Clifford Joseph Price best known by his stage moniker Goldie is a leading figure in the electronic music movement. He helped pioneer and popularize stylistic variants such as jungle and drum’n‘bass. In addition to his career as a recording artist he is also a DJ, actor, and graffiti artist.
Price was born on 19 September 1965 in Walsall, Staffordshire, England to parents of Jamaican and Scottish ancestry; however, he was later put up for adoption and spent most of his childhood amongst various foster parents and child-care homes. Prior to his music career Goldie was involved in several breakdance crews and also took up visual art.
His occupation as a graphic designer led to his acquaintance with Dennis McFarlane and Mark Clair, who comprised the drum and bass act, 4hero. He was commissioned by this group as an artistic consultant for their record label, Reinforced. While working for Reinforced he developed his skills as a producer and in 1992 made one of his 1st musical contributions, providing vocals on the Ajax Project track “Rufige”.
Later this year he was releasing material on his own, initially under the moniker Rufige Cru. Through this name he put out the recordings “Killa Muffin b/w Krisp Biscuit” and the “Dark Rider EP”. He adopted the moniker Metalheadz for the release of his single “Terminator”, but eventually swapped it for the alias Goldie. The track “Terminator” featured the technical innovation of “time stretching”, a technique characterized for extending the duration of a musical segment without compromising it’s pitch.
Goldie’s revolutionary recording processes were carried over onto his 1995 studio debut “Timeless”. This release included extensive use of jungle bass lines, breakbeats, and soul style vocals. The melding of these styles culminated in a complex but rewarding listen. “Timeless” was released as a double cd tallying in at 105 minutes and featured the 25 minute electronic symphonic title track as it’s centerpiece. The album received glowing reviews upon it’s release and has since been certified as a masterpiece within the d’n’b and jungle genre. It’s commercial outlook was also highly positive as it reached no. 7 on the UK Album charts and has since achieved gold status.
Proceeding his studio debut, Goldie issued a horde of singles and remixes. By 1998 he put out his heavily anticipated follow up “Saturnz Return”. This release was a moderate commercial success peaking at no. 15 on the UK Album charts and was strongly revered by select publications such as Pitchfork. This release was also a double disc set and opened with an hour long orchestral drum n bass piece. It was followed by several tracks, which showcased guest artists ranging from Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Anne Dudley (Art of Noise), David Bowie, Malcolm McLaren, Trevor Horn, and KRS-One.
A year later Goldie released his hour spanning EP “Rising Sun” and while it was deemed with positive reviews it failed to chart. Goldie shifted his attention to acting in the 2000s, appearing in movies such as the James Bond film “The World Is Not Enough” and the crime comedy “Snatch”. Goldie also worked on the film “Sine Tempus” and provided it’s soundtrack. After a 10 year wait Goldie released his 3rd studio album “Malice In Wonderland” under the alias, Rufige Kru and followed it up in 2009 with “Memoirs of an Afterlife”.
Katie Gregson-MacLeod
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