The Herbaliser DJs

More than 15 years into their musical journey, West London duo Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba are set to play a blinder at the Garden Stage at Harvest this year. With 11 critically acclaimed albums under their belts, HERBALISER DJS’s have collaborated with the likes of Roots Manuva and What What, and have honed their skills while producing music over the last 15 years with live orchestras and brass bands.

Released in 1995, the first HERBALISER album Remedies offered an emphatically London-centric take on funky electronica packed with samples, scratches and chopped-up rhythms. It remains an influential underground classic from the urban flipside of the Britpop boom.

In 1997, the second HERBALISER album Blow Your Headphones was praised by the US rock Bible Rolling Stone for its “smooth, nimble rhythms” and called "a textured, experimental valentine to US hip-hop."

Expanding their live line-up to a nine-piece in the late 1990s, HERBALISER became acclaimed festival favourites around the globe. Playing to increasingly large and appreciative crowds also helped Jake and Ollie broaden their studio working methods.

On their 1999 album Very Mercenary, they began sampling their own playing partners. Alongside What What, Very Mercenary also shone the spotlight on a host of guest vocalists including future Brit-rap titans Blade and Roots Manuva.

Following in 2000, the double-vinyl live album Session One showed the world what a rousing and dynamic affair the HERBALISER road show had now become.

The arrival of Something Wicked This Way Comes in 2002 added several new shades of light and dark to the HERBALISER spectrum. A potent cocktail of moody instrumental grooves and funky Brit-hop, it also featured another impressively forward-thinking gallery of guest vocalists including MF Doom, Phi Life Cypher and Rakaa Iriscience from Dilated Peoples. All Music Guide hailed the album as "colossal and cinematic," while NME praised its "tough, commanding rare grooves."

Ollie and Jake proved their DJ skills with the acclaimed 2004 mix album Herbal Blend and their 2006 mix for Fabric. In between, they returned to the studio with Take London, released in 2005. A multicultural manifesto celebrating the UK capital’s unique mix of soul, funk, hip-hop and reggae, it featured the triumphant return of Roots Manuva alongside Jean Grae, who by now had left her What What alias behind.

Fast forward to 2008 and The HERBALISER released the archly titled Same As It Never Was. And in 2010 Ninja Tune released "Herbal Tonic" a 16 track compilation featuring the cream of The HERBALISER’s recording career

Since that release, the HERBALISER have toured as both a live ensemble and a DJ outfit, all over Europe, the US and Canada, plus Turkey, Russia and the Baltic states, as well as a recent dates on the island of La Reunion, two hundred miles off the coast of Madagascar. In addition, last year they released "Session Two," a follow-up to 2000’s live album.