Simian Mobile Disco get set for Bugged Out.

 

It’s now less than 2 weeks until the mighty Bugged Out Weekender open’s in doors. We continue to grab 5 minutes with some of the artists playing to find out what they have got in store for us over the course of the weekend, and their plans for the year ahead.

It doesn’t come much bigger then Simian Mobile Disco.They’ve come a long way since ‘Hustler’ became one of the tunes of the year in 2006; delving into a multitude of projects and working with some heavyweight vocalists in the studio on their early releases, whilst continuing to move in to a more techno-heavy sound in their DJ sets played the world over and their Delicacies imprint, leaving them now ranking as some of the biggest players in electronic music today.  They’ll be delivering  a healthy slab of techno goodness for us at the weekender, we grabbed 5 minutes to find out how 2011 was for them and to find out what’s lined up for the year ahead.

Firstly, happy New Year, how has 2011 been for you, any highlights?

ATP and Wang were a lot of fun this year; those are the most recent gigs that stick in our memories

What were your top tracks of the year?

Man Or Mistress –  Levon Vincent
Ye Ye – Daphni
Baby Baby – Floorplan
Fizic – Cosmin TRG
Unstable Condition – John Tejada  

Your last release, Delicacies, saw you move into a much more techno focused realm then the vocal-led electronica of your earlier work. What inspired the departure from vocal-focused tracks to purely instrumental pieces?

We’ve been DJing techno pretty much exclusively for the last few years, so Delicacies (which is a record label, rather than an album – the album was a compilation of the singles released so far) was conceived as an outlet for us to put out the kind of instrumental techno tracks we played when we DJ. 

You’re noted for being analogue geeks, would you say your purists when it comes to the studio?

I think most people who make music are audio purists to some degree? Analogue synthesis / recording isn’t necessarily about “purity” though, analogue gear leads to more unrepeatable quirks so isn’t “pure” in that sense. Digital equipment certainly has its place – a computer / hard disk recorder gives a much “purer” method of recording than tape, but tape gives you a particular kind of sonics and warmth that you might want to use. 

Do you think coming from a band background affected the way you approached a techno album?

Well we haven’t been in a band for quite a long time now… and Delicacies was never conceived as an album, it was a series of singles really. So we just made one track and then another, without thinking “this is going to be an album”. But it’s a very different process writing in a band.  

What’s in the pipeline for you material wise?

We’re working on our next “proper” studio album at the moment, which is quite different from both the Delicacies stuff and our previous albums. We’ve also just released the first single on Delicacies by another artist, Psycatron & Detroit Grand Pubahs.

You have had the opportunity to play the world over, have you got a favourite city to play in? How do the countries differ in terms of audience reaction?

God… so hard to pick a favourite city! Obviously some places have reputations of being “cool” crowds who tend not to show as much reaction as the more up for it places, but it’s hard to generalise. 

Your heading to the Bugged Out Weekender at the end of January, what can we look forward too?

Techno. 

Are there any acts of the line up you’ll be sticking around to see?

Ivan Smagge, Andy Weatherall, Kevin Saunderson, Martyn, James Holden… so much good stuff! 

What have you got lined up for 2012?

Our album will be out later in the year, so that’s all we’re thinking about at the moment.. some DJ and live shows over the summer probably?

Catch Simian Mobile Disco at Bugged Out Weekender 20/21/22 Jan at Butlins in Bognor Regis alsongside James Holden, Diplo, Chase and Status, 2ManyDJ’S 2 Bears, Erol Alkan, Friction, L-Vis 1990, Redlight, SBTRKT and many more…

For the full info visit http://buggedoutweekender.net/


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