The Bang Gang Deejays - Members Of The Gang
Sydney outfit The Bang Gang Deejays are one of Australia’s most successful dance exports and they’re back on the shelves with their sophomore mix-CD, D Is For Disco, E Is For Dancing. Beat master Jaime Doom chats with 3D’s Matt Unicomb.
The Bang Gang Deejays have, in many ways, changed the face of Sydney’s club scene. Their raucous DJ sets gave birth to a new generation of club kids: whatever the Bang Gang Deejays liked they bought. Their infamous Bang Gang party nights at Club 77 reached beyond cult status to become legend. The Bang Gang Deejays have toured the world, and have hence cemented their place as one of Australia’s most successful dance exports. They are the real deal.
Under the local trendsetting Modular label in 2007, Light Sound Dance was born to rapturous, metaphorical applause. For the first time in Australia’s musical history Australian artists released a credible and well-financed mix-CD glorifying underground electro, fidget, and thrash disco. All of a sudden these genres were ‘cool’. Now the latest instalment in the Bang Gang saga has been released – D Is For Disco, E Is For Dancing, featuring a more developed and attentive track selection than its predecessor and channelling the maturing side of the outfit.
“This time around we were more considering,” Jaime Doom explains. “We learnt a lot from last time. We’re dealing with 70 tracks that we can use, and to get 70 songs you [apply for licensing] for about 140. Last time we were like ‘Here’s all the songs we like – licence them’, without really thinking about the whole process.”
The diversity of D Is For Disco, E Is For Dancing is perhaps its biggest drawcard. It is the definition of ‘without genre’. This is, however, nothing new to the Bang Gang experience. “For us it’s always been odd to not do that, he notes of the group’s cross-genre ethos. “I mean, I like Baltimore, but to hear someone play Baltimore straight out for two hours would be intensely fucking boring. I love French noise, I love fidget, I love Baltimore, but to me they only work when you mix them up. I’d never pick two fidget songs in a row – it completely sucks the impact out of both of the songs. To me it doesn’t make sense not to play all over the place. It’s just the way we’ve always done it.”
One would assume that this approach to dance music is not without musical jeopardy. As much as someone may love electro, or fidget, or house music, many would prefer not to see the styles mashed together. “Our style tends to be risky when we play it out,” Doom notes. “Kids either love it, or they fucking hate it. Sticking to a groove is easy for kids to understand – especially the more mainstream crowd.”
This groove translates to several views on the Sydney club scene at present. The groove is regarded by many as a rut, with some of the city’s promoters simply sticking to what they know.
“I don’t think the Sydney scene is amazing at the moment,” he muses. “I’ve always thought that in Sydney the problem has been the lack of venues. When there’s a lack of venues, there’s a lack of different, interesting nights. We’d do more parties, but it’s just like ‘where the fuck do we do them-’”
WHO: The Bang Gang Deejays
WHAT: D Is For Disco, E Is For Dancing through Modular / Universal / Play onelove at Tank / Mean Fiddler / La La Land, Byron Bay / Onefiveone, Wollongong / Cremome Hotel / Academy, Canberra / Dirty Secrets, Penrith / Selina's, Coogee / King St Tavern, Newcastle
WHEN: Out now / Saturday 1 November
MORE: myspace.com/thebanggang