Joe Dworniak and I-Level

A look back at a short-lived and overlooked 1980s Essex-based boogie-funk trio, called I-Level, and particularly one third of the band, Joe Dworniak, whose production and engineering prowess and pedigree is also of the crazily overlooked variety. And yes, you read right, this article does reference Take That towards the end. Hope we can be forgiven, one day.

Growing up in East London, Joe Dworniak and his best mate, Phil Roberts, were passionate about music and spent hours listening to Santana, Weather Report and Jazz Rock. At 14 years of age they were performing in School concerts and a number of venues in and around Walthamstow calling themselves Exodus. Leaving school at 16, they moved into a squat in Brixton and hooked up with other like minded musicians through Melody Maker (known as the musician’s bible of the day) and went on to form Snax with Duncan Bridgeman, John Hocieje and Mark Jeffries, later to be renamed Scrambled Egos. Their first record Close Your Eyes (If You Wanna Survive) was released by Jet Records and achieved power play for one week on Radio Luxembourg. The band had a regular slot performing at the Ruskin Arms and on one particular night Radio 1 DJ, Alan Freeman, came to see them – with only 3 other people in the audience, this was a highlight…

Over the years Give Me has been sampled by Sandy Kerr on Thug Rock in 1982 , the Lost Boyz track So Love in 1997 and ATCQ’s Give Me (featuring Noreaga) in 1998 and also featured on a compilation LP called Methods of Dance in 82…

The band morphed into Shake Shake (Nigel Roberts, a keyboardist came on board) and went on to release two singles under Tot Taylor’s independent label Compact, achieving Number 1 in the Indie charts with the first single Shake Shake. Contact with Spain came through a great friend, Dimitri Medvedev, who organised a small tour and met Miguel Jimenez (later to become Joe’s manager for all productions in Spain) and Juan Santamaria, owners of record shop Zic Zac in Valencia. The band performed at Studio 54 in Barcelona, La Barraca in Valencia and finally Rock-ola in Madrid, which was where Joe and Duncan were introduced to Radio Futura and later asked to re-mix the single Semilla Negra. For Joe, this was to be the start of a long and fruitful working relationship with Spanish artists and bands producing and mixing some of Spain’s classic albums (see discography in Joe’s website Body of Work section).

Throughout this time, Joe worked in north London studio Music Works and learnt his trade in the time honoured fashion of tape operator, assistant engineer to engineer all under the guidance of Al Williams (the studio owner). It was here where Joe met Sam Jones, singer in reggae band BRIMSTONE and went on to form I-Level with Duncan Bridgeman. Signed to Richard Branson’s Virgin Records, I-Level released two albums and seven singles, were awarded ‘most promising newcomers’ by the readers of influential music magazine Blues & Soul in 1982. Their first single Give Me was an underground club hit in the UK and reached number 5 in the R&B charts under US label Epic. Over the years Give Me has been sampled by Sandy Kerr’s Thug Rock in 1982, the Lost Boyz track So Love in 1997 and A Tribe Called Quest’s Give Me (featuring Noreaga) in 1998 and also on a compilation LP called Methods of Dance in 1982…

Joe’s production, engineering work and bass playing as a session musician continued throughout this time and finally I-Level disbanded. Joe and Duncan continued to write together and released two singles signed to 10 Records as Be Big with with writer and keyboards/programmer Dave Clayton and vocalist Gloria Robakowski. It was at this time that Joe and Duncan decided to relocate Moody Productions, their small studio in Portobello Road, to a large warehouse in Acton enabling them to focus on their individual productions and expand by offering a commercial recording studio to fellow producers. During its twelve year history it saw hit records for bands such as: Take That, Let Loose, Transvision Vamp, Apache Indian, Jarabe De Palo, Kiko Veneno, Radio Futura and Vieja Trova Santiaguera.

Slowly Joe and Duncan moved further apart from their joint ventures and as Duncan joined forces with Jaime Catto to form 1 Giant Leap, Joe built Stan’s Room, a smaller studio within the same Acton complex where he continued to focus on Spanish productions/mixing and introduced Mastering with Poppy Weinberger for artists/bands; Jarabe De Palo, Elefantes, Carlos de France, La Media Luna and Jitters.

Joe and Sam have continued to work together over the years, Sam who is mainly based in Sierra Leone has been down to Cornwall to record with Joe in his studio Riverfish Music. Talks are underway and 2016 could very well be the year that they decide to release some new music. We look forward to that.

Thanks to Basso, Danny Potts and Ricardo from Ku for turning us onto the work of I-Level.

And special thanks to Joe Dworniak for letting us re-publish this slice of under-rated (and in many ways forgotten) UK – meets the rest of the world – musical history. We think I-Level deserve a more recognised and esteemed position in the pop pantheon. Without a shadow of a doubt. Check out their stuff if you’re unfamiliar. We hope you’d be inclined to agree.