BIOG :
2nd Gen has received critical acclaim from numerous diverse sources but actually defining this intense music deviation is close to impossible.
Containing fragments of techno, hip-hop and rock with a driving industrial noise mentality, Wajid Yaseen's unique musical project is a bulldozing distillation of genres, intertwining and contorting sound to serve his will.
His primary desire, manifesting within his inspired compositions, is to constantly challenge himself and those who are listening. As Wajid himself said when interviewed: "what the fuck are we if we don't take risks ??"
Born in Manchester, Wajid's formative music education fluctuated from the influence of his Asian family to the encompassing sound of mid-eighties electro and extreme thrash of The Boredoms and Sonic Youth. Re-locating to Sweden in his teens, he formed a punk band who performed using only damaged and broken equipment. The resulting clamour of feedback and distortion seeded his affinity for extremes.
Re-locating to London several years later, Wajid joined the group Fun-Da-Mental as bassist and unofficial noise-maker and toured with them for two years. It was around this time he began work on the initial archetype for 2nd Gen, and consequently released the Noise Sculptures EP through Flo Records, a totally unique assortment of stimulating breakbeat noise that was difficult to ignore. It wasn't long before the NovaMute label expressed an interest in 2nd Gen which gave Wajid the opportunity to push his creative urge to much wider territories . In 1998 NovaMute released the overwhelming Against Nature EP unleashing a radical new sound force to critical acclaim from the unprepared world of NME, Kerrang, Wax, DJ, Melody Maker, Jockey Slut....
The logical progression for Wajid was to increase the aesthetics for his 2001 debut album, 'Irony Is'. and, from the seductive rhythmic undertow of 'And / Or' to the slow inexorable drive of 'Scarred' to the urban funeral blues of 'Black Spring' (featuring Gallon Drunk's James Johnston), the album delights in confounding expectations.
Skills and techniques sharpened, Wajid has since produced the latest album for London industrialists Leechwoman, and has remixed an eclectic array of bands including Depeche Mode, Ro bert Miles, Venetian Snares and Hawkwind. Alongside 2nd Gen, Wajid has collaborated with performance artist Gail Sneddon on Project Preservation and Case 22 and has a side project called Uniform, described as schizophrenic electronics with collaborations by Lydia lunch, Barry Adamson, Sleazy from Coil/Throbbing Gristle, Justin Broadrick from Techno Animal/Godflesh and the performance artist Franko B. He also presents a show on London's Resonance FM, advocating further experimentation (one particular show consisted solely of Wajid and Digidub destroying a piano with sledgehammers!)
His latest album titled 'Flicknives' released on the fiercly independant Quatermass label, again threatens to break down any expectations of what can be done with sound. 10 tracks ranging from the melancholic opener 'Evox' to the sonic thrill of 'Middle Finger Motif' to the stripped rawness of 'Sliding into Stereotypes' - even more seductive and adventurous than ever.
