Kode9 & The Spaceape

Dub, dread and science fiction

Kode9 is Steve Goodman, a Scottish producer and DJ born in Glasgow in 1973, who studied philosophy in Edinburgh and took a doctorate at Warwick, where he belonged to the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit. He moved to London in 1999, founded the Hyperdub label in 2004 and published the book Sonic Warfare in 2009. The Spaceape was Stephen Samuel Gordon, a British poet and MC born on June 17, 1970, also known as Daddy Gee. Kode9 told Clash he met Gordon around 2001 through the MC's partner, that they shared a flat and started messing around soon after. Their 2004 cover of Prince's "Sign o' the Times", "Sine of the Dub", was the first track Gordon ever made and Hyperdub's first release.

Gordon was the only featured artist on Burial's 2006 debut, on the track "Spaceape". Memories of the Future came out on Hyperdub in 2006, with Wikipedia giving October 16 and Resident Advisor November; Kode9 told The Skinny that the first album was a unique state of mind. It draws on dancehall, techno, jungle and 2-step, with Gordon deconstructing emceeing with tales of alien musicians and futuristic cities, and he name-checked Octavia Butler, Philip K. Dick, William Burroughs and Prince Far I. They played MUTEK and the Hipersonica festival in Rio de Janeiro in 2007, and recorded sessions for BBC Radio 1.

Black Sun (Hyperdub, April 18, 2011) was more energetic, with Kode9 saying they did not want to make it as catatonic as the last one; it reached 35 on the UK dance albums chart, and Metacritic scores it 80. The Killing Season EP appeared in 2014, a week before Gordon's death on October 2, 2014, aged 44. Pitchfork wrote that if first-wave UK dubstep had a voice, it belonged to Stephen Gordon, and tributes came from Flying Lotus, Skream and Mary Anne Hobbs. Memories of the Future was reissued on double vinyl in 2015.