Neville Watson

A veteran presence within Britain's club circuit, Neville Watson has issued house and techno material under assorted monikers since the middle of the 1990s. His catalog moves between intricate, jazz-inflected tech-house and unrefined, acid-driven club tracks; while much of the music is designed to ignite floor energy, numerous samples and titles betray an irreverent wit. He first appeared on record as Protein Boy in 1996, switching to his legal name in the opening years of the following decade. Across the next twenty years he placed music with Clone and Crème Organization and maintained an extended creative partnership with Bulgarian producer KiNK. His inaugural long-player, the lighthearted, acid-tinged Songs to Elevate Pure Hearts, surfaced in 2013, followed five years later by the more atmospheric and inward-looking The Midnight Orchard.

Watson’s entry into electronic music came after an earlier immersion in punk; by the close of the 1980s he was frequenting raves, soon taking up DJ duties. In the early 1990s he launched the Windsor record shop Mighty Atom Records and, once the store ceased trading, founded a label under the identical name. He held a residency at Reading’s long-running Checkpoint Charlie club night, sharing bills with Laurent Garnier, Andrew Weatherall and Craig Richards. In 1996 Checkpoint Recordings issued his first solo Protein Boy material; he also formed the duo Elektric Suedehead alongside Sidney James, releasing a run of 12-inch singles on Mighty Atom from 1997 onward. Beginning in 2000 he recorded with Sam Gillet as Lovejuice, later adopting the Strobe Funk alias. Retiring the Protein Boy pseudonym, he issued the 2003 single “Since U Went Away” and the 2005 Nightlife EP under his own name.

Once Mighty Atom halted releases around 2005, Watson began working closely with KiNK; the pair started issuing material on the Rush Hour sub-label Hour House Is Your Rush Records in 2008 and later toured together. In 2009 Watson and his brother Gavin released the photograph-rich memoir Raving ’89 documenting the first wave of British rave culture. His debut solo album, Songs to Elevate Pure Hearts, appeared on Crème Organization in 2013. Further EPs followed on Nothing Special, Don’t Be Afraid—including the 2015 jokingly titled Night of the Inflatable Muscle Heads—and I Love Acid, before Don’t Be Afraid issued his expansive, experimental second LP The Midnight Orchard in 2018.