Pedro

David Cooper launched his Manchester-based Melodic imprint, and after only a few releases the label drew support from electronica listeners seeking depth beyond conventional breaks and bleeps. James Rutledge, recording as Pedro, initiated the label’s catalog with the six-track Assembled by 33 EP, a collection of off-kilter oddities. The EP earned widespread press coverage along with endorsements from Andrew Weatherall, Four Tet, and Mercury Award nominee Kathryn Williams, who later cut two tracks with Rutledge and Joe Robinson, the producer associated with Badly Drawn Boy. Outside his solo work, Rutledge joined Jimmy Wright and Dave Tyack in the group D.O.T. Tragically, Tyack vanished while on holiday in Corsica during the summer of 2002, and his body was recovered two years afterward. The loss, coming from someone Rutledge had known since childhood, led him to pause music-making, although Melodic still issued Pedro in 2003 and Early Pedro in 2005. At roughly the same moment Rutledge began composing the material that became You, Me & Everyone, placing it with the U.S. label Mush, which also arranged to reissue his prior recordings. Repeated postponements held up the album’s appearance, and during the interim Rutledge pursued assorted side projects while working steadily as an in-demand remixer. You, Me & Everyone finally appeared in 2007.