Back in the late ‘90s, James Ford and Jas Shaw were studying biology at and philosophy respectively at Manchester University, while crafting strange electronic music in the spare room of their shared house. Fellow student Simon Lord, a folk-influenced singer-songwriter, caught wind of the duo’s sonic experiments, and along with bass player Alex MacNaughten they formed the band Simian.
They kept making tunes as Simian Mobile Disco but were careful not to take it too seriously, aware that over-thinking their music would be the death of its jubilant, instant appeal. They went to New York to record the vocals of an aspiring singer/rapper called Char Johnson. She freestyled for 45 minutes and SMD edited the best bits into ‘Hustler’, an incendiary dancefloor destroyer that owned 2006, and even got mashed-up with Rick Ross’s coke-rap hit ‘Hustlin’.
They got booked to play everywhere from the Club NME Tour to superclubs like Fabric. They introduced ghetto-tech to the indie kids, played acid to the housed-up hordes, and dropped the theme from ‘Willy Wonka’ at Bugged Out. Everyone smiled. Then danced their arses off.
Up stepped Wichita, home to Bloc Party and Blood Brothers and one of the last truly independently-minded labels out there, to offer Simian Mobile Disco an album deal. Their side-project had become full-time – but James and Jas continued to treat it like a side-project because they wanted to retain the spontaneity. They didn’t want their songs to sound too techy and programmed, so they recorded them all on analogue machines, and kept the mistakes. They tried to emulate the accidental human qualities of the proto-acid producers like Phuture and synth pioneers like Delia Derbyshire, a kind of psychedelic acid wobbliness that can be heard on the menacing ‘Wooden’ or electro sci-fi workout ‘The Theme’.
They called up their old Simian mucker Simon Lord and asked him to sing a swirly, psych-folk vocal on ‘I Believe’, just to prove there were no hard feelings. They roped in Barry Dobbin from sadly-missed jerk-popsters Clor to add his unique vocal hooks to the cinematic space disco of ‘Love’. They enlisted exuberant Go! Team frontwoman Ninja to splatter her sassy hip-house rhymes all over irresistible opener ’It’s The Beat’. They decided to name the album ‘Attack Decay Sustain Release’ because it sounded like a good motto to live by.
All the album’s tracks began life as extended club wig-outs for SMD to play out live, but have been edited down to keep the album varied, punchy and constantly stimulating. The long versions exist on their hard drive and, you never know, they may see the light of day as a series of limited edition 12"s at a later date. ‘Attack Decay Sustain Release’ however, was envisioned as a taut listening experience, not a glorified DJ mix.
