The Outlaws on 2 Many DJs, Jive Bunny & Situationism- The English Way

"The definition of Situationism I use is that it's the construction of situations from which there's no going back. It's about continually trying to make sure that you have to go the whole way with no fucking about."

Chatting down the line from somewhere in the West Country squat party scenester turned bootleg agent provocateur Pete from The Outlaws admits he's both unusually interested and informed in being a situationist.

"I did a degree in English and classics and an MA in English and specialised in situationism. The Paris riots, arts and politics together; I did it because I wanted to be able to have the time to find out more about situationism, art and politics," he reveals.

"We're really interested in art and music and bringing stuff like that together with our nights and I suppose this reflects the construct of
situations thing. It's all to do with finding different ways of breaking out of monotony. Most club nights for example, are pretty interchangeable but if you can make new things happen and do stuff in an interesting way then I reckon that's good."

One of the Outlaws' key tricks creating situations is humour and a cursory glance at their website (www.outlawdjs.com) reveals unusually self
deprecating intro to what the band are about.

"The Outlaws did a radio show every Friday night on Kiss 100 which people said was the best thing ever - landing somewhere between Soulwax / 2 Many DJs and Coldcut's Solid Steel. They were also given big features in The Face and Mixmag, so they must be really good," it says.

"The Outlaws played at Glastonbury 2003, nailing Lost Vagueness on the Saturday afternoon. In 2004 they are played the Dance Tent on Friday evening. You should check them out if you haven't yet: The kids go wild everywhere from New York to Ibiza."

The best way to check them out is via their new album Too Many Fools Following Too Many Rules, which came out recently under a cloud of legal issues. Comprising mashup combinations like Dave Clarke and Michael Jackson and Layo/Bushwacka & MC Hammer ("Love Hammer") the breaks dominated album is
similar in spirit to 2 Many DJs though as its title suggests considerably different in its execution.

Skrufff: I understand the album's been due for a while, when did you do the individual tracks, one by one or altogether-

The Outlaws: "A lot of them have been around for a while and the prevailing thought was to put them altogether on one CD. The first one was the Abba one
which we did in 2,000 and the last one was the Donna Summer I Feel Love from 2 years ago."

Skrufff: Dave Clarke called 2 Many DJs Jive Bunny a while ago . . .

The Outlaws: "Yes, I saw that (chuckling). It's very easy to throw stones at things, I think Dave Clarke is fucking amazing though at the same time he's
quite traditional. He's used to the UK dance scene being the classic cultural movement that everybody else in the world follows, with trends starting in England. I think this bootleg thing is quite successful because it's so accessible and that accessibility probably turns him off because I
guess he's still more into hard, serious techno. We like mixing it up because you can draw people towards other kinds of dance music by getting
some pop and melody in there. It's less po-faced."

Skrufff: How do you see mash-up music fitting alongside styles like regular house and techno-

The Outlaws: "I think the thing here is that Dave Clarke is like a bastion of 'serious dance music culture' which was really prevalent in the Nineties
- since the bubble for that burst, dance music in the UK has changed from being a cultural phenomenon to being something more underground, and this means that people react to it in a different way. There is less of an ecstasy centred vibe around now and that means that you can't just go out and play two hours of techno and expect people to react well - especially outside of London. What we do is play 'proper' underground dance music comb Tags

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