To say that 2006 has been a big year for Coldcut, would be one of the world’s biggest understatements! They began the year in fine for4m with the release of their most successful breakthrough to date with ‘Sound Mirrors’ and kept the world more than just a little satiated with a lip trembling list of live dates around the globe. Which included spots on the hottest Japanese, European and American festivals and is about to see the guys returning to bless Australian shores with their trademark audio visual feast as part of the national Parklife tour.

ITM’s Semone Maksimovic caught up with the band’s Jon More to get the juice fresh from the road and talk about dance music’s current preoccupation with searching for the ultimate sub bass sound –which may or may not come from doily collectors!

It’s 9.30am on a cold, blustery morning in downtown London and Jon is just getting started on this morning’s media trail in the lead up to Coldcut’s upcoming Australian tour. The weather outside is really the last of More’s worries, as it’s unlikely he’ll get the chance to indulge himself in any outdoor activity today anyway. As soon as the media calls stop trickling through and jamming up the line, he’ll be heading into the studio, where he’s likely to remain until the wee hours of the morning. As he continues to work on putting together an 18-musician tribute show for Stevie Wright’s 70the birthday celebration on October 7 (just days after their return from our warm Spring shores). “It’s going according to plan so far, but we still have a lot of work to do before we come on out to Australia” notes a half-exhausted More on their progress with the project so far. This project is only one of the things that reigns high on Coldcut’s ‘to do’ list before Australia.

Another task sitting high on that list is their appearance on this weekend’s Reading Festival bill (which was set to happen two days after I spoke with More). “We can’t wait to get back to playing good old English festivals.” It seems that festivals the band have encountered abroad, like Coachella for example, just don’t offer the same mud-slinging mayhem as they do back at home in Britain. “Don’t get me wrong” clears up More, “Coachella was great! But the crowds were a little too well-behaved for my liking, not quite as trashy as us loud Brits. I really think that they [Coachella] should think about roping off an area next year, to recreate the mudbath of a British festival experience” he laughs.

With Reading just a little over 48 hours away, More is looking forward to their early 5pm timeslot in “a funny little tent”, which will leave the guys with lots of time up their sleeves to get a little trashy themselves and take in the festival’s surrounds. “I’m actually really looking forward to seeing Slayer live” he admits, “I’m not a diehard fan or anything, but I’d be interested to see if they can still rock out after all these years, now that they’re all a little older and tamer. I hear that one of them is a fulltime flower arranger, taking pride in his magnificent arrangements and one of the other guys also has quite an impressive doily collection” he laughs whole-heartedly (secretly hoping that neither of the two members in question read this and kick his arse!)

When quizzed about why he thinks artists on the electronic scene are currently taking great joy in rediscovering their heavy metal pasts. More puts it down to the endless search for the ultimate sub bass sound and their obsession with successfully incorporating that into their own electronic-based sound.

Speaking of the endless journey in search of the ultimate sound, it seems that from reports, Coldcut have indeed managed to nail it with their sound and impressive live show this time round. “We’re well practised now” admits More in a non-fussed tone about their live achievement. “We haven’t really stopped since our first show [for the year] at Electroglide in Japan. So we’ve had a lot of time to learn what’s working and tweaking it with a quick electronic prod to perfect the parts that aren’t.”

With satisfied audiences of 30,000+ (at Balfour) and 15,000+ (at Lovebox), it stands to say that their current live set up is indeed functioning as a ‘well-oiled machine’. “There are four of us onstage now, with a shit-hot turntablist and we’ve also got the audio visual trigger down to a perfect artform now. So Australia can look forward to the full rock & roll experience! We’re having a lot of fun doing the show lately, so hopefully Australia will be ready to rock and join in the fun!”

Catch Coldcut ripping apart dancefloors around the nation on their nights on tour and possibly searching for the perfect doily to add to their new collection on their days off the Parklife tour:

Sat Sep 23 – Parklife, Melbourne
Sat Sep 30 – Parklife, Brisbane
Sun Oct 1 – Parklife, Sydney
Mon Oct 2 – Parklife, Perth