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Chris Knowles aka Chris Liberator, is a pioneering British DJ and producer, who has been responsible for pushing his distinctive brand of acid techno around the globe for over 20 years. As one of the Liberator DJs and founders of the legendary Stay Up Forever Label Collective, Chris has trail-blazed electronic music since its inception, yet has never compromised the anarchistic and underground principles that have come to typify his career.
In the early 80s he was a member of reputed punk band, Hagar the Womb, before becoming the first Western DJ to play in the Eastern Bloc. Gigs at Glastonbury followed, as well as his heralded Trust The DJ compilation series and recently Chris has formed a new band, called Dogshite, to again brandish his non-traditional manner for expressing his musical talent.
Renowned for the way his music ‘annihilates’ dance floors, Chris in full throttle remains one of dance music’s most enduring and epic experiences and he continues to tour all over the world, taking his indomitable sound to Australia and Japan, throughout Europe and the Americas.
As well as somehow finding the time to co-manage the Stay Up Forever Label Collective, which encompassed over 20 individual labels at its peak, Chris has a colossal production history. On top of an extensive release and remix history as Chris Liberator, his discography now totals well over 50 different collaborations and pseudonyms.
In a 2013 interview with Louder Than War, Chris mentioned Peel's name when asked who were his musical heroes when he was a kid:
"Absolutely! I lived and breathed music from an early age, a massive fan of Slade and Sweet when I was only 7 or 8, then my tastes quickly matured into Queen and Pink Floyd, but of course these were all thrown aside when Punk came along in 1977. I was only 12 but the energy and anger connected with me immediately, and for me it changed everything forever. The mundane and shitty closed society that surrounded me as I went through my teenage years growing up on the edge of London in Hornchurch, Essex, was suddenly and irrevocably challenged. It completely and utterly blew my mind. I remember seeing Mark Perry (from Sniffing’ Glue fanzine and the band ATV who I later met, a definite hero of mine) on TV slagging off all the prog rock bands and in the same week discovering the Stranglers, followed by the Adverts, Pistols, Clash, Ramones, Slits, and all those other bands from the original punk era. I was hooked and I stayed hooked, following punk avidly as it progressed through the coming years into all it’s digressions (with massive amounts of help from John Peel) including early electronica like Cabaret Voltaire/ Normal, etc., and all the Rough Trade stuff (Kleenex/ The Raincoats and suchlike). I was in a band called Hagar the Womb at this time and I got involved in the anarcho punk scene (Crass/ Mob/ Poison Girls and similar bands) playing at punk squats and anarcho activist centres, and loved the DIY culture it inspired."[1]
Peel would play many of the bands that Chris was involved in the 80's. When Chris started to DJ, his music started to get noticed by Peel and he invited the DJ, who collaborated with other DJ's (Aaron Northmore and Julian Sandell) to do a session for his show in 1997 under the name of Liberator DJs & The London Acid Techno Mafia. He also invited the DJ again for another session in 1999 which he collaborated with another DJ (Henry Cullen), but this time under the name of Ha-Lo. Peel continued playing his music into the 00's and nominated his 'Maximum Minimum' single as one of his records of the month for June 2000 (Peel's Record Box), as well as his collaboration under the Punk Floyd name for the album, 'Have Landed', as one of his records of the month for November 1998 (Peel's Record Box).
Sessions[]
Radio On One
Under the name of Liberator DJ's & The London Acid Techno Mafia
Punk Floyd / Dot Dash (Chris Knowles, Dave Lalouche, Guy McAffer)
24 June 1997: (JP: 'This is Punk Floyd, Punk Floyd, what a great name, don't you wished you thought of that, perhaps you did, Can't Breathe') Can't Breathe (12") Smitten
