Biography
Spring Heel Jack, the recording project of John Coxon and Ashley Wales, produced some of the first and strongest examples of applying sharp drum'n'bass textures to full-length albums while sustaining nonstop drive, much as Orbital merged techno for domestic and club settings. Coxon, a pop producer whose credits included Betty Boo, Marc Almond, and Spiritualized, encountered classical composer Wales during his work as a soul DJ in London's East End. The pair soon started making breakbeat jungle tracks that at first tilted toward dub. As co-writers and producers of the hit title track from Everything But the Girl's 1995 platinum album Walking Wounded, they issued their debut that same year, the first in a series of widely praised LPs that never diluted their critical standing. Coxon, who took up guitar in his native Edinburgh, had trained as a biochemist and taught briefly in London before returning to music as a DJ and occasional producer. After meeting Ashley Wales, a landscaper, the two began writing music together. Turning toward dub under the Spring Heel Jack name, Coxon and Wales grew fascinated by the jungle movement and shifted their direction to match it. Their first album, There Are Strings, appeared in 1995 on Trade 2, an Island subsidiary in the U.K. Later that year they released Versions, a remix set offering dubs of six tracks from the debut. Everything But the Girl's Ben Watt, another artist drawn to drum'n'bass, voiced his admiration for Spring Heel Jack's output, which led Coxon and Wales to create "Walking Wounded" expressly for Watt and his partner, Tracey Thorn. After Thorn supplied vocals, EBTG issued the single in April 1996 and it rose to number six on the U.K. charts. Spring Heel Jack delivered 68 Million Shades several months later, its psychedelic artwork by computer artist Yuki Mikayi, who had also designed the cover for the first album. The record earned underground dance respect, and the duo was chosen to support Orbital on an extensive U.S. tour in late 1996. After Spin magazine named 68 Million Shades one of the year's best albums, it received an American release on Island in January 1997. Busy Curious Thirsty followed later that year, and in 1999 Spring Heel Jack returned with two albums, Treader and Disappeared, plus the EP Sound of Music, which contained their distinctive reworkings of numbers from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical of the same name. Masses, featuring collaborations with pianist Matthew Shipp, violinist Mat Maneri, and saxophonists Tim Berne and Daniel Carter, came out in June 2001. The duo entered a new phase in 2004 with Sweetness of the Water, on which they performed instruments themselves and recruited earlier associates including Blue Series curator Shipp, Evan Parker, and Wadada Leo Smith. On the next album, Songs and Themes, issued in 2008, Coxon and Wales were joined by Roy Campbell, Orphy Robinson, and John Tchicai, among others.
Albums
