Classic Album: The Ballistic Brothers London Hooligan Soul

Junior Boy’s Own, 1995

Your old man’s reggae collection. Away games in crisp new duds. Fresh wax from Honest Jon’s. It’s the mid-’90s, and The Ballistic Brothers (and one sister) are in State 51 studios in Bermondsey, reflecting on the times, and pouring it all into their debut long player, London Hooligan Soul. Part snapshot of the city right now. Part pooling of their collective musical school days – the album mixes up vintage ska, cutting-edge drum ‘n’ bass, hip-hop sampling, and loved-up vibes, effortlessly.

“It was like a stream of consciousness,” says Ashley Beedle, who along with Rocky, Diesel, Dave Hill, engineer Marc Woolford, and keyboard wizardette, Uschi Classen, made up the family band. “It was all about looking at our lives growing up and all the different things that we were attached to, now – we were football casuals, soulboys, reggae heads, you name it. We were trying to fit all of that onto one album in the studio.”

State 51 also provided a safe space to explore downtempo vibes and breakbeats, as straight-up house music production had begun to dominate their lives – as X-Press 2, amongst other guises.

“Ballistics was just like an alternative to all that,” says Rocky. “We just wanted to make listening music, not strictly thinking about the dancefloor. I suppose it was a way of relaxing.”

Without the pressures of making club-rocking hits, the beats came with ease. They spent every day digging, and digging into, their record collections for inspiration.

“We’d all bring in tunes,” says Rocky. “Then we’d all have ideas and just start bouncing them around the room. If someone had a strong enough idea, then it was that one we went with.”

Beedle remembers well. “Oh yeah. We’d all meet in the studio with bundles of wax under our arms. It would inspire us to make music right then and there.

“We’d bang out a tune a day! They were amazing times. I couldn’t wait to get down the studio and work on that album. It was a lot of fun.” Music and memories, eh? A perfect combination.