They're the teenage DJs and producers with a sound grasp of the mechanics of melodic, soulful dance
Hometown: Lancaster.
The lineup: Adam Kaye and George Townsend.
The background: Bondax are two 19-year-olds from Lancaster - home of the (funky) drummers from Lush, Hard-Fi, Maximo Park and 3 Colours Red - who for the last year have been gaining a reputation for their light and breezy garage/house-tinged pop and soulful electronica. And if that makes them sound like the northern Disclosure, you're right. No, not Northern Exposure - that was a US TV series about a doctor in Alaska. They've supported Basement Jaxx, toured America, Canada and Europe and had the right sort of across-the-board radio play, and not just from specialist dance shows. Like the Lawrence brothers they have emerged insidiously, with coverage on blogs and a strong presence on the Hype Machine Most Popular chart.
Their music isn't bloggy and mysterious, though. It's melodic, slow-to-midtempo, commercial soul-dance music, smooth and well-produced, with vocals to the fore. The names of the singers haven't been telegraphed on their releases to date, which is fine because these aren't showcases for powerhouse performances; rather they are examples of pop-dance productions where the song as a whole is the thing, not any individual part. They've obviously spent time honing their brand of perfect pop, having spent several years messing with computers in their bedrooms to create - craft - the right sort of emotional but chilled melodic grooves. Townsend grew up listening to his dad's John Martyn records before being introduced to dubstep by a cousin, which piqued his interest in electronic music of all kinds. Kaye was into indie and rock but soon "gravitated to those acts with a tendency to sonic experimentation, with Bon Iver and LCD Soundsystem being particular favourites", according to the duo's press release. Trips to clubs using fake IDs allowed for a valuable exposure to the dance sounds du jour, but what Bondax are doing, they say, is ignoring a lot of what they learned. The feel and melody of their tracks may be in keeping with what's popular, but the pace of their downtempo disco is uniquely Bondax.
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Their new single, Giving It All, is a typically Bondax affair. It's smart, grown-up soulful pop, seemingly the work of seasoned, veteran producers who know just what boxes to tick and what buttons to push for maximum joy. The anonymous singer is a slightly more conventionally soulful Aluna Francis, less sugary (and we love sugar), but it works. Their previous single, and the one that got them all the attention, was Baby I Got That, all handclaps, cut-up vocals and slow-filter-house techniques, its sample of the Gap Band's All of My Love showing where Bondax were coming from and where they were going. To be filed next to - or indeed mixed into - Mantronix's Got to Have Your Love.
The buzz: "Be prepared to check for a pulse on anyone not moving to this infectious summer tune."
The truth: They're the northern Disclosure.
Most likely to: Go down a bomb.
Least likely to: Fly a Lancaster bomber.
What to buy: Giving It All is released by Relentless on September 22.
File next to: Disclosure, Duke Dumont, Krystal Klear, Flight Facilities.
Links: soundcloud.com/bondax.
Monday's new band: Chris Grant.
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by Paul Lester via Music: Electronic music | theguardian.com
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