://www.pendulum.com/ http://www.myspace.com/75424283 http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=375398&cache=2301

Curiosità

I Pendulum hanno realizzato alcune cover, tra cui Violet Hill dei Coldplay, The Catalyst dei Linkin Park e Master of Puppets dei Metallica, presente nel live Live at Brixton Academy. Slam fa parte della colonna sonora del videogioco MotorStorm per PlayStation 3; inoltre è selezionabile nel videogioco DDR Universe per Xbox 360; Hold Your Colour (Bi Polar ReMix) e Babylon Rising sono selezionabili nel videogioco FIFA Street 2 per PlayStation 2 The Tempest è stato scelto dalla Ubisoft per il trailer E3 del 2008 per il gioco Prince Of Persia Granite fa parte della colonna sonora del videogioco Need For Speed Undercover insieme a "The Tempest" e a "9000 Miles" Il pezzo Granite e Showdown fanno parte della colonna sonora del videogioco Pure Il brano Propane Nightmares è stato utilizzato come colonna sonora del review del Gran Premio del Belgio 2008 di Formula 1 [1] pubblicato sul sito della FIA e come colonna sonora ufficiale del PPV della WWE Taboo Tuesday nel 2007 . Watercolour è stato inserito nella colonna sonora del videogioco Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit e nell'EP dei Linkin Park 2011 North American Tour EP. Witchcraft è stato inserito nella colonna sonora di WRC The Game