A.R. Kane

The great lost group

A.R. Kane were Alex Ayuli, of Nigerian descent, and Rudy Tambala, whose father is Malawian and mother English. They met at an East London primary school, were friends from about eight, and formed the band in 1986. Tambala studied biochemistry, and Ayuli worked as an advertising copywriter. They made a demo with one guitar and two cassette players, inspired by seeing the Cocteau Twins on television, and their debut single "When You're Sad" appeared on One Little Indian in August 1986. The Lollita EP (July 1987, 4AD) was produced by Robin Guthrie, and in 1987 they joined Colourbox in the number-one single "Pump Up the Volume" as M/A/R/R/S.

69 (July 1988, Rough Trade) topped the indie chart; it was made in their own studio in Ayuli's mother's cellar in Stratford with Ray Shulman co-producing. The sprawling double album i followed in 1989, then rem"i"xes (1990), the retrospective Americana (1992) and New Clear Child (September 1994, Luaka Bop), after which they split. Tambala then recorded as SUFI and MusicOne; Ayuli, who moved to America in 1990, made records as Alex!. Tambala revived the name from 2015 with his sister Maggie Tambala and guitarist Andy Taylor, renaming it Jubl in 2018, whose album DNA Cowboys came out on September 1, 2019. The box set A.R. Kive (Rocket Girl, 2023) collected remastered editions of 69, i and Up Home!, and 69 and i were reissued separately in June and July 2024.

Greg Tate wrote that i is less cohesive than 69 and Tambala agrees; Rough Trade, he told FACT, gave them as much tape as we could eat. Wikipedia credits them with coining the term dream pop. AllMusic's Jason Ankeny called them arguably the most criminally under-recognized band of their era, and Simon Reynolds the great lost group of the 80s. Record Collector wrote that no one sounded remotely like them in 1988 and nor does anyone today.