Hearing the name pertaining to Julie Chance and Jon Dark’s current project, associations with and allusions to Sonic Youth are inevitable. A band name immediately conjuring up images of Kim Gordon is not a bad name at all, but Kool Thing have far more going for them than legendary association.

Teasing out the dirgey malcontent of the aforementioned Youth, the duo formed in Paris in 2010, with Julie and Jon hailing from Sydney and Dublin respectively. The pair are currently based in Berlin, a city full of creativity, and burgeoning particularly when it comes to making and dancing to filthy electronica.

In addition to crafting music, the pair are also scissors-and-pritstick-happy, remixing their way across the globe, hooking up with a formidable array of up-and-coming artists along the way. They recently released a free download of their own re-worked version of their song, ‘The Sign’, and have additionally released a version of the incredible ‘Beat and Pulse’ by Austra.

When the band aren’t remixing, they’ve carved out a distinct niche of their own; their sardonic, malaise-heavy, bass-driven smother hinting at the wellspring of talent lurking beneath their noir-ish, uber-cool surface. Having recently released a self-titled EP, available to download via Bandcamp, Kool Thing are not shy about revealing their precocity. ‘The Sign’ is inspired by shoegaze and electronica equally, exuding a wonderfully hazy, dream-like quality before ‘Line Drive’, explicitly influenced by the inimitable Berlin club scene, implores the listener to “dance to the beat of my heart”. No genre left untouched, no sonics left unexplored,the pair use their multi-national spectre to killer advantage.

The band have recently performed with JD Samson’s MEN. You can catch them live in Germany and France this month.




Kool Thing – ‘Beat and Pulse Remix (Austra)’




Caitlin Gwynn