Tim Simenon
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Tim Simenon (born on 21 June, 1967) is a record producer, who has previously worked with the group, Depeche Mode.
[edit] Early career
Tim Simenon is a nephew of Georges Simenon. He started off his music career in the late 1980s, DJing at London's Wag Club. From his record collection, and experience on a music production college course, he used a basic music production set up, to produce "Beat Dis". "Beat Dis" was a cut and paste record, fusing old school hip hop, funk including the Jimmy Castor Bunch, and samples from 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' and 'Thunderbirds' soundtracks.
The record reputedly cost £500 to make, in between Simenon's then work as a shelf stacker in a supermarket and as a DJ.
The record first appeared on the Mister-Ron imprint, a ruse designed to pretend that the record was a U.S. import, fresh out of New York. The record went straight into the UK singles chart at number two when released by Rhythm King records. Its Smiley artwork, borrowed from the Watchmen comic books, influenced much of the imagery surrounding the 'acid house' and 'rave' scenes.
[edit] Success
Simenon went on to follow up the track with three more singles taken from a hastily recorded album Into the Dragon. Into the Dragon acknowledged the debt it owed to the Japanese hip-hop label Major Force, New York producer Steinski, UK artists Massive Attack / Wild Bunch and the 23 Skidoo / Ronin collective.
Alongside production on the album, Simenon also was part of Nation 12, along with John Foxx, a music veteran who had been in various electronic and new romantic bands since the early 1980s. Nation 12's releases enjoyed a measure of success in clubs and raves across the UK.
After the album, came remix and preduction work including super model Naomi Campbell's aborted pop career, and a soundtrack for a film produced by skateboarding legend Stacy Peralta.
In the late 1980s Simenon produced the wildly popular single "Buffalo Stance" by Swedish/African artist Neneh Cherry. The song features lyrics which pay homage to Simenon ("Bomb the Bass, rock this place"). The song reached number three on the UK singles chart and number 1 on the US dance chart.
In the early 1990s Simenon changed his sound, to incorporate raw rock guitars, pioneering trip hop on his two albums Unknown Territory and Clear. Unknown Territory was delayed when Pink Floyd refused to allow a piece of "Money" to be sampled on one of the album's tracks. Unknown Territory continued the motif of borrowing from popular culture, with samples from both The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Death Race 2000 soundtracks, and films like Videodrome. Clear was released on the Stoned Heights imprint of Island Records. It was heavily influenced by the writings of William Burroughs, and featured a number of contributors including rapper Justin Warfield, singer Sinéad O'Connor and novelist Will Self.
[edit] Later on
Simenon has remixed, and produced, a wide range of artists including Seal, rap act Consolidated, French producer Hector Zazou, Gavin Friday and Depeche Mode.
He now lives in Amsterdam, and releases records under both the Bomb the Bass, and Flow Creator monikers.
Simenon was accused of rape in November 2004; he was charged, sent to trial, but found not guilty in June, 2005. <ref>"Former pop star cleared of rape", BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4078008.stm</ref>
Simenon has recorded a new album with Geoff Smith (Loner) under the project name of Frozen Flames which was completed in July 2005, which is currently unreleased. Tim Simenon has Produced Bangkok Based band Futon's latest album which is scheduled for release in 2007 <references/>
