I 
Simian Mobile Disco, but I am forever in love with the late Simian. Now broken up, U.K.’s Simian is the primary focus here (yet, all bases are covered).
Songs and albums which you remember when and where you first heard them are important. This part will be like De La Soul’s Stakes is High intro where everybody talks about where they were the first time they heard BDP’s Criminal Minded. Well, I was a little kid when that one happened, but I sure remember the first time I heard Simian’s ‘Chemistry is What We Are’.
The year was 2001, I was shopping in Union/Stüssy in Los Angeles and the clerk had it resounding through the space on the P.A. and I was floored at how good it was. With a query, I learned it was ‘Chemistry is What We Are’, Simian’s first LP on Source/Astralwerks. I don’t feel like I’m pushing it when I say that I think that this album is the Pet Sounds of Electronic Music.
Here are a few selections from ‘Chemistry is What We Are’:
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MP3: Simian - The Wisp (2001) [recommended]
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MP3: Simian - One Dimension (2001)
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MP3: Simian - Mr. Crow (2001)
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MP3: Simian - Grey (2001)
I can’t claim early adopter status on this group, as they had released an EP in 2000 titled, ‘Watch it Glow’ that included a few tunes which made it onto the LP and are shared above. However here’s another that didn’t, a dark and experimental track that was later re-worked into ‘One Dimension’ for the LP:
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MP3: Simian - In Siam (2000)
Simian released a second LP record in 2002 titled, ‘We Are Your Friends’. I didn’t find it as instantly infections as their prior record (like many other early simian fans), but it did include a enough gems for it to still be considered a great record—namely their first single and video (or more accurately, videos, as there were two alternative videos), ‘LA Breeze’. You can find both videos on Simian’s official site. This song gained much exposure, due to an advert for French automaker Peugot and spawned several great remixes, including mixes by Ladytron and even (OMG) Brian Eno. For more info on how the Eno colab. came to be, see this Vice interview with Simian Mobile Disco who also remixed the track as their first commercial project.
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MP3: Simian - LA Breeze (2002) [recommended]
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MP3: Simian - LA Breeze (Ladytron Remix) (2002)
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MP3: Simian - LA Breeze (Brian Eno Remix) (2002)
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MP3: Simian - LA Breeze (Simian Mobile Disco Remix) (2002)
‘LA Breeze’ seemed to be the standout track on the album, and their second single, ‘Never Be Alone’ never eclipsed it. ‘Never Be Alone’ got a multi-format release and a video (see it on YouTube), but it didn’t gain the exposure that ‘LA Breeze’ did—at least not initially. Enter Justice, who’s remix of ‘Never Be Alone’ has been the (extended) now sound of Electronic Dance Music for 4 years now. Compare:
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MP3: Simian - Never Be Alone (2002)
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MP3: Justice Vs Simian - Never Be Alone (2003)
The Justice Vs Simian story is usually a bit fuzzy, so I’ll try and set it straight once and for all: Source Records and French college radio station Radio Campus Orléans held a contest in late 2002/early 2003 where their listeners and online readership were asked to remix Simian’s ‘Never Be Alone’ (probably sparked by the popularity of ‘LA Breeze’ in Peugot commercials). Graphic Designers turned producers, Justice, decided to take a crack at the contest and their remix was born. At that time, their popularity was nil, because their only prior credentials were playing drums and bass in a Weezer-like Indie Rock band called (also)starring and two production credits on a small French compilation album titled, ‘Hits Up to You’, released by Musclorecords. All things must start small! So Justice wasn’t commissioned to do the Simian remix, they did on their own and on a whim. We all know how the story ultimately ends, with Justice conquering all, but here’s an interesting fact, the winner of the contest for which the remix was created is, drumroll please, not Justice! Justice “lost the battle, but won the war” with a little help from Mogul/DJ/Daft Punk’s manager Busy P, who got ahold of Justice’s remix and imprinted it on his brand-new Ed Banger Records label (release ED002. The song reached new heights when remixes of the remix were served up and re-releases were imprinted on International Deejay Gigolo Records in 2004, (with a title change to, ‘We Are Your Friends’) and the song reached full boil when it was released in 2006 yet again on major label 10 Records (part of Virgin Records UK). Not to mention the video for the ‘We Are Your Friends’ took home the 2006 ‘Best Video’ award at the MTV Europe Music Awards, and acceptance of the award by video director and Ed Banger artist, So Me (with Justice not present) turned into a viral video on the ‘net, because of Kanye West infamously throwing a temper tantrum over not winning the award (watch it). All this just added up to incredible amounts of press for Justice, as the other half, Simian, was broken up by that point and off the radar.
In late 2006, Time Out magazine asked Gaspard Augé (half of Justice, with Xavier de Rosnay) about their ‘accidental’ dance music celebrity and he had this to say:
I think it’s really by chance. [...] Neither of us was into electronic music at the beginning; we just had the opportunity to do this remix of ‘Never Be Alone,’ and then it was played a lot, so we had to follow it up.”
-Justice (source)
It’s nice when artists can try on different hats. Popular opinion told Justice that ‘Dance Music extraordinaries’ looked so incredibly fashionable on them. We like Justice just fine how they turned out! Of course, this post comes in good time to correspond with the release of their debut LP, †, which was just released in their native France and is available for pre-order in the US through Amazon (in both limited edition digi-pack and regular editions).
But wait, back to the contest! if Justice’s remix didn’t win the Source Records /Radio Campus Orléans sponsored contest, then who did? That accolade goes to low-key French Electronic Pop artist Toma. From the these semi-finalist candidates of aspiring producers: #, Farmacid, Folamour Sound System, Frey, Justice, Minious, DJ Roubignole, Tomaclub, Tony Wiek, and Zebra on the Rock, the powers that be chose the ‘Never Be Alone (Tomaclub Remix)’ to be the very best. However, all of these songs were pressed on a 2000-copy promo vinyl called ‘Simian - We Contest!’ (one of these is undoubtedly in Busy P’s crate and the rest is history). Give the winning remix a listen—it’s no club banger, but it’s still a hella good remix:
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MP3: Simian - Never Be Alone (Tomaclub Remix) (2003)
Simian broke up in 2005 and former members Jas Shaw and James Ford went official with their Simian Mobile Disco outfit (of which former Simian members Simon Lord, Alex MacNaghten did not participate). Do we absolutely love SMD, YES! But it’s very different from Simian. From their humble beginnings of the ‘LA Breeze’ remix, and Simian’s promo only ‘Mobile Disco’ mix CD (which you can stream here). SMD have joined the ranks of hottest dance music producers and keep very busy as jet-setting superstar DJs. Not to mention killer original songs, with a debut album, ‘Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release’ which will be released as soon as June 19th. And, just like Justice, available for pre-order through Amazon in both limited edition and regular editions.
Here a sample of what’s on the new SMD album:
MP3: Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler (2006) [recommended]
(MP3 file removed at the request of owning label)
MP3: Simian Mobile Disco - I Got This Down (2007)
(MP3 file removed at the request of owning label)
Now watch the video for ‘Hustler’ on YouTube and try to tell me that being gay is wrong! Those girls feigning to be lesbians makes hetero males (like myself) a lot more understanding. SMD is love.
Also highly recommended is SMD’s recent mix album, ‘Suck My Deck’, which has been getting megatons of rotation at my house: Get it from Amazon.
Ahem, noticeably absent from Simian Mobile Disco is the Simian’s most important voice, Simon Lord! The former Simian frontman took a different direction and is heading the group Garden (of which you can stream their whole debut album, ‘Round & Round’ from Garden’s official site (great!), and buy it from Boomkat). Although not a part the Mobile Disco, every clubber in the world knows Simon Lord’s voice because of the little ditty he sang called ‘Never be Alone’ that Justice make palatable to dance-crazy party people all over the world. Simon Lord turned the club into drunk karaoke night, but I don’t hate him for it, I love him all the more. His recent project that retains the brooding folk element of Simian but still sounds new and different. ‘Round & Round’ didn’t receive anywhere near enough press, so I’m putting up several tracks for the hard sell:
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MP3: Garden - Yours to Hold (2006)
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MP3: Garden - Throw Yourself on the Wind (2006) [recommended]
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MP3: Garden - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (2006)
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MP3: Garden - Yew Tree (2006)
Lastly, Simon Lord has another yet undisclosed secret project with the quietest Simian-alumni, Alex MacNaghten. The project is mentioned on Simian’s official web site, but no tracks or solid information have surfaced yet.
While Simian is dead, long live their fan created MySpace tribute profile and official website, and discography on Discogs. Oh, there’s some great live material over here too. You can still buy Simian albums through Amazon, but their full catalog is harder to come by, as per usual, eBay and Gemm are first places worth checking.
Visit Simian Mobile Disco at MySpace or their official site.
Epilogue: As a incredibly obsessed Simian fan, this post was a catharsis and I hope it’s well received and bandwidth well spent! Thanks for reading.
Nods to blogs: I Was There (Tomaclub’s Manager) and Good Weather for Airstrikes for laying a bit of groundwork before me.
Filed in Music.
. If you want prefer vinyl gemm has the original 12 inch & various 7 inches for sale, some going for 150 plus!
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