Are you sick of hearing upcoming live dance acts compared to the Chemical Brothers? Y’know, the hyberbole that touts new dance acts as the next big thang. The beauty of Bionik World is that they aren’t much like the Chemical Brothers. Yet they have a lusty widescreen approach to breaks, house and tek that Ed and Tom fostered early in their careers.

It may seem a little naff comparing up and coming Melbourne artists to such accomplished cats. I disagree. Reasoning? Bionik World have realised and released their debut album Preset 001 and here's the mail kids : it has crossover appeal that would get a retirement village rocking. Great Auntie Mildred was last seen breaking the 15 kilometre per hour speed limit in her Fisher and Paykell motorized scooter. Officially, their music is regarded as ‘nu filth funk'n electro disco dirge’. Just stumbles off the tongue, doesn’t it.

My People Will Call Your People

Caine Knight and T-Rek are the creative duo behind Bionik World’s lush 78 (!!!) minute ouvre. The album takes in a ridiculous 15 tracks and has a crack at just about every respectable musical genre you can poke your sneakers at.

Using their ‘people skills’ they brought an admirable cast of extras to record in the Bangs Bunker studio, where they illicit-ed all kinds of party favours. Musical ones. Blue MC, Dan Hinton, Natalia Lake, Davarj Thomas (pre_shrunk), Hans Dirty, Victor Rijken, Stevie B (No Doubt), Kabunka and DJ Flagrant dropped in and bopped in with their talents.

New Zealand singer/rapper Blue MC appears on three songs; by a stroke of sheer luck. “She was coming down here to sing on someone else’s album, they flew her down here, so she did one track with them… and a few tracks with us which was cool. She’s an amazing vocalist and rapper as well," declares Caine. The guys have improved their production smarts over the last year fiercely, shaping remixes and productions for 'Something for Kate', 'Hamish' and 'pre-shrunK’.

Bionik World take a hands-on approach with musicians that, frankly, has had them in trouble with the law before, but we won’t go into that. To rephrase, the boys insist on using live instruments. After all, they have tidy musos practically squatting on their premises. “It helps when you’ve got three bass players circulating around our studio. They’re probably about the best bass players in the country,” T-Rek attests, with the distant echo of backslapping. Bass bunnies Hans Dirty, Kabunka and Davarj Thomas show their skills on several of the best cuts from the album – Kabunka in particular notches up a red hot performance on Get It Off, emancipating a languid, strutting bassline under DJ Flagrant’s b-boy steel-wheeling and Stevie B’s braggadocio rhymes.

Victor’s Song features a vocal sample of a gringo crying for mercy while getting his ass beaten to a pulp. So it’s no surprise that to capture this soundbite it was necessary for Bionik World to find a gringo and do just this. Almost. “That’s actually a mate of ours. He’s a Mexican/American,” confirms Caine. “We got him in the studio and he just wouldn’t say a thing. T-Rek just molested him and that’s where the vocal came from. He started throwing him round, smacking his headphones off.”

Don’t Be Latex

Bionik World’s original plan was to release their album through Shock via Rubber and bail overseas simultaneously. But that would be a bit loco, considering Triple J are spanking Schwingin' on middle rotation. “It’s changed a bit now. Because we put so much effort into the record it seems to be worthwhile sticking around here for a while. We’ve put the overseas plans on the backburner,” relates T-Rek. “We weren’t gonna wait for Triple J to pick it up but they jumped on it three weeks before it even came out.” The good people at Rubber Records used their secret handshake on Richard Kingsmill and he was convinced.

Initially, BW was simply going to release an EP through Rubber, but that ballooned early in the year and suddenly Rubber “wanted an album. It was their call,” Caine reports, sounding very happy to go along and ride the ticket. Rubber Records are not the most affluent in the country, but goddamn they have good taste! Their pet projects also include 1200 Techniques, Offcuts and Oscillate and For this reason, the BW cats have had to, according to the CD booklet, use equipment that was “borrowed, stolen and hijacked.” That’s right, they did it “basically off our own bats. A lot of the time was spent mixing it down. Neither one of us are officially sound engineers.” They are now.

Logic kicked in and the boys realized going overseas while on the brink of stardom would be a little, well, silly. Now they are gearing up for their monstrously big show at Teriyaki. A national tour will follow, with grand dreams of taking Blue MC with them, if someone reading this article wants to fund her magical mystery tour. “It took us so long to find the right vocalist. We always wanted to have a female vocalist on ‘Party Favours’ and we hadn’t found the right person. Missy Elliott wasn’t returning our calls.”

Putting the Gerr back in Schwingerr

Schwinigin is a stomping little number that conjures up images of P-Funk on (more) amphetamines. “’Play It Hank’ is an old vocal that was used by members of James Brown’s band when they were playing,” quips T-Rek. The cheeky grab ushers in an avalanche of saxophonic jazz-funk. Who cares who Hank is? “We’ve got heavy 70s funk influences – there’s no programming on that,” Caine contends, pointing out just how organic the album is.
So with the 70s phonk comes the tit-flicks and wacka-wacka basslines. And of course the token exchange student. In Bionik World’s case it comes in the form of Natalia Lake, a Polish nymh who supplies ‘sex rhymes’ on ‘Ride The Ticket’. “She was very drunk, speaking dirty in Polish. We randomly chopped it up and put it back together. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s funny that the first words in it are French.” ‘Ride The Ticket’ is perhaps the strongest moment on the album, blending the sleaze of Fischerspooner with a midnight stroll down an Amsterdam alleyway.

And speaking of sleazy, one piece of their equipment was used as a pawn in a poor man’s career. “The borrowed computer was probably the most important thing,” says Caine, also speaking fondly of the majority of ideas born live using their trusty Akai MPC and Pioneer 600 DJ console. So whaddya mean ‘borrowed’? ”A mate of ours bought a new computer to do an engineering degree and lent it to us the day after we bought it… and we had it for three months. He now works at the Daily Planet (howls of laughter). He’s like the towel-boy!”

Insert 12 Inch Joke Here

Our local selectors have been giving Bionik World full support throughout their short ascension. The likes of Luke McD, Boogs, Ides, The Hound, Nick Thayer and Akme have been throwing assist passes their way since the pair arrived as producers. Thankfully, the vinyl bizzle is being pressed for some fresh shizzle. “We’ve done a 12 inch that’s going to be out in two weeks. It’s got remixes from Dee Dee who did ‘Party Favours’, Ransom has done a cool mix of ‘Welcome To Bionik World’. Nick Thayer has done a remix of Schwingin’ that’s getting played on Triple J.” Natch. Tune your lobes into Preset 001 and you will see these brothers have chemistry.

Teriyaki is set to crank this Friday at Room as Bionik World step up to the dinner plate supported by ubertekfunkateer Steve Law and the mysterious charm of Nick Taylor.

P.S. The Abbey Road cover-photo made Caine nervous. “It’s nerve-racking when you have to synchronize walks. It was 11 o’clock in the morning and I’d had a coffee and I was thrown straight into this traffic in Elwood.”
P.P.S. Bionik World would also like to thank Gary Coleman.