Before there was the instant party Simian Mobile Disco, there was the experimental electronic rock band Simian, yet remixers/producers James Ford and Jas Shaw saw the inception of both, knocking down the doors of the electronica scene while spinning some of their classic sweat-worthy trance-dance music that has kept the masses grooving on the club scene for the past decade. Simian Mobile Disco has gone from side project to main squeeze in the electronica realm over the past several years, and Ford and Shaw's experiences with other artists and projects have made their own duo shine in the spotlight of dance floors across the globe.Englishmen Ford and Shaw first met in the 1990s when they both attended Manchester University, experimenting with electronic music in the spare room of their shared house. Musicians Simon Lord (singer/songwriter) and Alex MacNaughten (bass) both caught wind of the duo's music, and together the quartet became known as the band Simian. Simian breezed through the late ‘90s with a conventional electronic sound, but Ford and Shaw split up the band in the middle of a long U.S. tour, thereafter working together to DJ at small venues, playfully calling themselves Simian Mobile Disco. Eventually the name stuck, and Ford and Shaw started pumping out streaming electronic up-tempo tunes that were quickly snatched up as party anthems.By the mid-2000s Simian Mobile Disco had launched a full-frontal attack on the techno music scene, first by releasing the stellar 2007 album Attack Sustain Release that landed at number 11 on the electronic charts and continuing with electrifying live performances. 2008's Fabriclive.41 has since followed, and the hypnotic duo has continued recording hit music together while also taking on side projects individually; Ford has even produced albums for Mystery Jets, Klaxons and the Arctic Monkeys over the past few years.
