John B (born John Bryn Williams, 1977, Maidenhead, Berkshire, England) is an English DJ and electronic music producer. He is widely recognised for his eccentric clothing and wild hair and his production of several cutting edge drum and bass tracks.
John B ranked #76 in DJ Magazine 's 2010 Top 100 DJs annual poll, announced on 27 October 2010.
Williams started producing music around the age of 14, and now is the head of drum and bass record label Beta Recordings, together with its more specialist drum and bass sub-labels Nu Electro, Tangent, and Chihuahua. He also has releases on Formation Records, Metalheadz and Planet Mu.
Williams was ranked 1st drum and bass DJ on the 2009 DJMag's top 100. and #92 on the DJ List as of October 3, 2009.
While his trademark sound has evolved through the years, it generally involves female vocals and trance-like synths (a style which has been dubbed "trance and bass", "trancestep" and "futurestep" by listeners). His most recent concentration is an 1980s electroclash influenced fusion of electro and drum and bass, which was dubbed 'electrostep'. At first (around early 2002), this style seemed odd and comical to some in the drum and bass community. However, this move has given John the ability to carry his style of drum and bass forward. He has dabbled in darkstep, jazzstep and various other styles in his time. When he DJs, he is known to spin both drum and bass and electro house, sometimes with other genres such as disco and rock, in the same sets.
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. They emerged at the vanguard of the "California Sound", performing original surf songs that gained international popularity for their distinct vocal harmonies and lyrics exploring a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. Influenced by jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and doo-wop, Brian led the band in devising novel approaches to music production, arranging his compositions for studio orchestras, and experimenting with several genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic and baroque.
The group began as a garage band managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, with Brian's creative ambitions and sophisticated songwriting abilities dominating the group's musical direction. After 1964, their albums took a different stylistic path that featured more personal lyrics, multi-layered sounds, and recording experiments. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and "Good Vibrations" single vaunted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era. Following the dissolution of Smile, Brian gradually ceded control to the rest of the band, reducing his input because of mental health and substance abuse issues. Though the more democratic incarnation of the Beach Boys recorded a string of albums in various music styles that garnered international critical success, the group struggled to reclaim their commercial momentum in America. Since the 1980s, much-publicized legal wrangling over royalties, songwriting credits and use of the band's name transpired.
The Beach Boys is the self-titled 25th studio album by American rock band The Beach Boys, released on June 10, 1985. Produced by Steve Levine, the album is the band's first recording after the drowning death of founding member Dennis Wilson. It was also the first of the band's albums to be recorded digitally and released on CD. It's also the last album released by James William Guercio's Caribou Records.
For the album, the band hired Culture Club producer Steve Levine, who took them into the world of drum machines, synthesizers, sampling, and hi-tech recording technology. Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and Al Jardine all took an active role in the project, writing several new songs for it, with Stevie Wonder and Culture Club each donating a song. The album was recorded during summer 1984 at Red Bus studio in London, and Westlake Audio in Los Angeles during late 1984/early 1985. It features Motown artist Stevie Wonder on harmonica and keyboards on the song "I Do Love You", which he also wrote. Ringo Starr also appears on the track "California Calling" (Starr also appeared live with The Beach Boys in 1985 during the 4th of July concert in Washington D.C.). Noted guitarist Gary Moore features on all tracks playing both guitar and synthaxe.
The Beach Boys are an American rock group formed in California in 1961.
The Beach Boys or Beach Boy may also refer to:
"Sloop John B" is a traditional folk song from The Bahamas, "The John B. Sails", which was included in Carl Sandburg's 1927 collection of folk songs, The American Songbag. It is best known as a recording by the Beach Boys—the seventh track on their 1966 album Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson sang, produced, and arranged the Beach Boys' recording. Released as an A-sided single two months before Pet Sounds, it peaked at number 3 in the US and number 2 in the UK. In several other countries, the single was a number one hit.
The group's folk rock adaptation of "Sloop John B" was ranked #271 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The Kingston Trio's 1958 recording of "The John B. Sails" recorded under the title "The Wreck of the John B" was the direct influence on the Beach Boys' version. The Beach Boys' Al Jardine, who was a keen folk music fan, suggested to Brian Wilson that the Beach Boys should do a cover version of "Sloop John B". As Jardine explains:
Born of the age
Flagged hopes
Censored rage
The black clad box
Bombs bursting in air
Bleed white red and blue
Cried dawn's early light
For the hope
Oh where has it gone
Brothers sisters stand firmly and try
Reaching the spacious ski-ies
Fourth of July
Lie by the sword
Black times
False reward
The greetings of doom
So proudly they hail
Lost fortune of free
The stripes and bright stars
Promise lost
Oh where has it gone
Brothers sisters stand firmly and try
Reaching the spacious ski-ies
Fourth of July
Brothers sisters stand firmly and try
Reaching the spacious ski-ies
Fourth of July