Mekanik Now On Duty

The '80s is often viewed as a period that good taste not only forgot but consciously made a decision to bypass. However, although the music of that decade is often the subject of ridicule – it provided the inspiration for electroclash after all – for every shoulder pad-clad, mullet-sporting New Romantic non-entity, it was also a time when great electronic music started to take hold and it’s this aspect of the '80s that Soul Mekanik, aka brothers and acid house veterans Kelvin Andrews and Danny Spencer, have focused on for their debut album, Eighty One.

“It’s when we first experienced the music that shaped us,” Kelvin explains. “It was the start of post-punk electronic music and there were no distinctions between disco, funk, hip-hop, electro and early house. When we started to record the album, we thought it would have been great to have had a time machine and go back to 1981, knowing what we do now.”
Unlike the opportunists who reference this chapter in music’s past to make a quick buck, Kelvin and Danny have been involved in making and playing music for years. Andrews was the resident DJ at renowned UK club Golden and released a cover version of Derrick May’s ‘Strings Of Life’, while Danny worked as a remixer with Kelvin as Sure Is Pure for acts like Aretha Franklin, Sister Sledge and The Doobie Brothers. Danny also enjoyed a brief brush with fame himself as the vocalist on Candy Flip’s version of The Beatles’ ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and appeared on Top Of The Pops.
“They only asked me to do it because they couldn’t find anyone else,” he recalls. “I was only 19 and was running around with loads of money in my pocket having a laugh!”
However, the brothers’ subsequent brush with fame, when they co-wrote Robbie Williams’ hit, ‘Rock DJ’, was a less positive experience.
“He was a mate of Kelvin’s and he was hanging out in the studio when we were trying to do a track based around Barry White’s ‘Ecstasy’,” Danny says. “While it seemed like a matey situation, when it came down to receiving credits for the song we were pushed out, although it should have been a three-way split. We should have got an agreement down on paper, but my advice is don’t work in pop music, it’s full of sharks.”
Soul Mekanik's debut album is certainly an eclectic mix. Charmaine Baines appears on ‘Basement City’, which boasts the rolling drums of new romantic icons Japan’s ‘Visions Of China’, and which contains the telling line, “we like music and know how to use it”. There’s also the deep electronic groove of ‘Robots’, inspired by the Kraftwerk classic of the same name. Is there a danger that Soul Mekanik could be perceived as producers who have few original ideas and are just skilled at appropriating classic releases?
“We’re not trying to become a parody of our idols,” Kelvin answers. “This album nearly drove us insane. We started off with about 40 tracks and whittled them down to 12: we would have released a double album if we had the choice. Sure, we were inspired by Japan, The Tom Tom Club, and Kraftwerk, but these are acts that always influenced us”
“Electronic music is still at the cutting edge thanks to new technology and, even after 25 years, we haven’t lost our passion for it,” Danny concludes.