During the years that followed Itch-E & Scratch-E, aka Andy Rantzen and Paul Mac, were at the forefront of a movement quickly gathering momentum. When The Boiler Room was added to the Big Day Out, Itch-E & Scratch-E were there, preaching their beats to the ravers, but importantly, also to the rock kids in Nirvana T-shirts. A cross-pollination had begun. The album “Itch-E Kitch-E Koo” (1992) spawned the single “Sweetness and Light” which became a crossover hit breaking down barriers between the underground and the overground. Then came an ARIA Award for Best Dance Release in 1994, and Paul fulfilled every parent’s nightmare when he thanked the ecstasy dealers in his speech. The song’s deep connection was recently confirmed when it appeared in JMag’s peer-voted Greatest Australian Songs of All Time. Fast-forward 15 years from Itch-E and Scratch-E’s first beats, and, over several beers, the duo re-discovered their creative friendship. More beers followed, and they found themselves in Scratch-E’s home studio making music. The guys were having a ball, so a weekly date followed where they jammed together into the wee hours of the morning. Those sessions can now be heard on their new album, HOORAY FOR EVERYTHING!!! HOORAY FOR EVERYTHING!!! includes the mental “Stretch-E” which is a banging collection of elastic sounds and classic Itch-E & Scratch-E melody. The cheeky mash-up with SCRIBE’s “F.r.e.s.h” has been imaginatively titled “r.e.f.r.e.s.h”. But the first taste from the new album will be the boundary crushing “Other Planets” featuring vocals from New Yorker, MDNA, who Paul met years ago as a Dissociatives fan on tour in Paris. When Paul bumped into him five years later in New York, a collaboration was spawned around a new Itch-E and Scratch-E backing track that blew all involved away. Itch-E & Scratch-E also returned to the stage earlier this year for their first live shows in over a decade. The electro-duo bounced their way across the national Big Day Out delivering their new beats to enthusiastic crowds of old and new fans in the Boiler Room. More shows will follow later this year. HOORAY FOR EVERTHING will be released May 2010 through Ministry Of Sound. |
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