Norris began making music as a teenage member of St. Albans punk band Innocent Vicars.[3] Vicars recorded two singles in 1980: "Antimatter" and "Funky Town" for the independent No Brain Records. Norris started working in the music industry as the label manager for the British psychedelic record label Bam Caruso[4][5] before becoming a writer for NME in 1987.
Bands
The Grid
Norris and David Ball collaborated together as M.E.S.H, one of the groups formed by Psychic TV members for the fake compilation Jack The Tab – Acid Tablets Volume One in 1988. They released their track, Meet Every Situation Head On, as a single.[6]
They then changed changed their name The Grid and signed to Warner Bros Records/East West Records the same year. The Grid had six Top 40 UK Singles Chart hits between 1990 and 1995[7] including: "Floatation", "Crystal Clear", "Texas Cowboys", "Rollercoaster" and the million-selling "Swamp Thing."[8] "Swamp Thing" reached no.3 in the UK charts and was Top Ten in nine other countries. It was certified a Silver Disc.[9]
The Grid has been in existence from their formation in 1988 until the present day with a 5-year hiatus between 1998-2003. During the break, Norris formed the band The Droyds and under that name mixed tracks for Armand Van Helden[10] and Siobhan Fahey.[11]
The Grid have released five albums (as of 2018).
Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve
Along with British DJ Erol Alkan[12] Norris formed the remix/DJ duo Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve. Under this name Norris and Alkan initially released four remix/re-edit EPs: "Birth", "Spring", "George" and "West", followed by several singles. In 2016 they released their debut album The Soft Bounce which was rated album of the week by The Guardian's music critic Alex Petridis[13][14]
Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve have also have remixed The Chemical Brothers, Tracey Thorn, Badly Drawn Boy, Midlake and Goldfrapp. Their own compilation of other band remixes: Reanimations Volume One,[15] was released in 2009. Norris has also compiled the techno compilation album Flux Trax.[16]
Norris formed the electronic band Circle Sky with DJ Martin Dubka.[17] Circle Sky remixed a number of artists including: Yello,[18]Jagwar Ma, and Imarhan.
The Time & Space Machine
Norris formed a new project in 2009 called The Time and Space Machine.[19] The Time and Space Machine signed to Tirk Records in 2009 and released a 7" single "Children of the Sun," an EP You Are The One, and an album Set Phazer to Stun. A second Time and Space Machine album Taste the Lazer was released in 2012.[20][21]
A The Time and Space Machine remix collection The Way Out Sound From In was released in 2015. This featured remixes of: Warpaint,Jagwar Ma and Temples.[22][23]
The band also collaborated with designer Luke Insect and the street wear label Stüssy to create a series of Time and Space Machine Stüssy T-shirts.[24]
Norris and Genesis P-Orridge of Psychic TV collaborated to release two fake compilations of acid house songs in 1988—contributing to each under variety of aliases such as: DJ Doktor Megatrip and Mista Luv. The two albums Jack the Tab and Tekno Acid Beat[27][28] were released with the intention to fool people into believing that the genre had already taken off in Britain—thereby encouraging its popularization and acceptance.
Moog Music—contemporary makers of the famous Moog synthesisers—constructed a bespoke sound lab for the creation of live synthesised music as an open access, experimental music resource to celebrate the life and work of electronics inventor Dr. Robert Moog in 2015. The Grid were the first band to be invited to play and record in the new studio[29] at the Sound Lab at The Institute of Sound Recording (Surrey University) three years later. The resulting work was a 6-track album called One Way Traffic.[30] The other albums—making up a series of three were: HieroglyphicBeing'sThe Replicant Dream Sequence and the late Mika Vainio'sLydspor One & Two.[31] The Guardian's music critic described the event as: 'The synth revival; why the Moog is back in vogue' commenting: 'Both Grid members are bona fide synth pioneers.'[32]
Robert Fripp
The Grid collaborated with the King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp on the Grid album 456. The Grid also remixed David Sylvian and Robert Fripp's track "Darshan (1993)"[33] and released the previously unheard Grid/Fripp collaboration "A Cabala Sky" in 2014[34]
Finnur Bjarnasson
Norris collaborated with classically trained Icelandic opera singer Finnur Bjarnasson on a music project called Restoration under the band name The Long Now. It was released on Curved Space Records in 2018 .[35][36][37]
The Lewes Psychedelic Festival in Lewes, south England was founded by Norris and Chris Tomsett in 2009. The ongoing festival is still curated by Tomsett (as of 2018)--hosting in the past bands such as: The Notorious Hi-Fi Killers, Voice of the Seven Thunders, The Sound Carriers and Norris's own The Time & Space Machine.[41][42][43]
