About this artist
London-based producer Philip Gamble, best known as Girl Unit, emerged as one of the most forward-thinking producers of the 2010s, delivering cutting-edge club music with bombastic pop hooks. Along with fellow Night Slugs affiliates such as Bok Bok and Jam City, he helped usher in a maximalist wave of club music, blending the complex rhythms of U.K. garage with glossy production informed by American rap and R&B. Anthemic singles such as 2010′s “Wut” were showered with critical praise, and Girl Unit provided production work and remixes for Kelela and Katy B. His long-awaited debut full-length, Song Feel (2019), further explored his interest in pop and R&B songwriting.
Gamble first began to DJ under the moniker Girl U No It’s True during the mid-2000s, later changing it to the less cumbersome Girl Unit. His first EP, 2010′s I.R.L., was the third release on Night Slugs, a label established by Bok Bok and L-Vis 1990 which evolved from their London-based club night of the same name. The label’s phenomenal year was capped by the release of Girl Unit’s “Wut,” a dubstep-meets-trap epic which hit like a supernova, and was named one of the best songs of the year by several publications. Following a 2011 split single with Kingdom, Girl Unit released the double-EP Club Rez in 2012, incorporating electro and even trance into the producer’s already ambitious sound. Throughout the rest of the decade, Gamble contributed tracks to the Night Slugs Allstars compilations, produced songs for Kelela, and released more straightforward club tracks under the name Hysterics. Finally, in 2019, he made his full-length debut with Song Feel, which featured guest vocals by Kelela, Taliwhoah, Brook Baili, and others. ~ Paul Simpson