Sneaky Sound System: You'll Love It

 

Sneaky Sound System are arguably the biggest band in Australia right now. Their single, I Love It, had the longest chart run in Oz music history, their debut album has gone twice platinum, and at one point they had four singles in the Top 40.

 

Sneaky Sound System are Sydney trio Miss Connie (Connie Mitchell), Black Angus (Angus McDonald), and MC Double D (Daimon Downey), three very different characters bonded by a riotous sense of fun.

Their story began back in 2000 when Daimon met Angus at a fancy dress party and stole the flute from his mariachi costume. They became friends and decided to start a club on the quietest night of the week. Angus spun and Daimon hyped on the mic.

 

In 2003 Sony asked them to put together a mix CD. The result was Other Peoples Music, a housey affair that ran into edgier territory such as Gonzales and Metro Area, occasionally overlaid with live instrumentation and Daimon's rapping. It was a success and before long the pair tried their hand at their own music. The third piece of the Sneaky jigsaw was about to fall into place. 

For five years since leaving school Connie Mitchell had been in reasonably successful industrial rock band Primary but after they split, she was at a loose end. One day, as she sat in a park playing guitar to a friend, Angus and Daimon happened by and asked her to sing for them. 

"I thought they were a bit dodgy," recollects Connie, "You know, two guys coming up to you, excited, jumping around a bit, saying 'Come to our studio'." 

They did, however, have a recording set up - Whack Studios - and when Connie sang through what was to be their breakthrough single, the contagious dance-pop of I Love It, Sneaky Sound System had their vocalist. 

In a time of predictable R&B dross and Luddite indie bands, it's refreshing to be presented with an ebullient outfit overflowing with such hooky choruses and colourful character.