Pure Science

One of the most important characters of the techouse era, Phivos (Phil) Sebastiane aka Pure Science is not to be underestimated. He has an impressive background and his attachment to music began since he was a child, when he definitely fell in love with the synthesizers. Inspired by the legacy of the talented Depeche Mode, he was named The Scientist in the end of the eighties, nickname created by the Passion Crew due to his great potential and level of concentration.

Son of a greek singer and of a tool maker, Phivos grew up in Basildon Essex, where took place an important automobile industry, and later emerged his heroes of Depeche Mode. His musical background started very early, when he first listened to the Doctor Who Theme music on BBC TV, made by Delia Derbyshire and John Balker. At nine years old only, he bought his first records, and in 1984, at eleven, he got his first synthesizer, a Yamaha CS01 mk2, a monophonic analog. At that time, he took six months of organ lessons for the basics.

His first close contact with the realm of electronic music happened when he listened to the Synth Pop classics of The Human League, and, of course, D.M. At twelve, his older sister Nina, who used to know the stage manager and crew of Hammersmith Odean which was a big concert place that decade, took him to some amazing concerts, such as the early tours of Siouxies and the Banshees, The Human League and even Depeche Mode. Through this connection, he managed to wangle tickets and access to the backstage on the "Black Celebration" tour on Wembley arena, and that was the night that gave him a whole new direction and inspiration.

Through is sisters' influence, he also became a regular at many of the alternative nightclubs and parties at that time. He was then introduced by one of her sisters' friends to a night on wednesday called the Hard Club: this was the first residency of Dave Mothersole, about 1988 in Soho, at a club named Gossips. It was a very different night with Industrial flavors, a real melting pot of Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy, D.A.F., and of course, the Mode. He even pumped into Martin Gore and Andrew Fletcher, which also used to go there, and had the opportunity to give to them some tapes with his early productions. Gore gave him very positive and inspirational feedback, which helped him a lot in the future.

Then, of course, came the Acid House fever. He was still going to the Industrial party at Hard Club, whilst on the weekends finding his way to early underground backstreet Warehouse parties, specially the ones at the big outdoor events: one of them, e.g. Energy 3 took place in Effingham in Surrey which, in the Summer of 1989, drove 15,000 people insane, listening and dancing to one sound system in one vibe. Another place he became fan of was Nut House at Crowland Road in south Tottenham, where Bushwacka! used to play for the first time, still as fifteen. His sets included house, bleep techno, Detroit, and the like. Phivos was passioned by all of the quality synthesizer music, from ambient to Detroit techno. He heard the Chicago sound first through the Soul boys he met from school, but really got into more the futuristic sound of Detroit some time later, at the end of the eighties. To him, the raise of Techno occurred under the same influences that got him, like Kraftwerk, D.M., among others.

Luckily, he got the chance to live the era of the Alternative Radio Stations such as Phaze One, whose members were Fabio, Grooverider and Dave Angel; and at the other side The Passion Crew, composed by Jumpin Jack Frost and Bryan Gee, who used to play House on Thursday nights, and who were responsible for Phivos Sebastiane baptism as The Scientist. They used to call Phil 'Q' a while before because of his intellectual skills and, during their parties at the Fridge in Brixton, they decided to write The Scientist on the flyers, an artistic name that definitely 'kind of stuck'. Though mainly focused to other kinds of music, the radio had some space for the underground dance music and a recording studio as well. In a place named the Vox Club, they used to hold the parties like the Harmony, made by Eddie Richards and Mr. C, basically for repertories of underground house and techno at the beginning of the nineties.

At one of these parties at the Fridge, he found himself suddenly sharing a dressing room with The Shut Up & Dance crew, who was doing a live there. He then met their turntables professional at that time: DJ Hype, with who he created The Exorcist, responsible for the classic "The Bee", which became the number one of the independent dance charts, with more than 35.000 records sold on their first release, and 'The Track Of The Year' 1990 by Kiss FM. They also held another alias, Champion Sound, and their engineer, Ralf Ruppert, used to work with Stevie Wonder.

The Scientist emerged even before The Hardcore explosion. This typical London sound that was emerging from a combination of Reggae vocals, Hip Hop breaks, Techno and Ragga basslines in a slower-house BPM, was in a way to change. "The Bee" was made to play at 132 BPM at the green track, which means that The Scientist was one of the first to push the BPM on a hardcore production, something that became part of the process during the genre consolidation. This acceleration caused the split between house and hardcore, and, after a hole year without releasing anything, Phivos left Kickin Records and started to produce as Pure Science. At that time, he did some freelance sessions as a programmer with Malcolm Mclaren, doing some TV adverts music, Mica Paris, Terry Hall (ex Specials), and Nicolette (who used to work with Shut Up & Dance).

Pure Science had always been into well produced synth music. He did not stop his experiments, influenced by several musical styles; but, for him, the hardcore was lacking some of the inventiveness that the early eighties Acid House vibe had. So, he got back into his roots, as a real techno kid at heart. Getting fed up with hip hop breaks speeded up, he decided to get back in his 909/808/303 and analog sequencers, etc.

Like destiny, the same speed thing happened by accident with the techouse origins. The 'Q' boy, who had started writing all the tracks in 1993 and 94, just using his old school influences, reached the forefront of the electronic scene again: He did 133 BPM House tracks in 1994 and 1995 already as Pure Science when they were still plain' 130 BPM, admitting that this was one of the essential aspects of the Techno-House movement. Anxious for something new, he directed his efforts to that house and techno fusion. His innovative spirit gave him the chance to be an acclaimed artist and label owner: Phivos launched Pure Science Communications and B+Positive labels and structured explendid live acts, which he has been playing all over the World.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Phivos Sebastiane".