- published: 03 Jun 2016
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A.R. Kane (or A R Kane or A.R.Kane) were a British dream pop duo consisting of Alex Ayuli and Rudy Tambala that formed in 1986. Their name was partially derived from their first names, the "A" in Alex and the "R" in Rudy. The duo hailed from East London. Ayuli and Tambala were also part of the one-off recording collective M/A/R/R/S, which included the group Colourbox, in 1987. Their song "Pump Up the Volume" became a surprise worldwide number one chart hit.
Critic Jason Ankeny describes A.R. Kane as "arguably the most criminally under-recognized band of their era," suggesting that the duo's innovate music was a seminal influence on later developments such as dream pop, trip hop, acid house, and post-rock. Their lyrics which frequently dealt with such topics as water/oceans, love, colours, childhood, and dreams were often surrealist. Their music was usually danceable, due in part to its strong dub influence, and ethereal.
Alex was formerly an advertising copywriter, one of the very few black creatives working in the London ad business (1983–1990). He started his ad career at JWT before moving on to TBWA where he was associated with the creation of two pan-European Lego TV commercials. The director of one of these commercials, Matt Forrest, invited Alex and his art director team mate to write a music video for Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy's track "Unkiss that Kiss". The music video was filmed inside and outside the historic L'Escargot restaurant in London's Soho.