Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, Roger S, Armand Van Helden, Robbie Rivera, Todd Terry, MAW, Neptunes, Timbaland, Massive Attack, Burger King, and your mom!
Honestly... We love your mom!
Check us at Republik Nightclub in Toronto every Saturday night.
www.republiknightclub.com
Sound Bluntz
It's no mean feat to score a Juno award for your very
first song, much less take home a second "Canadian Grammy" the
following year for your sophomore single. But The Sound Bluntz'
rapid-fire success only whet the duo's appetite for an even bigger
challenge--bringing dance music back to old heights with their first
full-length Blame The Bling.
Swet and Lil' Pete
have been staples of Toronto's competitive nightlife
scene for well over a decade, whether spinning in the city's biggest
clubs or producing and remixing a solid set of booty-shakers.
Cory actually started out as a battle DJ in the mid-80s--an interesting
choice for the young teen considering his mother is related to
legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, his great-uncle worked with
Dizzy Gillespie, another uncle played saxophone alongside Edwin Starr
(on "War," no less) and Cory learned to drum by jamming with yet
another uncle's funk band in his grandma's basement.
But once techno and house music spread out from Chicago and Detroit, Cory became
instantly hooked. The 18-year-old soon joined up with Chris Sheppard, a
Toronto radio DJ who helped spread electronic dance music throughout
Canada thanks in no small part to Cory's considerable influence. Though
the young DJ/producer was behind-the-scenes, Cory proved instrumental
in Sheppard's rise, mixing his syndicated radio show and dance
compilations (such as Pirate Radio Sessions) and co-producing several
of Sheppard's dance tracks (including the BKS hit "I'm In Love With
You").
"I immersed myself more into production because it was the
future for me to go to. I figured there's got to be more to it than
this. I knew I had the ability, I just needed the opportunity," Cory
says.
Using aliases such as Legion Of Boom, Laya, Lost In Vegas and
Cory Ca$h, he was soon producing his own club bangers as well as
remixing the likes of trance star Ferry Cortsen and house hero Armand
Van Helden.
But the stakes were raised after joining forces with
Lil' Pete. Needless to say, his nickname is a misnomer and Pete was
sizable enough to start clubbing by age 15. He soon jumped on the
Technics and then got into production. "I started out with a little
ghetto set-up in my bedroom," he recalls, "that's how everyone starts
off, right?"
Pete used to run Canada's number one DJ record pool
Bombs N Bass and those industry connections led to considerable remix
work, including TLC and System F. It also prompted a call from Cory in
2002 to collaborate on a beefed-up remake of Michael Jackson's all-time
classic "Billie Jean."
"Whamm-o, it won the Juno," Pete says proudly. "We brought it home on that one, it was the craziest feeling."
Like Tiga's "Sunglasses At Night," this dancefloor revamp was smash across
Europe, licensed to about 30 official compilations, including several
Ministry of Sound mixes (which sold a combined million copies) and
countless bootlegs.
"The reason you do a remake is that it's
already been a hit. You already got a few steps ahead," admits Pete.
"But with 'Billie Jean' a million people tried to remake it. We did it
properly. There's a difference."
In 2004, they brought it home again, becoming the first dance act to win back-to-back when the Juno for Dance Recording of the Year went to SB's "Something About You,"
originally recorded by English new wavers Level 42.
Since then, The Sound Bluntz have done the odd remix (The Ceasers' iPod hit "Jerk it
Out," Beastie Boys' "Triple Trouble) but mostly they've been busy
writing, arranging and recording their album debut.
The title of their floor-filling first single "(Maybe You'll Get) Lucky" proved
prophetic when they were able to collaborate with Australian pop star
Cheyne Coates (the former lead singer of Madison Avenue, the dance duo
behind global hit "Don't Call Me Baby") whose vocal style had initially
inspired the song.
They were similarly fortunate on their laidback
lead-off track "Lovely." The boys wanted somebody like Larry Braggs of
famed funk band Tower of Power to sing amidst the horn-drenched house
beats. So that's exactly who they got.
The album also continues their M.O. of updating old-school hits, include a heavily-filtered
foot-stomping take on The Cars' "Just What I Needed" and an
electrifying dance-rock romp through "Stepping Stone" a Paul Revere and
the Raiders' song popularized by The Monkees and later the Sex Pistols.
For the most part avoiding samples, Pete and Cory instead brought
in live horn players, bassists, organists and guitarists to be recorded
and rearranged alongside their battery of beloved analogue synths
(808s, 909s, 303s and the newer Roland XV 5080).
As befits any proper artist album, Blame The Bling crosses genre boundaries, offering
up chilled downtempo tracks, vocal house edits and even some comic
relief (hopefully techno heads have a sense of humour!)
Meanwhile, the clubbier electro, dance-rock and tribal tracks were first
floor-tested by Lil' Pete at Tdot hotspots like Tonic and the new
superclub Republik--"Any club I play 'Stepping Stone' in, I swear to
God people go nuts screaming, hands in the air."
Now they're working on spreading that same excitement outside the club district, where hip-hop still overshadows dance.
"Everything
goes in phases and right now the big thing is urban, hence Blame The
Bling," Cory says of their album title. But don't take their accusation
too seriously-- the SBs did whip up the hip-house track "Treat 'em
Right" with Chubb Rock's original 1991 vocals. "Hip-hop was a lot more
fun back then. There was no beef. Even the gangsta stuff was funny."
Of course, with a name like Sound Bluntz, the boys could easily be
mistaken for a rap act themselves, but Cory notes the clean-living duo
chose their nom-de-dance for a very specific reason.
"What's a blunt? What's sound? We are the high, you follow me? We're not taking the drug. We are the drug."
-30-
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