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Repackaged and remastered, the Psychonauts’ ‘Songs For Creatures’ remerges as a lost album de-
serving the attention of fans of LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture and similarly angular disco misfi ts.
Childhood friends of DFA’s James Goldsworthy in their native Yeovil, Pablo Clement and Paul
Mogg’s intense obsession with crate-digging saw them hook up with James Lavelle, then head of
Mo’Wax, become residents at his Dusted party, and release cult 12” ‘Hot Blood’, an epic no-wave
track that preceded the renewal of interest in ’80s downtown New York.
While the album’s original release in 2003 received acclaim from their peers, with guest vocalists
including Swing Out Sister’s Siobhan Fahey and Zeben Jameson, lead singer with Mountain of
One, it failed to make the commercial impact the band had hoped, and they split with Clement
joining UNKLE and Mogg moving to Berlin where he has a new band, Boy of Girl.
But now, with the album re-released 1st February on Gigolo Records, Pablo and Paul’s musical
vision is fi nally fi nding widespread accord…
Respected producers, including James Murphy and DJ a bunch of people that hung out there and some really ing music and what could be done, really. Tim was working
Hell, have been infl uenced by your album. Does it feel interesting music. PJ Harvey’s drummer worked there. there too.
like you’re fi nally getting the credit you deserve? “I ran a night once a month, playing with Pablo anywhere “We were into what Money Mark was doing at the time and
Paul: “We’re just happy the album is coming out again. We that wouldn’t kick us out. Then Tim and James Lavelle were Le Funk Mob. They defi nitely weren’t trip-hop. It was just
realised last year that a lot of people were talking about it working with the Beastie Boys in the States and phoned us really exciting; people were playing all genres of music at
but not many had heard it. to say they’d lost all their music. We sent them a couple of the parties.”
“All of our infl uences then seem to be coming back. We mixtapes and it all started from there, really.”
were listening to a lot of Arthur Russell, 99 Records, stuff Does the re-release of ‘Songs for Creatures’ signal a
like ESG and Liquid Liquid, old electro and hip-hop and Nick Your ‘Time Machine’ mix album of Mo’Wax’s catalogue return of the Psychonauts?
Drake. It was quite diverse; we’ve always been into all kinds remains a classic. But why buck the trip-hop trend when Paul: “Pablo and I were best friends from fi ve-years-old so
of music, which I think comes across on the record.” it came to your own productions? we just needed a break from each other. We’re just so busy
Paul: The whole trip-hop genre leaves a bit of a bad taste at the moment we don’t have the time. I’m working on the
What is it about Yeovil that fostered the emergence of a in my mouth. I always felt Mo’Wax was more than that Boy of Girl album, which is a continuation of Moon Unit,
new disco sound? suggested. There were so many interesting people working who had a few releases on Supersoul and one on DFA. But
Paul: “I really don’t know. There’s absolutely nothing going there, like Kudo from Major Force, who was one of our idols. Pablo and I are going to work on some new material in the
on there. There was one independent record shop; apart We went into his studio in the basement of the label and it spring.”
from that there was Woolworths! But that record shop had was an Aladdin’s cave. That was our fi rst experience of mak-
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DJ481.upfront5.1.indd 14 8/12/09 10:17:53
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