Who's Afraid of Detroit?
Catz 'n Dogz is the duo of Grzegorz 'Greg' Demiańczuk and Wojciech 'Voitek' Tarańczuk, both DJs and producers of electronic music. They are from Szczecin, where they met and began their music career. In 2003, they played Szczecin ABC radio, and after work they organized small events focused on modern dance music.
They initially went by the name 3 Channels, under which they released their first songs. Their music has appeared on European labels, beginning with Trenton Records, before releasing material with Crosstown Rebels and Trapez Ltd. Their early songs are much more raw then their current efforts, which have moved in the direction of hypnotic minimalism. The sound of 3 Channels is difficult to characterize, consisting of single, looped music, scratches, and metallic clashes lightened by the warmer sounds of synthesizer and sampled vocals.
Their real breakthrough came with the remix of Who’s Afraid of Detroit by Claude Von Stroke, a popular producer of techno and the owner of two record labels – Dirtybird and Mothership. Von Stroke was attracted to the remix of his work and offered to collaborate with the Polish DJs.
Stars of Zoo
To date, the producers from the port city of Szczecin have issued two discs on Von Stroke’s label – Stars of Zoo and Escape from Zoo. The first is “serious,” often glancing in the direction of their 3 Channels recordings. The common feature across the songs is their tribal sound. This is most obvious in the song that opens the album, Sunset in the East. The deep, low sound of drums is accompanied by looped saxophone that eventually turns into an echo. Gentle singing is accompanied by traces of a howl from afar. Catz 'n Dogz create dance music, but their first album is full of songs. They may not have the rigid organization of verses and choruses, but they are built around a structure that can be described and repeated.
Catz 'n Dogz – known to audiences from the Warsaw club 1500, the hot beaches of Ibiza, and summer music festivals – can also be heard on their second disc, Escape from Zoo. This is house music, full of references to the rich history of the genre. While their songs sometimes move towards disco, soul or R&B, they are always infused with deep, throbbing beats and melodic keys. The duo creates electronic music, but again and again we come across samples and loops of “live” acoustic instruments. It works – you can dance for hours to their music.
Parties and Theft
The Szczecin duo is still out there – they are particularly fond of Berlin clubs, but they have not forgotten about their fans across the globe. For those who cannot see them in clubs, their music is available on CDs and the internet.
In 2012, they released an album in the series Body Language, where popular DJs -- Dixon, Modeselektor, DJ Hell and other icons of contemporary club music -- publish their sets. It is a mix of their set next to the Szczecin Zoo. The Poles also appeared in the web series Boiler Room. This stream of events in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, London and other cities has one purpose – to broadcast the sounds of the musicians into the virtual ether. The Boiler Room is accessible to anyone; thanks to SoundCloud and YouTube. The project began in 2010 and has since included almost all the important figures of dance music – from the youngest to the classic artists who pioneered the scene in the 1980s.
At the end of 2012, Catz 'n Dogz found themselves in an unusual situation. An unreleased track was stolen from their archives – an edit of Freekie Mother Fucker by Moodyman, one of the great classics of house music from Detroit. The song was released without the knowledge or consent of the band as a vinyl single. It was a truly bizarre situation – music stolen in digital form appearing in a physical medium. The creators came out unscathed. They published their work on SoundCloud and let users download it for free.
Filip Lech, June 2013
Catz 'n Dogz on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/catzndogz.official
BOOKING EUROPE: maralina@physical-music.com
BOOKING USA, OZ, ASIA: andrew@liaisonartists.com
Discography :
- Catz 'n Dogz - Stars of Zoo (CD, Mothership), 2008
- Catz 'n Dogz – Escape from Zoo (CD, Mothership), 2010
- Catz 'n Dogz – Body Language Vol. 12 (CD, Get Physical Music), 2012
Translation: AA 01.07.2013