London-based The Young Punx return with a 2-track release celebrating their love of all things disco and bass, collaborating with their close friends and kings of the Italian Turbofunk sound, Birdee (Southern Fried) and Reset! (Cheap Thrills, Dim Mak), with GIRLS LIKE DISCO BOYS LIKE BASS'.

A club-ready disco and bass laden teaser for the forthcoming 3rd Young Punx album, the tracks showcase the flamboyant musicianship of The Young Punx whose brass-heavy funk stylings have previously been heard as the disco band in Dizzee Rascal’s “Dirtee Disco”, as well as performing as the live backing band for Dizzee on the BBC Electric Proms and Glastonbury 2011, and in their legendary 2005 makeover of De’Lacy’s ‘Hideaway’. 

The Young Punx' Hal Ritson explains that the release’s title is derived from a tongue in cheek ‘rule of DJing’.

	“It all started off as a bit of a joke amongst our DJ pals. The joke being men never go out onto the dancefloor first. But, you play some disco and the girls flock to the floor. Naturally the boys follow on then, and if you went bass heavy, the party would really begin to kick. ‘Girls Like Disco Boys Like Bass’ became code for this pattern!  Of course in fact everyone likes both Disco and Bass, so don’t take it too literally!”

Setting the tone for their return you can expect to see more sideways looks at the electronic music scene from The Young Punx in the coming year, including a brand new long-player full of surprises.

The Young Punx emerged in the mid 2000’s as buzz producers, pioneered by DJs such as Annie Nightingale, Eddy Temple-Morris and Judge Jules, famed for their jubilant shredding of genre boundaries, mashing up different dance music forms, retro music sounds and pop culture references with glee, wit and musicality.

Since their 2009 album “Mashpop and Punkstep” The Young Punx have been focussing on developing their label, MofoHifi Records, home to the esteemed emerging producers, Bobby Tank, Phonat & Alizzz. 


GIRLS LIKE DISCO (feat. Birdee)

BEATPORT > http://bit.ly/BoysLikeBeatport /// iTUNES > http://bit.ly/BoysLikeItunes

I've always been a massive fan of Italian turbofunk collective Reset! 

I usually feel one step removed from what other electronic artists are trying to achieve in their music - like I can admire what they are doing, but always feel like their music belongs in some club that I would never go to, or needs to be experienced on some kind of drug that I don't take, or confers association with some scene I am not part of.

But when I listen to Reset! I always feel like I am totally on their wavelength and there is a real alignment of values with the more club-centric end of my own music. I hear an honest and unforced love of a party atmosphere, combined with an understanding of funk and groove that reaches back to the 60s, 70s and 80s.  And also the sense that even if you are listening to a one chord loop, it is being made by a true musician who could compose and improvise with skill, not just being confined to the loops and step programming of a bedroom EDM artist.

I was therefore delighted when I ended up knowing the Reset! team personally (via them being friends with Phonat) and now, after helping each other with a few tracks, we have made our first full collaboration together.

As with the companion track to BOYS LIKE BASS - 'GIRLS LIKE DISCO (feat. Birdee)', this track consists of live playing by myself and members of The Young Punx live collective, recorded over several years, structured and produced by a turbofunk don. But where-as GIRLS LIKE DISCO is a straight for the jugular party track, BOYS LIKE BASS is a little more experimental and exploratory. I love the way Reset! took so many of the parts I provided and turned it into an evolving journey that never quite repeats itself and is always going in new directions.

It's been an anthem in my own sets all year, and I hope you enjoy it now.

BOYS LIKE BASS (feat. Reset!)

I'd totally forgotten about this official remix of Go West's "We Close Our Eyes" we did in 2005. A DJ got in touch asking for it today and it seems to be virtually impossible to buy or find now. This comes from the "Call On Me" era of simple sidechain loops of 80s pop choruses which might be a bit dated now, but you know, you can't keep a good chorus down!

Groove Cutters - We Close Our Eyes (The Young Punx Mix) [2005]

BEATPORT : http://bit.ly/HarlemBeatport
iTUNES : http://bit.ly/HarlemItunes

"Harlem Breakdown" – the opening track from The Young Punx’ forthcoming 3rd album – is a fierce wall of funk guaranteed to get your stink face on.

In true 'Punx' style - mashing up genres and tearing up the production rule book – the act created this track by writing and performing their own take on the virtuoso horn-funk and jazz of 1970s New York. Performed by the punx and their regular live band, the music was recorded entirely on vintage 70s recording equipment for that authentic retro dirt. Then, back at base camp The Young Punx remixed and mashed up their own recording to build a filthy electro stomp like Daft Punk on Tequila and steroids. 

*** Download the sheet music for this track! http://bit.ly/HarlemScore 

(Also... check out Han Hoogerbrugge's crazed mini video for the track : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tBmTSoADJU )

=============
MIXMAG TUNE OF THE MONTH – November
"A straight-up party rocker. The first release from their eagerly anticipated third album comes in the form of a 1970s New York jazz-funk roller which builds slowly, then suddenly unleashes a massive dose of phat beats and bass. Their boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm shines throughout with an underlying organic live feel that's perfect for that party atmosphere. We wait with bated breath for their forthcoming new album out later this year.  9/10" - Mixmag November 2013



Buy / Stream

Harlem Breakdown

Rocoe from Milanese Turbofunk collective Reset! and Body Heat Records gives his own club makeover to The Young Punx funk fueled Frankenstein!

Harlem Breakdown - Rocoe Turbofunk Mix

A Million Stars

"Kowloon Kickback" is a labour of love I've been working on for 10 years now, which has taken so long as it involved writing, scoring and recording a full 1930s swing big band track using all original 1930s recording equipment, which isn't the easiest thing to do!

The full story about how this track came about and was recorded can be found on the upload for the full album version : https://soundcloud.com/theyoungpunx/kowloon-kickback

This version is the awesome club-friendly Gramophonedzie mix which is on Beatport exclusive now. 

I really love DJing this track - it just seems to make everyone on the dancefloor happy and start jumping about! I hope you like it too.

Kowloon Kickback (Gramophonedzie Mix)

Kowloon Kickback is a labour of love that I have been working on for 10 years now that I am delighted to have finally finished. It involved us composing, scoring and performing a full 1930s big band swing track recorded entirely on vintage 1930s recording equipment! It’s not the kind of thing you can turn around quickly on a laptop – hence the timescales.

The track was inspired by a walk I once did through Kowloon night market in Hong Kong, which I was recording on my MiniDisc Recorder (THAT dates it!).
Each stall was playing different music from their stereos, and it was all blending together into a surreal cacophony combined with the 8bit sounds of novelty toys for sale. Suddenly, for about 5 seconds on the recording, something amazing happened where one stall was playing Benny Goodman swing music, one was playing traditional Chinese music and one was playing House music, and they all combined into something bizarrely in time and in key.

At that moment swore I would make an original track that captured that atmosphere. Unfortunately the opportunity to score and record a big band isn’t something that offers itself often or easily. But having played Sax, drums and guitar in swing bands when I was a teenager, I really wanted to give it my best shot. The track concept was composed around the time of our debut album, but it has taken until the past couple of years to be able to record the full band – all on vintage equipment – and mash it up effectively with house elements, Chinese elements and 8bit sounds to create the end effect.

Frustratingly during the track’s 10 year gestation the electro-swing / swing house movement emerged, and I am more than aware that it would have been best to have this track completed a few years ago around the time this was a new scene! But I am hoping this track now stands apart from that sound somewhat via its idiosyncrasies.

The instrumentalists on the recording are the same musicians I have been working with for years, both on The Young Punx tracks and elsewhere, including the genius guitarist Guthrie Govan – more usually heard on shred metal fusion material, here giving a remarkably virtuoso performance in the style of Django Reinhart.  There is a roaring trumpet solo from Neil Waters, a beautiful Clarinet pastiche of Benny Goodman from Roy Castle’s son Ben Castle, and stealing the show, an epic 2 minute drum solo from Rick Hudson recorded, as with the rest of the solos, in one first take.

Though this track is part of an electronic/dance album, this work is obviously willfully focused on its Jazz / experimental elements rather than being a ‘club banger’. So the DJs out there should watch out for the club mix by Gramophonedzie, which irons out my quirks and makes it an unmissable dance-floor weapon… ( https://soundcloud.com/theyoungpunx/kowloon-kickback-gramophonedzie )

Kowloon Kickback (album version)

The Young Punx 3rd album “All These Things Are Gone” is an alternately joyous and melancholic journey investigating the themes of the passage of time, and what is accidentally lost from culture in the name of progress. The album is built around the heart of this epic 14 minute title track, which deadpan catalogs over 60 things which are only connected by virtue of no-longer being around any more, against a constantly developing soundscape inspired by the bliss house of 90s artists like The Beloved and Saint Etienne.


"All you love will always fade away,
We find it in the night, and lose it in the day.
Mountains rise and fall into the sea.
The years roll by, till all these things are gone..."

==========
Clash magazine said: "Soaring expansive production"

"The Young Punx is a forward-facing project, allowing the two to apply a renewed sense of imagination to their myriad influences."

"The Young Punx begin by playfully toying with fluid house rhythms before pushing into experimental realms."

"Sheer Balearic heaven, managing to perfectly capture that 6am feeling on the White Island. Sure, there are nods to the 90s house lineage but the pair add a fresh polish to those sounds, with their irreverence shining through with each percussive snap and sundown note."

Which was nice of them.
==========

And check out the beautiful video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDnJ1kAgNMY&hd=1


Buy / stream

All These Things Are Gone (album version)

Finnish teenager Lenno is one of our favorite young producers and has been since we first heard his stuff a couple of years ago when he was 15. It's particularly cool because according to Lenno he first started producing at all when he heard our first album and saw a production tutorial we did when he was 13. Anyway, now the apprentice has become the master as he's better than us now  ;-).

The original of this track is an epic 14 minute opus that you can hear here : https://soundcloud.com/theyoungpunx/all-these-things-are-gone

But Lenno has done a stirling job of pumping it up into something more Euphoric and club-friendly, as I knew he would.

Extended mix on BEATPORT now : http://www.beatport.com/release/all-these-things-are-gone-club-mixes/1232287

Pre-order single and album on iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/all-these-things-are-gone/id774340891

Also CHECK OUT THE RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING VIDEO at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C22ldoluKA&hd=1

All These Things Are Gone (Lenno Mix)

I made this track 2 years ago now. Its a real pain how long it takes to get tracks released sometimes. I made it around the time that I signed Bobby Tank and Alizzz to my label MofoHifi, and I guess both those artists influenced my thinking in some way - in the combination of uplifting chordal synth work, an 80s/90s revisited sound pallet, and post-dubstep beats. Though of course other aspects of the track are very different to both those artists.

I like the sense that tracks like this give us of an alternative history of music, like one of those Star Trek episodes where you visit earth on a different fork in the time space continuum - one where in the mid 80s people were using dubstep halftime beats!

You may have noticed now that our album "All These Things Are Gone" is focusing on... things that have gone... from our culture and world, and one thing I really miss from music these days is key changes. The key change is just about the most emotionally affecting tricks a composer can use, but these days they have disappeared from most commercial music (apart from going a semitone up for the last chorus of a boy band song) and are 100% absent from dance music. Supersonic changes key relentlessly and willfully - nearly to the point of being a joke, but not quite.  This keeps me happy! (Also see our track "Heart Of The Night" that has the chorus a semitone out from the verse, for a 'light and shade' effect.)

I have great house tempo mixes of this track in from Louis La Roche and Fire Flowerz and I hope to release those during March.

Supersonic

Louis La Roche adds his nuDisco grooves to the dayglo Young Punx smash Supersonic, part of a killer forthcoming remix package including big room turbo funk stylings from Speaker Bomb and Fire Flowerz.

Beatport : http://www.beatport.com/release/supersonic-remixes/1335431
iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/album/supersonic-remixes-ep/id894672366

Supersonic (Louis La Roche Mix)

All I'm saying is, make sure you stick around for the sax solo at 3:20 onwards...

Disco 2011 / Heart Attack

So I just found the original 2005 demo dub version of It Doesn't Stop on my hard drive and it still kicks hard! This version got played a lot on Radio One off an mp3 I mailed in even though it was just a download off forums etc. I always liked the idea that the answer to "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" was "It DOESN'T stop!" and to make a track that just went around and around doing the same thing over and over again without stopping. Maybe that was a bit too meta. It's a thin line between stupid and clever.

It Doesn't Stop (Original 2005 Demo Dub)

*sigh* so i was meant to be working but instead i have mashed up Jerk It Out by Ceasers (/Palace) with Girls On Film by Duran Duran, because *obviously* and then i had to add Jerk Out too because *also obviously*.

Jerk On Film (Duran Duran x Ceasers x The Time)

Supersonic (Speaker Bomb Edit)

A lost episode from the archives! It’s January 2013, and as a blizzard sweeps across London, the talented and charming DJ Mighty Mouse (since tragically deceased) joins The Young Punx deep below London Bridge to play a stellar selection of disco edits and house music while discussing duck sized horses, horse sized ducks, DJ etiquette, pigeon holes full of puffins and dragons having sex with muscle cars. yasss!

remember to subscribe to the podcast to get more episodes : https://podcast.theyoungpunx.com/subscribe-to-podcast/

SUBSCRIBE to show

The Young Punx Podcast ep44. 100 DUCK SIZED HORSES

The Best Of... 2014 - 2024

Wonderland

Electric Stars (Edit)

So imagine a three-way between the Rolling Stones, a dancehall MC, and an electro-house banger... Actually, scratch that — no need to imagine. Here it is.

This is the kind of feel-good culture clash only The Young Punx could pull off.

Front and centre is the larger-than-life Spoonface (aka Elroy Powell), who improvised the vocals in under a minute in the booth. Yes, the man’s been in EastEnders and Star Wars, and he sang the Black Legend hit “The Trouble With Me.” Oh — and there's even a Lego mini-figure of him.

Add to that some swaggering guitars from Rob Harris (Jamiroquai) and drums from Alex Reeves (Elbow), and you’ve got a serious genre-mashing party starter.

“So So Right” is the teaser single from The Young Punx’ long-awaited fifth studio album WPUNX, coming later this year... if they ever finish it.

So So Right

Following their 2023 streaming hit “Kiss Of Life” (3M+ streams), The Young Punx and Lexa Hill return with their fourth collaboration — a soulful summer house track built for sunsets, cocktails, and moments of quiet connection.

“The One With The Flute” is a sun-drenched, laid-back house groove with a twist: soaring, improvised flute solos from internationally acclaimed jazz flautist Gareth Lockrane, layered over deep, warm beats and shimmering textures.

The track also features a powerful spoken-word breakdown by long-time Young Punx collaborator Steve M Smith — a former member of The Drifters — whose rich voice delivers a moving meditation on the power of music to transform:

"Music is the liberation of the spirit... the power to change the world, one note at a time."
Despite a long-running and fruitful creative partnership, Hal Ritson (The Young Punx) and Lexa Hill have never actually met or spoken — their collaboration is a testament to how shared musical instincts can transcend distance and language.

Released on iconic Italian dance label D:Vision Records, “The One With The Flute” offers a feel-good, uplifting experience — the perfect soundtrack for the summer to come.

The One With The Flute

Marking the return of The Young Punx after a two year hiatus, Hal Ritson has teamed up with fellow producer, Thomas Gandey AKA Cagedbaby for Loving You Baby.

Featuring the immaculate vintage soul vocals of DTale, Loving You Baby delivers a declaration of summer haze and heady nights with a fresh and timeless groove that echoes both the pace of underground house, and the atmosphere of Motown and northern soul. 

Having previously provided lead vocals for hits by Sub Focus, Sigma, Philip George and The Chemical Brothers, DTale’s talents are the perfect complement to the track’s restrained uber-cool vibe. 

Since the release of 2014 album All These Things Are Gone, The Young Punx’ Hal Ritson has busied himself co-writing and co-producing behind the scenes for the likes of Duke Dumont, Sigma, Cassius, Flux Pavillion and Katy Perry. 

Gandey’s Cagedbaby project has released numerous singles and an album on Norman Cook’s Southern Fried label. As Thomas Gandey he has released many respected club tracks on labels such as Get Physical, Crosstown Rebels, Suara and OFF. The track is mixed by Grammy award winning mix engineer Wez Clarke.

The Young Punx and Thomas Gandey first met in a Karoake bar in Osaka in 2009 where Gandey managed to kill their laptop by filling it with glitter. They have remained good friends ever since and sometimes release punk records together under a secret alias.


Loving You Baby (feat. DTale)

Loving You Baby

We made this tearaway Drum & Bass banger in 2010  and immediately published it on the Podcast we made that day (Episode 31 - Thong - http://podcast.theyoungpunx.com/2010/05/ep31-thong/ ). However, up until now it has never been released apart from as a bonus track on a Japanese album. So a mere 7 years too late we've released it!

The Young Punx team up with Mike Mago's house label BMKLTSCH for a beautiful slice a classic disco house - SO REAL. Live strings and real grand piano lift the production values of this club classic above the standard sample pack fodder while Sharlene Hector's vocals - just a first take and double track - capture that classic early house spontaneity and soul.

So Real

The Young Punx' debut album throws out the rule book for dance music, creating their own party rock world where the shipping forecast can sit along side a shred metal solo and electro house beats (Rockall); Ragga, drum and bass and surf guitars blend effortlessly (You've Got To...) or the Carpenters can turn into a UFO themed festival anthem (Interplanetary). 

"The sorta record Fat Boy Slim should have made to follow up 'We've come a long Way Baby'. It's phat, funky, quirky and in-ya -face and above all fun... expect this totally absorbing debut to make it's mark on the end of year 'best of' listings" - Update Magazine

" 'Your Music is Killing Me' sees (The Young Punx) jubilantly shredding genre boundaries, swooping like crack crazed magpies to grab their favourite shiny bits with maniacal gusto... The Young Punx are vehemently anti categorisation" - Clash Magazine 

"Talented beat alchemists... Exhilarating stuff" - Music Week 

"The new kings of dance music" - Hard to Find Records 

"My latest discoveries" - Annie Nightingale, BBC Radio 1 

"Love music... Love The Young Punx. It is music that will have you jumping around like a nutter. This Album rocks! Enjoy!" - 10/10 UKCD.com 

"The Young Punx debut album "Your Music Is Killing Me" is winning plaudits and redefining musical cool" - EQ Magazine 

"Breaks, pop, glam rock, disco, drum and bass, opera, and surf are all thrown in to create a giddying bombardment that doesn't let up once throughout... a good-time party soundtrack" - ID Magazine Review

It Doesn't Stop

Fire

You've Got To...

The Young Punx return for their second full studio album, a startling and inventive exploration of the deliberate destruction of genre boundaries in electronic music. Probably the first album in history to have toyed with drum and bass, heavy metal, electropop and cuban timba within the first 5 minutes (!)

"Mashpop and Punkstep" is a vibrant manifesto for the next generation of mashup music. Featuring the epic collaboration with Memphis hip hop Don 'Count Bass D' - "Ready For the Fight" (already heard as the theme music for EA Games "Fight Night 4" and as official entry music for world middleweight champion Arthur Abraham), the J-pop electro disco of SugarCandySuperNova and the Ragga House of "Juice and Gin" the album spans Puccini Opera, Punk rock, hip hop, synth pop, Japanese rock and much more... 

What the blogs are are saying about Mashpop and Punkstep: 

Blastercase - "An epic breakbeat-dancehall-techno-rocking-hip-hop-electro-mind-fuck... Highly recommend grabbing their debut album" Disco Demos - "You You You has easily convinced me to mention the album on my site. It's like a cross-section of contemporary music, totally amazing" 

The Culture of Me - "There is no such thing as a great electronic record; there is in fact only a such thing as a great record. Mashpop & Punkstep is that great record... one of the best "pop" records we've heard in years" 

Trash Menagerie - "Full of surprises and a lot of fun" Extra New Music - "One of the Best Indie Party Albums this year!" 

Funky House Music - "With the release of 'Mashpop & Punkstep' The Young Punx could well have produced the first dancefloor focused, must-have album of the year..." 

Robot Pigeon - "There are certainly tracks that we absolutely adore and will repeat to death" 

Feral Party Kids - "We give this album 41/2 to of 5 stars. Young Punx bring the heat" 

The Docking Station - "A fantastically thoughtful and mind bending ride, as one never knows quite what's next... like you're punched in the face one minute only to be coddled to sleep the next." 

I Really Love Music - "An album that will provide smiles for anyone wanting a simple set of straight to the dance floor grooves." 

Atari Cool Kids - "The Young Punx has put out a storm of thunderous beats and compelling remixed instrumentals their latest Studio Album is a punch to the gut with hard hitting melodies with smooth transitions from track to track."

Ready For The Fight

One Point Five is a "kind of album" The Young Punx released in between their first and second albums - hence the name. Consisting of several new tracks including the hit "MASHitUP", some key remixes from the first album, and collaborations with other artists including Phonat, Supermal, Steve Angello and Howard Jones the album was for several years available only in Japan. However we are now re-issuing an international edition for your listening pleasure.


Mashitup (feat. Laura Kidd)

Rockall (Phonat Mix)

Mohito - Slip Away (Steve Angello and the Young Punx Remix) [feat. Howard Jones]

The legendary Fatboy Slim mashes up The Young Punx' 2007 ragga/surf/big beat hit with some Manu Chau to great effect.

You've got to... (Norman Cook Mix)

The Young Punx is the twisted alter ego of Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum producer Hal Ritson — the man behind 25 billion streams for artists like Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers, Charli XCX, Nas, Avicii, Duke Dumont, and Clean Bandit.

This is where the rule-breaking happens.

A wild collision of house, disco, rock, funk, jazz, drum & bass, and anything else lying around the cultural scrapyard, The Young Punx makes high-energy, high-attitude music that celebrates chaos and creativity in equal measure.

From viral bootlegs and remixes in the 2000s, to festival stages worldwide and collaborations with Peaches, Amanda Palmer, Dizzee Rascal, Snoop Dogg and more — The Young Punx has always been hard to define and impossible to ignore.

Now reloading for 2025 with a new wave of music, animation and genre-defying anthems.
The new album WPUNX is on the way. Stay tuned.

The Young Punx

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