The Rotation Sound System celebrates its 10th birthday this weekend. It’s been an honour to have been of assistance to Mind Fair and their extended family of Rogue Cats along the way. The line-up at the celebrations, their annual weekend garden party, is star-studded, and includes Alice Palace, and Kelvin Andrews, while bringing together old friends, and collaborators, such as Stevie Kotey, and the likeminded tribes of Test Pressing, DiY Soundsystem, Wrekin Havoc, and We Are The Sunset. Brummie band, Flamingo Flame, will also perform a set, but topping the bill are Dan Tyler and Conrad McDonnell, The Idjut Boys. 

The pair seem to be undergoing a resurgence of late. While Dan has worked closely with Nick The Record, and Stuart “Chuggy” Leath’s imprint, Emotional Rescue, and Conrad has added his studio magic to sides for old amigos such as Paul “Mudd” Murphy and Phil “Cantoma” Mison, they’ve recently relaunched their own labels, Noid and Droid, and together remixed people like Innovative Leisure’s De Lux for discerning “leftfield” dancefloors. Last week they were on tour in Japan. Like their close compadre, DJ Harvey, live, they never disappoint. 

Now globally renowned, Dan and Conrad began playing in Cambridge, at parties called Pump, before relocating to London, and organizing dos at The Clinic and The Cross. Referencing dance music’s history with titles like Let’s Go Swimming and Phreeek. Alumni of Tonka down south, and the Hacienda up north – as well as The Kitchen in Hulme – they were also Glastonbury veterans, way, way before the festival discovered house. They were week-in, week-out regulars at Harvey & Heidi’s Moist, at Covent Garden’s Gardening Club – dancing and learning – and they formed part of a crowd – of DJs and producers – that had David Hill’s Nuphonic Records and the ethos / sonic aesthetic of Sean P & Dave Lee’s Disco-Not-Disco comps at its centre / heart. Folks, like Harvey, Heidi, Gerry Rooney, Glen Gunner, Ashley Beedle, and Faze Action – brothers Simon and Robin Lee – who were making disco dynamite in the capital’s clubs again. The Idjuts, however, have always employed a trademark super eclectic approach. Totally unafraid to throw a pop curveball onto a packed, frugging, floor. 

Assuming countless aliases, as editors / remixers they reigned supreme (Discogs says 185 and counting). With a string of interweaving imprints – U-Star, Noid, Droid, Cottage, Discfunction… – they championed then unrecognized talents such as Maurice Fulton and Norway’s Erot. They were also kings of the comedy double entendre. I first bought an Idjut Boys record 30 years ago. I have a ton of their tunes on my shelves. Below are just a few standouts, from many, many favourites…

Robert Owens – Was I Here Before? – U Star – 1993

Produced by Adonis and Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, we find fellow house music legend Robert Owens contemplating reincarnation, a continually cycling universe, and our place in it. The fact that we are all made from the dust of stars. A few years later the song picked up a series of remixes that featured work from Boys Own bods Terry Farley, Pete Heller, and Underworld’s Karl Hyde. I’m not sure if Dan and Conrad had any “hands on” involvement, but they put it out, and it’s an under appreciated piece of 4-to-the-floor that was perhaps ahead of its time, and now seems lyrically more relevant than ever. Proper. 

Idjut Boys & Laj – Staeb – U Star – 1996

From the Whoktish E.P., produced in conjunction with Raj Gupta / Ray Mang, here labelled “Laj”. Crazy congas, bongos, and timbales. A righteous rattle rocked, more and more, by dubwise echo. Expertly edited. 

DJ Harvey – Keep On Trying – Noid – 1996

Divine disco from The Idjuts` label, Noid, and their mate DJ Harvey, who tailors the tumbling drums and over the top orchestration of Tenderness` Gotta Keep On Trying. Extending just the song’s short jazzy vamp until it becomes something to get truly lost in. Supported by those spirit-lifting strings, the Fender Rhodes is on fire. Now sounding like one long solo. Building and building, while sort of standing still, brass punches ensure that your body’s moving. When Harv finally hits you with the shouts and screams of the chorus /coda it’ll take the top of your head clean off. Works, absolutely. Doesn’t matter how many times you’ve heard it. 

DJ Harvey / Monsieur D – I Am A Man / Hot Love – Noid – 1996

More mirrorball magic from DJ Harvey, who has a good go at de-camping Macho’s I’m A Man, by focusing on the record’s eccentric percussive electronic breaks. Monsieur D is Dimitri Yerasimos, aka Dimitri From Paris. Bashing together both sides of an obscure Salsoul release, he melts them down into Hot Love. Congas, cymbal crashes, singer, Charo, trapped in an echo chamber. There are bass denotations, synthesizer squiggles, and sliced, serrated strings. Normality seems to be returning as the tune rumbas to rolling piano and flickering rhythm guitar, before being briefly showered in syndrums and widescreen technicolor saccharine.  

DJ Gilb`R – Espece Funk – U Star – 1998

Hypnotizing heads with tiny fragile keyboard figures – courtesy of A Man Called Adam’s Steve Jones – Espece Funk cruises on congas and a grunge-y live b-line. The hook comes in the form of some voice-boxed axe action. A real gift to the elegantly wasted, whacked out, my memory of this is Mancunian guru Moonboots spinning it on a Saturday night, at a party, organized by Paul Murphy, in a pub in Islington, where the motto was “Keep It Carpet”. We all ended up at Cargo afterwards, where the pill that I had leftover from a Faith do turned out to be a Smint.  

Lighthouse Family – Question Of Faith – Polydor / Wildcard – 1998

This is a record that really divided people when it was released. Some shocked and appalled, balked at the Idjuts entertaining a perceived bland, boring, safe pop act (Don’t mention Dido). In my book, however, it’s one of the pair’s most musical moments, and it gets a whole lotta love around here. Balearic Mike recently reminisced / raved about it, and I dug it out to play at The Lizard’s wedding. I first heard the full 13 minutes of Question Of Faith when Ross Allen span it on his then radio show, and I’d stick it in sets next to Toto’s Georgy Porgy. Both songs are forever, for me, tied to an unrequited “muse”, so while it’s soaked in sunshine, the feedback from the delay shaken like a summer shower, personally this is countered by a little sadness, a sometimes tearful nostalgia. Resignation at an opportunity missed, fucked up, over, lost. It’s something about the line, “living the simple life”, that starts me off, since I’ve consciously retreated from the world, and am trying to be thankful, grateful, for what I’ve got. Attempting, monk-like, to cure myself of bad habits and complications.

Fazed Idjuts – Dust Of Life – U Star – 1999

Fazed Idjuts was another collaboration with A Man Called Adam, this time with Sally Rodgers, who supplies the ethereal, sexy siren-like sighs. Simon Lee, of Faze Action, is also on board. Joe Claussell delivered two terrific takes on their Dust Of Life. Both banging workouts, packed with live percussion, and riding a rude rhumba bass-line. One mix is coated in copious Manuel Gottsching-esque guitar – layers of brilliant electric blues and frantic flamenco strum. The other, a feisty latin fiesta, powered by some incredible jazz piano. They might have been made for the Mediterranean sun. 

Maurice Fulton – Up – Discfunction – 1999

Revenge Of The Orange is barmy batucada business. A carnival of cutup, crossfaded, drum rolls, doubled in delay. Organ keys strive to calm the drama, bring order to the chaos, but then a filthy wah-wah guitar shows up, and shreds the song’s second half. Colouring proceedings with its obscene shrieks and shouts. 

A Night At Estudio Copito De Nieve is the exact opposite, and instead a soothing oasis, with a top-end of new age shimmer, and bottomless bass drops. Seasoned with heavenly harmonies, bubbling babbling brooks, and Spanish 6-string picking, it huffs on a hookah, sat between Mo Wax and The Orb. 

All of these 1990 tracks were staples, not so secret I suppose weapons, of my Medicine Bar sets. First in Islington, and then later in Shoreditch. 

Phantom Slasher – Staying Noid – Noid – 2006

While Richard Ace’s original cover of Staying Alive is pretty cool, in my opinion this Idjuts’ edit is a vast improvement. Reversing the time-honoured traditional order, and putting the dub in front of the vocal, they also remove the cheesier bits of Richard’s “reinterpretations” of The Bee Gees lyrics. Staying Noid is lifted from the Phantom Slasher LP, Gruble, which also features re-rubs of George Duke, Peter Tosh, Gloria Gaynor, Roxy Music, and Bootsy Collins. Their rearrangement of Chilly’s For Your Love (now, Lasagne For 10) is my go-to version. 

Phil Collins – I’m Not Moving – Box Office – 2008

Stamping and stomping to a Gilbert O`Sullivan-esque piano groove, this big Balearic end-of-the-nighter blurs the lines of its loops with live-sounding washes of reverb and delay, while its chorus is re-tooled into an anthem of inner strength and collective solidarity. The sort of gear that’ll elicit group hugs, its flipped by Marvin Gaye’s Is Anybody Thinking About Their Living? which at the time was an unreleased outtake from the I Want You sessions. Licked by lush jazz guitar and keys, which gently surround Marvin’s surely stoned ad lib, it’s a soulful sunset / sunrise symphony to rival the classic Where Are We Going? and the recently reissued I Want To Be Where You Are. 

Meanderthals – Andromeda (Idjut Boys Mix) – Smalltown Supersound – 2009

This is the single that promo`d Dan and Conrad’s chill-out project, Meanderthals, and the subsequent album, Desire Lines. It’s grumbling, rumbling, Balearic go-go-not-go-go, reminiscent of Tullio De Piscopo’s Stop Bajon, if played by a nude Benirras beach drum circle. Hare Krishna handclaps helping it on its way.  

Sorry, this one’s not on Youtube.

You can catch Dan and Conrad headlining Mind Fair’s 10th Anniversary Garden Party, which takes place this weekend, July 21st to the 23rd, at Carney Pools, Staffordshire. You can purchase tickets here. Do yourself a favour, and don’t  miss out.