While it’s hot

>> Datarock transcend ephemeral trends but
stop to take the piss along the way

MIX US, DJ: Datarock

by JACK OATMON

Since 2000, over the course of 330 shows in 17 different countries, Norwegian duo Datarock’s live act has featured up to 32 people, from a marching band, dancers and a men’s choir to heavy metal musicians and jazz instrumentalists. Datarock’s Fredrik Saroea explains how a bargain-bin gag became their tune “New Rave Anthem,” in the tradition of the branding of the genre itself.

Fredrik Saroea: We went on this NME tour with Klaxons, Shit Disco and Simian Mobile Disco. Well, just before that tour, you have this term pop out of nowhere, which was “new rave”—

Mirror: —that got invented by Klaxons and NME, as far as I understand it.

FS: You got it. Then I was just walking around one of the cities and I passed by this second-hand charity store, and in the window I saw this toy called Mix-Me DJ. It’s like a preprogrammed sequencer with built-in rhythms and a collection of sounds, and in a few minutes, I had made that song. So I went on stage and said, “I made the new-rave anthem,” and I played the song on that little toy.

M: So you made the song as quickly as the media invented that term. Did people like it?

FS: The weirdest thing is that people like it. I don’t know what we should gather from that! That’s the problem with stuff like this. When you have a new thing, you don’t exactly know what to compare it to. And the kids eat it up, obviously, because they want the newest thing around. But I actually don’t dislike being associated with it. Because now we’re doing excessive touring and I’ve gotta say one thing—of all the different crowds you can play for, the crowd that comes to that kind of show is just the best to play for. It is 2007 and a lot of bands are just too orthodox, too conservative, and I think what’s happening with these bands is that it’s a nice mix of so many different aspects of music culture. So hopefully what Datarock is doing is transcending these ephemeral trends.

With CSS at la Tulipe on Sunday,
June 3, 9 p.m., $18