UK techno group formed in 1986 by long-time housemates Jon Fugler, Mike Tournier and Mike Bryant as an experiment in acid house music. While the first single, Island Life, was mildly successful, it was Thumper and Joni (which sampled the Joni Mitchell song Big Yellow Taxi) in 1990 that really bought them to fame. They signed a one-album contract with indie rock record label Creation to create their 1991 debut album, The techno rose of Blighty, with a progressive house/trip hop sort of feel.
Later that year they signed with Virgin and produced a live album (Out (in essence)). 1993 saw the release of Six wheels on my wagon, an amazing trip into ambient trance and pop music (in my opinion, their best album to date). After that was a live studio album, The Peel sessions, where they tried out freestyle jazz and trip hop. OTO saw further excursions into downtempo and jazz.
Returning after a two year hiatus with the album Risotto, the group recruited Rachel Stewart to play the part of Arial Tetsuo (rumored to be their answer to Keith Flint of The Prodigy), the band's mascot and megalomanical pilot for the WipEout team Auricom (she stars in the video clip for Atom Bomb, and also appear(s|d) in their live shows... but doesn't actually do any vocals). Risotto was slightly different from their previous albums, delving into semi-industrial techno, hard trance, and Underworld-style stream of conciousness lyrics. This was probably also the album that really got them noticed by the mainstream - Atom Bomb was played continuously at nightclubs for several months, an instrumental version of the atomix6 mix made it onto the WipEout 2097/XL soundtrack, and a new track (V6) was custom-written for the game.
Nothing much was heard of Fluke until early 2001, when rumors of a new album came about. Slightly disappointingly, it turned out to be the "best of" album Progressive History X. Gathering together the best remixes of their songs from the past ten years (hence the name), it's a good place to introduce people to the group.
2002 saw the band's new single, "Pulse", a return to the Oto-era lyrical style, with a beat similar to Atom Bomb and Absurd. It's probably the hardest (and most complex) stuff they've done so far. I'll certainly be buying it as soon as I can get my hands on a copy.
The band was briefly a duo in mid-late 2002 after Mike Tournier split (rumor has it this was to avoid having to go on tour for the album release) to do his own thing under the pseudonym "Syntax", but the remainder of the group hired drum programmer Ron Aslan, guitarist Wild Oscar, and producer Andy Gray (more famous for his work with Paul Oakenfold) to help with the new album. The result was "Puppy", a continuation of the post-Risotto dark trance/industrialish feel, with some elements of house and a one-track return to their earlier pop roots. There will also be a Fluke "DJ" album called "Sleeping Beauties", in the same vein as The Crystal Method's "Community Service" and Orbital's "Back to Mine", released in late 2003.
Genres: techno/progressive house/trance/pseudo-industrial/trip-hop/etc...
Similar to: FSoL, Leftfield, Orbital, (early) Prodigy, Underworld.
Albums
Singles
Colaborations
- Atlas - Mike Bryant engineered the track "Compass Error". (1993/1995)
- Junkie XL and Sander Kleinenberg - Jon Fugler provided vocals for the track "Venus & Mars". (2000)
- Sander Kleinenberg - Engineering on his June 2001 Essential Mix. (2001)
- Trisco - Jon Fugler provided vocals for the song "Ultra". (2001/2002)
Compilations
(the ones containing otherwise unreleased songs, anyway)
Remixes
Remixed by
Fluke remixes don't tend to be named after the artists who worked on them, instead taking a name somewhat related to the song: the remixes for Electric Guitar are all named after various types of amplifiers and guitars (headstock, hot tube, superwound, humbucker, vibrochamp, etc), and the Tosh remixes are words that merely rhyme (posh, cosh, mosh, dosh). Sometimes, though, they get named after the artist, but either "vox" or "dub" are added (Catch 22 dub and Headdrillaz vox for the Spacey and Absurd remixes, respectively) depending on which attribute it concentrated more on.
† A demo album the band did for Virgin. It's closer to the sound of Oto than anything else, and I think a progression back that way would be great. Since it was a one-off kinda thing, the only way you'll be able to get your hands on a copy is to find it on a file sharing network -- I suggest Soulseek.
Ω Bjork was so impressed by Fluke's remix that she released it instead of the original, and they appeared with her at the 1994 Smash Hits winner's party.
¤ It's not actually by the 'Brothers; Fluke did all six (atomix 1 - atomix 6, plus the edits of 1 and 3, plus the instrumental version of 6 for WipEout 2097) remixes themselves. Most likely it's just a fan remix renamed so it would be listened to.
References:
http://www.astralwerks.com/fluke/bio.html
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B38831
http://members.tripod.com/markolf/fluke.html
http://www.negative1.net/music/fluke/fluke_index.htm
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/fluke/bio.jhtml
http://www.global-trance.co.uk/Fluke.html
http://www.progressive-sounds.com/artists/Fluke/Fluke-interview.asp <-- Read this.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fluke_/
http://www2.thny.bbc.co.uk/radio1/dance/nightingale/profiles_fatliners_fluke.shtml