Active Loop Zone

Active Loop Zone was formed sometime in 1992. The name came from an error message on a AKAI S2800 Sampler. If you set a sample up to loop a portion of the sample and then try and truncate the front end of the sample, it returns an error saying “WARNING, Start in Active Loop Zone!”. This was in the days when all the editing was done from the front panel of the sampler using the jog wheel, a few keys and a small LCD display. Before the formation of Active Loop Zone, Rick Lomas and Donovan Lines had been making electronic music for years, working with nothing more than a Yamaha 4-track cassette multi-tracker and a few synthesizers and drum machines. Other working titles for the duo were, “The Thuddy and Dubby Sound System” and “Advanced Passion Course”. Rick and Donovan originally started by just making a few cassette albums and marketing them in magazines such as “Future Music” and “Sound on Sound”, but they were quickly spotted by Michael Dog of Planet Dog Records. In 1994 Planet Dog made a compilation album called Quadruped V1 which featured “How do you feel?” and “Transambi” by Active Loop Zone, along with tracks by Zuvuya, Optic Eye and Children of The Bong. The album did quite well, getting to number 14 in the UK Independent charts. Later on in 1997, Active Loop Zone released “Things happen to the head” on St Albans based Easy Tiger records which was a mental acid big beat workout that was played by Judge Jules on Radio 1 and every night by Janice Long on Liverpool’s Crash FM. In 2001 Rick moved to France and now Active Loop Zone continues in a minimal form.