“We thought it was high time to take some inspiration from the Beastie Boys,” says DATAROCK’s mastermind and frontman Fredrik Saroea about “Double Vision,” their new single and video which is now released. Combining old school party rap with Datarock’s tongue-in-cheek electro-prankery, “Double Vision” is not only a rebirth of sorts for the band, but a somewhat new fun direction. Taken from their upcoming album Media Consumption Pyramid whose release on YAP Records is still far off in January 2023, “Double Vision” brings seven members of the core Datarock “collective” who have all been part of the band at one time or another, but never together at the same time. Convening at Over Oslo Festival this past weekend, Datarock’s current line-up of seven members shared the stage for the very first time.
“’Double Vision’ is a celebration of the fact that the entire DATAROCK gang is finally back together – double up – both on the album and on stage,” Saroea says proudly. “That’s me on guitar and vocals, Thomas Larssen and Ketil Mosnes on bass, both Stig Narve Brunstad and Kjetil Traavik Møster on keys, and Øyvind Solheim and Tarjei Strøm on drums.”
“We thought it was high time to take some inspiration from the Beastie Boys, and with Steve Dub on the team, maybe a bit of The Chemical Brothers even came along too.” – Fredrik Saroea, Datarock
Filmed, edited and animated by Christoffer Aksnes from the studio FORM (Bergen), and interspliced with images by photographers Tom Oxley, Øystein Fyxe, Knut Åserud and Ketil Mosnes, the video truly is a collaborative project with The Vision Street Wear-inspired cover designed by original DATAROCKer Tom Mæland.
Recorded at Toolshed in London, the song was mixed by The Chemical Brothers’ five-time Grammy-winning co-producer Steve Dub (New Order, Depeche Mode, Chemical Brothers) in Liverpool, and mastered by legend Mike Marsh (Björk, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode, Calvin Harris) in Exmouth, Devon.
Formed in Bergen, Norway in 2000, Datarock made a huge splash across multiplemedia in different formats. Their music was not only massively embraced by the dancepunk community but also widely used across multiple platforms. Their breakthrough single “Computer Camp Love” placed at #88 on Rolling Stone’s “100 Best Songs of 2007.” Many of their singles including “Fa-Fa-Fa,” “True Stories,” and “Give it Up” were sync’ed across multiple platforms including commercials for Apple’s Nano and Coca Cola, on videogames such as The Sims 2: Free Time and FIFA 09 and 10, and on TV shows such as Chuck, Jersey Shore, and Yo Gabba Gabba. While easily recognized for their coordinated matching track suits (originally red, but switched over to black in 2018), Datarock did not rely on a shtick for attention. Instead, as All Music Guide lauds, “Datarock doesn’t use humor as a crutch but instead as a coat rack, so to speak, to hang their excellent productions on… they appear capable of spinning virtually any musical idea into gold.”
“Double Vision” is available now here: https://orcd.co/e7vwlym.
