Urtekk

Urtekk is an Australian band formed in 2011 by the members Ben Smith (drums), Dave Brewer (bass), Martin Regan (synth, sampling and programming) and Stasi Kotaras (vocals). Mixer James Runciman is considered a fifth member of the band, with many of the tasks during live performance going beyond front of house mixing. The name ‘Urtekk’ is a word made up by the members of the band, of which has no official meaning however may be seen as a derivative of the word ‘Urtext’, meaning “original text of a musical or literature nature”.

The band was conceived when drummer Ben Smith and bassist Dave Brewer continued to write music after the demise of former psych rock band Two Suns. They had a different vision in mind from the riffs and solos of Two Suns, wanting to experiment more with electronic sounds and effects as well as work on more definition and clarity in their music, as opposed to the long jams and run-together sets of the previous band. Soon after, and still without name, the newly formed band recruited it’s third member Martin Regan, who would add a whole new dynamic to the bands sound through the use of synthesizers and sampling. After some loosely recorded demo tracks, Ben and Martin called on long time friend and fellow musician Stasi Kotaras; who had all previously played in the band Canes Vanatic, to lay down some vocal takes over the demo tracks – after which gave the songs a more rounded and complete feel and despite living in another city earned Stasi a place as vocalist in the band, which by this time had decided on the name Urtekk. This gave Urtekk its first major challenge – being that now the band had members living in both Adelaide and Melbourne. With the aid of the current technological climate, the band has managed to overcome this challenge, as well as utilising the fact that the band now had access to two separate cities and Pilot Studios.

Upon its inception in 2011, Urtekk was earmarked to sign to the soon-to-be-launched independent label Pilot Records (founded by band members Ben and Dave), which was formalised in March of 2012. Since its birth, Urtekk has been pushing the boundaries of live electronics – drawing influences from what many would consider opposing genres of music, from minimalist techno through to late 60's/70's progressive rock, creating what the band considers a hybrid form of music. The band has a vision of experimentation, using many different effects over the traditional sounding drums and bass creating an array of new, unfamiliar sounds – yet maintaining the relationship between the music and the listener.

The bands first single ‘Messiah’ was recorded, produced and released solely by the band and Pilot Records.