Who? Colin Bailey, 29, a voodoo comic-book villain who terrorises dance floors.
Sounds like? Acid house, Black Sabbath and grime with old school rave melodies and throbbing bass lines.
It may be hard to believe that a boy brought up in a small Scottish town exposed to folklore and listening to Michael Jackson could be transformed into a ghoulish, death-obsessed techno fiend, working with Peaches and touring with Hot Chip
“It’s like my upbringing has gone full circle”, he says, “I heard Metallica and that was the changing point.” Next was a love of hardcore punk, which he pursued through singing in a band. But he says: “My true awakening came when I got into clubbing in Glasgow when I was about 21 or 22 and discovered all types of electronic music; I loved the feeling of elation in a club and this combined with a love of freeform jazz, metal, hardcore punk and no wave meant I was ready to make my own music.”
All these influences combined with a dark, cheeky imagination are what make up Colin’s alter ego, Drums of Death. As the story goes, on waking to the sound of tribal drums after a frivolous night with a Haitian warlord’s daughter, Princess Zara, Colin realised he was under a voodoo curse. “I wanted to create something that combined the primal with the visual; Drums of Death is like an allegory for growing up,” he explains. “It’s a subconscious thing; I was a quiet kid, so he’s like a comic-book villain that brings all the bad things out on a personal and aesthetic level.”
The sight of this macabre figure on stage, along with the wobbling bass lines, old school piano stabs and the whip and crack of snares causes riots. It is the closest we’ve ever come to dance-floor pantomime - only it’s more ‘Sin City’ than Widow Twanky.
Words: Adam Saville
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