A Man Called Adam’s Sally Rodgers and Steve Jones have been making pioneering electronic music since the late 80s. Exploring diverse musical influences but always sounding recognisably themselves, they defy categorisation and yet have produced defining tracks in genres such as Acid Jazz, Balearic House, Ibiza Chill Out and Nu British House. Respected by peers and fans alike, they are endlessly curious and never stand still.
Returning to popular consciousness in 2019 with their acclaimed album Farmarama, they performed live at various festivals including Gilles Peterson’s We Out Here and Kala Festival in Albania. They also commissioned remixes from young talent like Carlos Gualda, DJ Aleksandir and Felipe Gordon as well as established names like Prins Thomas for their popular Farmarama remix series. In 21/22 they compiled 2 colossal compilations – Love Forgotten, Oddities and Rarities Parts 1 & 2 – from the hidden corners of their catalogue as well as Special Edition releases of previously vinyl-only mixes of some of their classic cuts.
That their music appears this year on obscure collections of pioneering Bleep (‘Bleeps, Breaks and Bass’ on Musique pour le Dance), dancefloor classics (Grammy winning Luke Solomon’s ‘Space’ compilation), and huge mainstream albums such as Café Del Mar’s ‘The Evolution of Chill’, as well as Track ID playlists from Honey Dijon, Gerd Janson and more is testament to their enduring appeal and influence.
In 2023 they will release ‘The Girl With A Hole In Her Heart’, an album about Teesside and the wild coastal and industrial landscapes where Sally grew up and where they spent most of the pandemic locked down in the studio. Released in Digital and Vinyl versions (with the vinyl pressed in Middlesbrough) the album will be accompanied by a 4000 word essay (in booklet form) about the making of the album. Themes throughout include Sally’s colourful childhood in Teesside – ‘Think Derry Girls meets Phoenix Nights’ – where her parents ran working men’s clubs, the ongoing environmental catastrophe and marine die-offs in the River Tees, the beauty of the coastal wilderness and of finding your way back home when times get tough.
Of the album Sally writes:
"Spending this precious time back in the wild coastal and industrial landscapes of Teesside has stirred up that sense of awe at the steely, elemental authority of nature, and in human resilience. The melodies, sounds and lyrics are sometimes flinty and angular, sometimes fluid and fun (because the people are very funny here), and I hope the record reflects those feelings of human fragility and deep time that I always feel looking out to sea on stormy days.”
With doctoral research that spans the fields of sound, technology and lyric form, A Man Called Adam have produced soundworks for BAFTA winning director Mark Jenkin, The British Museum and BBC Radio 4 among others, and this summer they’re creating a series of soundworks and events for a blockbuster exhibition – ‘PEOPLE POWERED: Stories from The River Tees’ – a collaboration between MIMA (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art part of Teesside University) and The National Portrait Gallery about the River Tees and its cultural impact (opening 22 July).