international news _ JONTY SKRUFFF _ 7th Novemober, 2005

Pete Tong Takes His Top Off For No Bra

Pete Tong has started championing London alternative arts duo No Bra on his Radio 1 show and in the press, bigging up their fabulously ironic club anthem Munchausen in his latest Essential column in Mixmag.

"Top prize goes to Munchausen's No Bra for their saucy sleeve and leading the Nu Beat revival," the hugely influential tastemaker decrees in his influential 'In The Box' section, "Hilarious".

No Bra's Dale told Skrufff he's ecstatic about Tong's support, gushing "Pete Tong is one of the 'godfathers' of dance, like Ian M and Mark Moore, who have also been supporting the track,. It's obviously a compliment as they're at that stage in their careers where they play what they like and love and aren't worried about hype," he said, "And loads of other DJs are playing it too."

Dale's bandmate Susanne said she's equally chuffed, admitting 'I don't know much about Pete Tong but he sounds like an alright guy if he likes our song; and the cover.'

"People keep saying he's got a lot of power? which sounds a bit besides the point, but then I thought people used to laugh at us for performing songs that were under like 130 BPM," she continued.

"We love that grinding awkwardness and menacing, monotonous sort of beats, they're very non-fabulous yet very gay in an SM (sadomasochist) sort of way, and a lot of the time you get people with confused 'is this cool? I don't know what to think' expressions on their faces. If someone like Pete Tong can turn around and decide it's the 'Nu Beat Revival', great!" she added.

Susanne pointed out that Tong has been supporting the high energy (and excellent) The Most remix rather than their own much quirkier original and added that they've yet to see any tangible changes in their circumstances following his endorsement.

"More people take notice now, that's for sure, and it'll probably be easier for us now to get money for future releases and an album," she suggested, "but are we living in luxury? Ha, pas du tout!" she laughed.

"We've sold out of the first pressing a few weeks earlier than we would otherwise have done," Dale agreed, "And the original mix is going to be on the Rough Trade Shops end-of-year best of compilation at Christmas. But apart from that, we're still taking the bus." (Jonty Skrufff)