The idea behind the project came from Ralph Lawson and Danny ‘Dubble D’ Ward after spending many years playing together as DJ and drummer at infamous club Back to Basics. In 2001 they produced an album together for Fat City mixing records with live drums entitled ‘Stars on 33’. In 2002 Lawson received a demo from Argentinean outfit Silver City. It turned out that Silver City members Fernando... Pulichino and Julian Sanza were accomplished Bass and Keyboard players. Sharply recruited, the new 2020 Soundsystem project started to appear alongside Lawson’s DJ sets at club nights such as Bugged Out!, Back to Basics, The Sub Club, Fabric and Watergate among many others, timed perfectly with the release of their first EP “All Systems Go”. The Soundsystem rapidly found themselves on the big stage and performances for crowds of up to 25,000 people at festivals such as Glastonbury, Exit, Creamfields, Homelands, Global Gathering, Sonar, T In The Park and Rockness cemented their worldwide reputation as a dynamic and exciting new live act. The buzz was quickly picked up by promoters and 2020Soundsystem found themselves supporting huge acts including Underworld, Groove Armada, Simian Mobile Disco and more recently Booka Shade.
2020Soundsystem’s debut 2006 long player “No Order” illustrated the bands live skills with the inclusion of a bonus disc recorded live at Barcelona’s most famous electronic festival – Sonar. The album also included collaborations with vocalist Diane Charlemagne (Inner City Life) and NYC band The Glass. ‘No Order’ entered just about every ‘Album Of The Year’ chart including Mixmag, DJ and iDJ and scored 5 star reviews across the board. The press were quick to pick up on the pioneering methods the guys had introduced to their live performance and big features began to appear regularly in the international press.
2020Soundsystem’s far-reaching appeal and ambition proved to be enduring as they continued to tour the world, including breaking into American, Australia and South America. 2009 marked the release of their second studio album. ‘Falling’ showcased the full scope of the band’s musical knowledge. The jacking funk of ‘Psycho” and ‘Bisco’ mixed fluidly with Balearic moments such as ‘Ocean’ and ‘Every Time’. The album also produced a bona fide hit ‘Sliding Away’ which sat at Number One of the Resident Advisor all time most charted top 100 for over a year. As one of the rare breed of electronic collectives, 2020Soundsystem managed to carve out a unique and identifiable sound with ‘Falling’ that will stand the test of time.
2010’s sell-out Village Underground London show was one of many summer highlights for the band, as well as destroying the Paradiso tent at The Big Chill (featured as a festival highlight by Clash Magazine), headlining the main stage at Croatia’s Garden Festival and performing at Sonar Barcelona. The guys also became one of only a handful of live bands to ever play at We Love Space in Ibiza.
For someone that hasn’t seen the 2020Soundsystem it may be quite hard to understand exactly what it entails, as it is indeed a unique show. Ralph Lawson is behind the decks throwing in electronic beats, which are tightly complimented by Danny Ward’s live drums. Keyboard duties are split between Simon Richmond (from The Bays) and original member Julian Sanza who layer synths into the mix while Fernando Pulichino holds it together on the bottom end with his distinctive bass sound. Fernando also steps up on vocal duties. They have the vital ingredient that any promoter wants from a band – experience. As soon as they step out onto stage they are going to smash the place to pieces and that is the only attitude you will ever get from them.
