Phil.. After all these years finally I've read the real story. Back in 1990 I was at a club called Stages in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. Not far from Reading as you well know. Stages Nightclub was our stomping ground. I remember chatting to a guy who had come all the way down from Manchester with some mates of his. He said he worked for some record shop up there called Eastern 'Something or other' (which in later years I found was called Eastern Bloc). He gave me two free records that night. One was Green Planet- Aurora and the other was this PW- Sea Of Beats! He wanted me to play Sea Of Beats but I had just done my 20 minute set which comprised of Renegade Soundwave- The Phantom, LFO-LFO and such sounds so playing Sea Of Beats wouldn't have really worked as way too slow! But I still kept the record and in later years would drop it into trip hop sets in the late 90s... It always got a great reaction! Not to slag anyone off but never really cared for the 'other' version lol.. Anyway like I said it's great to hear the history of how this track came about. P.s. What is the origin of the beat sample? It's dope! P.p.s. Echo Of The Waves... Wow! Those vocals near to the end of the track by Kim Strickland still sends shivers up and down my spine! I always wished those vocals were presented on the record as an a cappella so I could have sampled it to make an ambient trip hop tune!

This was the first record I made. I was putting on a weekly Party at 'The After Dark' Club in Reading on a Thursday Night. I used to also give Live Acts a spot, so when these two guys gave me a demo of theirs, I was so impressed I offered them their first gig. The guys were Tom Rowlands (Chemical Brothers / Ariel) & Brendan (Ariel) and they called themselves 'ATOM'. As the guy's were so pleased with their first gig, they said that if there was anything they could do for me I should ask. So I did, I asked them if they would help me make my first tune. They suggested that I give them the samples and to tell them what I wanted and they would produce it, so I agreed. So at first they took my samples to their studio and came back to me with their mix a weeks later. Even though I had given them an idea of what I wanted, they produced a tune which was nothing like the one in my head. So I went to their studio and made this tune myself.I asked some guys who used to produce the Rare Groove boots back in the day to press it up for me, so it originally came out as PW (PW stands for Phil Wells) featuring Atom on Law records.I sold about 2000 copies over the next two months. After the record was released Tom & Brendan went to Manchester University. Over the next couple of months the guys rang me up with an order for 500 copies. Then a few weeks later rang for another 500 selling them through Eastern Bloc. Then the guys pulled a sneaky one and signed a deal with Eastern Bloc as'Ariel'and left me out of the deal! Obviously I took steps at the time to stop the release, but Eastern Bloc still sold 1000s of promos, however at least my mix didn't come out. I have to say though I loved 'Justin Robertson's mix and got to meet him due to this mix. The most hurtful thing was reading an interview Tom gave for a Dance Mag, where he was asked about the tunes debut on Law Records. Tom said he met a dodgy guy who offered to press it up for him! On the AA side is a deep house track featuring a local, Reading, singer called 'Kim Strickland' who used to come into my shop ' The Record Basement' and as I loved her voice I wrote this for her to help her get noticed. Kim got picked up after the release and had some minor Chart success with a cover of Sister Sledges 'Thinking Of You'.

The track is now on you tube linked on the discogs page