The Young Punx (Hal Ritson and Nathan Taylor) are the puckish agent-provocateurs of the dance music scene, simultaneously celebrating and challenging everything that club culture can and should be.
“The Young Punx are both aptly named and a credible pair of dance music provocateurs in the manner of the KLF†– Billboard
Emerging in 2003 out of the twin worlds of the London breaks scene and Internet mashup scene, the duo gained rapid notoriety for combining stellar club production with flamboyant musicianship and an ironic pop-culture mentality that sought to deliver dancefloor hits while undermining the assumptions about what a dance act should aim to achieve. Propelled by BBC Radio One champions into the mainstream, within 6 months of cutting their first white label The Young Punx were voted bootleg remixers of the year by Radio One listeners, signed to EMI for a 5 figure sum and placed 25/1 for Christmas Number 1 with a disco house track that, in typical cantankerous form, sampled a TV advert in a manner that left everyone unclear if they were taking this all entirely seriously.
Over the following years The Young Punx continued to build their reputation as remixers for the likes of Norman Cook, Scissor Sisters, Tom Jones, De’Lacey and Tina Turner, while releasing a string of tracks that constantly threw wildcards into the clubland scene. Sampling 80s pop hits before “Call On Me†made it acceptable; remaking Mylo’s “Destroy Rock and Roll†as the vitriolic “Destroy Celebrity Crap†– a prescient anthem against the dumbing down of pop culture; collaborating with a young Steve Angello and 80s icon Howard Jones on the same track; adding virtuoso instrumentalists such as shred metal legend Guthrie Govan to electro backings; and constantly striving to push forward the boundaries of mashup music, willfully swapping genres and combining radically different musical forms in unexpected ways.
“Breaks, pop, disco, drum & bass, opera and surf are all thrown in to create a giddying bombardment that doesn’t let up once throughout… a good-time party soundtrack †– IDJ
YOUR MUSIC IS KILLING ME
By the time of the release of their 2007 debut album “Your Music Is Killing Me†(Ultra / Avex / Central Station) The Young Punx could be found in such diverse places as performing live to 15,000 person arenas in Japan and appearing on BBC Newsnight with a house track that sampled the Radio 4 shipping forecast and re-arranged it into a rap. And had a heavy metal guitar solo. And a video by The Mighty Boosh team.
MASHPOP AND PUNKSTEP
Their 2009 album “Mashpop and Punkstep†embraced their mashup roots by constantly combining and morphing genres, and spawned the collaboration with indie Hip Hop don Count Bass D – “Ready For The Fightâ€, which achieved worldwide exposure as the theme music in Fight Night Round 4 game and as the entrance music for middleweight champion Arthur Abraham.
After a stint as Music Directors and live band for Dizzee Rascal’s critically acclaimed BBC Electric Proms performance, in 2011 The Young Punx moved sideways again collaborating with Amanda Palmer and Peaches to make “Map Of Tasmania†a witty and overtly political feminist anthem in praise of freedom of choice in body hair!
Yes The Young Punx may be many things, but predictable and formulaic they are not!
2014 sees the launch of their 3rd album “All These Things Are Gone†an alternately joyous and melancholic journey investigating the themes of the passage of time, and what is accidentally lost from culture in the name of progress. The album is built around the heart of the epic 14 minute title track, which deadpan catalogs over 60 things which are only connected by virtue of no-longer being around any more, against a constantly developing soundscape inspired by the bliss house of 90s artists like The Beloved and St Etienne. Elsewhere on the album The Young Punx find their inspiration by journeying through time and space to different lost eras in music history, recording and producing in those vintage styles using 100% period correct vintage gear, and then ‘sampling themselves’ to make new tracks such as the fierce 70s JazzFunk inspired Harlem Breakdown, and 30s big band carnage of Kowloon Kickback.
Outside of The Young Punx, Hal Ritson composes, produces and performs on over 400 top dance and urban tracks by artists as diverse as Chase and Status, Dizzee Rascal, Black Eyed Peas, Rudimental, Lil Wayne, Nas, Pusha T, Rizzle Kicks, Avicii, Chris Malinchak, Gotye and many more, and Nathan Taylor promotes cutting edge arts projects for Bristol’s internationally renowned Situations. The duo also founded and manage respected record labels MofoHifi and Heavy Disco, home to esteemed producers such asPhonat and Bobby Tank.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/theyoungpunx
http://www.theyoungpunx.com/
https://twitter.com/theyoungpunx