Digital Farm Animals Picks Out Old School Bangers

Each one a party favourite...

The first time you hear loud electronic music in a tiny, enclosed space is one of those moments when life changes forever.

It's like your first sip of alcohol, your first draw on a cigarette or the first time you kiss someone. A switch somewhere inside seems to flicker, a light that wasn't there before illuminates a part of your soul you weren't quite sure existed.

Digital Farm Animals has dominated the summer with his single 'True', a bombastic piece of electronics that has no doubt supplied a few 'firsts' of its own.

To celebrate, Clash invited the London-based don to pick out a few old school party bangers.

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Craig David – 'Re-rewind' (2000)

Cheated a bit here (yep, on the first track! Oops!) as it was technically released in 1999 but this was the undisputed club banger of 2000. It brought UK garage to the mainstream peaking at 2 in the charts. What's more, it was the first release on Relentless Records which then went on to release a stream of classics (So Solid Crew '21 Seconds', Daniel Beddingfield 'Gotta Get Thru This', Lethal Bizzle 'Pow').

This track also launched Artful Dodger whose first and only album 'It's All About The Stragglers' was on repeat play for a long time and is probably the only UK garage-routed album ever worth mentioning.

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The Streets – 'Has lt Come to This?' (2002)

In 2002 the UKG scene had peaked and everything started sounding the same. Grime started to emerge as 2-step progressed into darker, sparser and harder-hitting beats like Musical Mob's 'Pulse X'. It drove the whole scene back underground. Then Mike Skinner came with this track and re-invented everything.

It feels stupid to say it now, but at the time it felt so experimental – we'd never heard anything like it before. His raw and emotive spoken word laid over soulful beats that weave between garage, hip-hop, ska and indie rock put him in his own lane and no one has ever come close to mimicking that sound.

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Mylo – 'Drop The Pressure' (2004)

By 2004 UKG was on its legs as its biggest stars had turned their backs on the scene. Craig David had lead the way jumping ship to R&B with his debut album in 2001 as others like MC Romeo had a crack at the pop market teaming up with Christina Milian. There was a new sound about that was catching on – electro! And it sounded like this. Produced by elusive Scottish produced MYLO in his bedroom, it was released just when I started making music at home and also when we started to be able to get into clubs.

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MGMT – 'Kids' (2007)

This tune for me is the April 2007 Full Moon party in Thailand. After hearing it blasted out whilst being amongst 10,000 free-spirited backpackers getting fucked up on a tropical beach where anything and everything was happening – it has always had a particular place in my memory. Electro meets indie in the most magical and mesmerising way possible. Just writing this has got me planning a 10-year anniversary return trip for 2017.

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Kid Cudi vs Crookers – 'Day 'N' Nite' (2008)

By the time this track came out I was at university and had discovered Market Bar + £1 Jaeger Bombs + Mad Electro = Sickest Night Out Ever (every week). It was worth the 48 hour hangovers. It's a tiny underground bar in Nottingham and the dancefloor was rammed from opening to closing as the music was banging. Tune after tune after tune. It got so hot down there that sweat actually dripped off the walls.

Once a tall guy we were with grabbed the huge discoball above the dancefloor and somehow managed to rip it off the ceiling. Luckily it was so dark we managed to ditch it and quietly leave before anyone could notice. That was the one time we left before closing.

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Deadmau5 – 'Slip' (2008)

Is it 'dead-mau-5' or 'dead-mouse'. No one really knew back then. All we knew was, however it was pronounced, this dude was making a strain of progressive electronica that resonated so heavily it was entrancing. It was so electronic, so computer sounding, yet so emotive and sensitive, and unlike anything before. The tracks felt like they could go on forever and never get boring. In fact, I don't think we'll ever get bored of this track.

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La Roux – 'In For The Kill' (Skream's Lets Get Ravey Remix) (2009)

There are remixes… and then there are remixes that cut through and fuck with the original so ridiculously well that everyone forgets that the original ever existed – and this is unquestionably the latter breed of remix. Although I was never really fully committed to the heavily bass-driven dubstep movement, this was a real crossover moment that took the music beyond the genre's previous confines in a way that couldn't be ignored. You couldn't go out and not hear this. Usually several times in one night.

La Roux's haunting vocals sit perfectly on Skream's warm, tension-building, humming bassline. No screeching here – this is where dubstep should've stayed.

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Digital Farm Animals' new single 'True' is out now.

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