Dirty Beats Are Back

The Dirty Beatniks first appeared half a decade ago, dropping their debut EP, Bridging The Gap on Wall Of Sound in 1995. A fusion of funky breaks and house music's locked-on sensibilities, The Beatniks became one of the key acts in the development of the much-hyped and often misunderstood big beat sound. A couple of EPs and a well-received album, 117 In The Shade followed, and the boys hit the road, playing all over Europe at festivals and super clubs alike. Then they disappeared. In the meantime, the big beat scene overheated and imploded, a result of too many column inches and more than a fair share of chancers jumping on the bandwagon, its main proponents moving on to make dark, twisted house music: witness the current work of Jon Carter, Cut La Roc and Midfield General. Now The Beatniks are back, with a brand new album, Feedback, and a load of funky, punky attitude to back it up. Hot Press caught up with Dubliner Neil Beatnik.

So, Neil, where have The Dirty Beatniks been?
"It sounds like a cliché, but we went on a personal voyage of discovery. There was quite a gap in releases because we spent a lot of time touring. That was all quite exciting, but we got to a point where we wanted to do something with a bit more depth. It took us a while to find a vocalist, and writing an album took a year of our time. Throughout last summer and winter, we were locked away in the studio, which gave us a chance to do something different. Now we're trying to re-acquaint ourselves with society and we're learning how to behave in public again!"

Apparently some of the founder members of The Beatniks have jumped ship. Can you tell us what happened?
"Originally, The Dirty Beatniks was three people, me, Rory and a guy from England called Justin who dropped out of the band three years ago, leaving just me and Rory. We started working with Mau, our vocalist, about a year ago, and at that point Rory decided to leave the band. He decided to go a different way with guitar-based music and explore that direction more, something I have total respect for."

How did you hook up with Mau? He used to sing with Earthling.
"Yeah, that's right. We were looking out for vocalists — there were so many people we didn't want, and Mau just surfaced out of nowhere and contacted our label. He had a vision of seeing our name, came back to London and made enquiries about us! It all fell together pretty well, so we decided to do a whole album together."

How did Feedback come together? It's quite a raw-sounding and emotionally honest album.
"Yeah, it was made on a fairly rudimentary set-up, just two of us in a room. All the vocals were recorded on a crappy microphone. It's pretty rough stuff, but we thought it had a nice, genuine feel. The lyrics come from experiences we've had from having been around a bit. It's definitely a case of having had a few mad years and reflecting on it and having the confidence to put it onto a record."

At the same time, the single, "Disco Dancing Machine" has crossover potential. Would you agree?
"The single is definitely the poppiest thing we've ever done, but it's not going to make sense to the masses. I wouldn't honestly expect anything to crossover: I don't see it as being the next Moby because our stuff has too much of a raw, uncompromising feel."

Finally, what do you make of your peers — Jon Carter, Cut La Roc, Midfield General — making house music nowadays?
"I can understand it. All the people you mentioned, the stuff we were all doing at the start was a reaction against a boring, monotonous situation in dance music with plodding house music. We were fired by that, and it became an alternative scene, but, within a few years it had turned in on itself. When that movement began it was exciting — it gave us our first outlet in music, but I don't think the calibre on a musical level developed that well. House music offers a more timeless framework to work in. The big beat thing had a shelf life, unless someone does it spectacularly well now it's not of any interest. You have to keep on moving."

Feedback is released on Wall Of Sound on July 24th.