Both are South Londoners. Dayes is drummer for Afrobeat band United Vibrations, while Williams is a well-known producer, keyboard player, and drummer who has issued a series of 12" singles under his given name. The pair crossed paths in 2007 while pursuing other musical ventures and kept in touch, intermittently playing together. While rehearsing for a one-off gig of Williams' solo material at the Boiler Room, they decided to form a band. That show, a much-talked-about success built on total groove- and rhythm-based improvisation, led to others. Without pre-planned tunes or arrangements, the music was always spontaneously created, often born from a single drumbeat; Williams has described their music as "...all about drums and keys...." the duo played a 20-minute set at Gilles Peterson's awards show and based on its strength, signed them to his Brownswood label. With the Heliocentrics' Malcolm Catto engineering, the pair enlisted six other musicians -- including saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings -- to share their vision in a recording studio, resulting in the full-length Black Focus, issued in November 2016. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi