Pendulum

Pendulum is an Australian-British drum and bass and electronic rock band founded in 2002 in Perth by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen, and Paul Harding.

Swire and McGrillen were members of the rock band known as Xygen. After hearing Konflict's "Messiah" at a club, they were inspired to enter into the drum and bass genre. They founded Pendulum with Harding, who was a veteran DJ into the drum and bass scene. In 2003 the band relocated to the United Kingdom.

While Hold Your Colour holds true to the drum and bass genre, Pendulum have since experimented with mixing other genres into their work. This can be heard on In Silico and Immersion. Their newer releases incorporate styles from genres such as alternative rock, heavy metal,dubstep and house music.

Pendulum are also known for their live shows, with a live band setup and advanced visual displays adding to the incorporation of their infusion of drum and bass with rock.

Pendulum are currently taking a break from touring and live performances for approximately 18 months.

Musical Style

When Pendulum was formed, their musical style was considerably more drum and bass sounding than the work they are known for today. Signature tunes such as "Masochist", "Vault", "Back 2 You" and "Voyager", which were released on labels such as Uprising Records, 31 Records, Renegade Hardware and Low Profile Records, have a darker, more amelodic air to them which is substantially absent from their later productions. The band's newer work is regarded as generally leaning heavily towards a mainstream, dance-driven sound. Early work such as "Another Planet" seems to indicate an early affinity with a more global sound, similar to other Breakbeat Kaos artists such as DJ Fresh and Adam F.

The group has produced various remixes of other artists also; the most well-known being the remix of "Voodoo People", originally by The Prodigy. In 2008–2010, they covered/remixed songs including Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", Linkin Park's "The Catalyst", Calvin Harris's "I'm Not Alone", Coldplay's "Violet Hill", and Metallica's "Master of Puppets". Pendulum's versions of "I'm Not Alone" and "Master Of Puppets" both exist as studio recordings but have not been officially released, and are only previewed during DJ sets. The original live version of "Master of Puppets" was played as an instrumental introduction for "Slam", and was featured on their first live album/DVD. During their American tour as the supporting band for Linkin Park, the song was played in its entirety, with Rob doing vocals. Pendulum have also remixed their own music and, on occasion, television theme songs, such as Australian television's "ABC News Theme" in May 2010. The remix proved to be immensely popular with listeners of Australian youth radio station triple j, polling at number 11 in the 2010 Triple J Hottest 100 countdown.

Pendulum's current musical style consists of a fusion of electronica, alternative rock and heavy metal, with the inclusion of acoustic instruments. This creates a sound reminiscent of industrial metal, albeit with much more prominent drum and bass and, more recently, dubstep influences. Some songs, such as "Slam", "Propane Nightmares" and "Witchcraft" are synth-led, whilst others, such as "Showdown", "The Tempest" and "Comprachicos", are guitar-led. Bassist Gareth McGrillen stated in an interview on Channel 4 that they use 13 computers during the live performances, all of which are mixing the sounds produced by the instruments in real time. Rob Swire stated in issues of TJECK magazine and Rock Sound magazine that he would like to begin producing songs with a punk style to them, excluding the inclusion of electronic sounds in the near future. Pendulum are known to be fans of progressive rock and progressive metal bands, which may have inspired them to fuse multiple genres of music together, which is standard practice in those genres.