DANCEHALL have always thrived in the margins: too spiky for pop, too self-aware for grunge. On ‘100% MUSIC’, the Kent/Rotterdam trio sharpen their edges and deliver their most dialed-in, deliberate work yet. The album is twelve tightly-wound tracks that hum with post-punk friction and melody-driven punch.
The album bristles with melody and menace, balancing existential dread with surreal humour. Written as frontman Tim Smithen became a father and embraced sobriety, the record confronts existential exhaustion with surreal humor. From the monotony of modern adulthood, to right-wing populism, to nostalgic teen-angst seen through a 2020s lens.
Opener ‘FUN,’ sets the tone with its sardonic reflections on aging and neurodivergence. While ‘SLIMER’ dissect the grind of adulthood and the compulsive vertical scroll to find meaning, ‘WHAT, THIS?’ attempts to turn its back on it. ‘MODERN AGE’ and ‘MOUTHS’ confront the rise of misinformation and bigotry. Closer ‘EAST V WEST’ takes aim at the endless cycle of the West inflicting pain on a world, from Vietnam to Iraq to Palestine.
If DANCEHALL’ 2018 debut ‘THE BAND’ was a snapshot of a live band in motion, ‘100% MUSIC’ is a technicolour sprawl of intentional chaos. The band took time layering songs with textures: hitting glass bottles, mic'ing up iPhone drum machine apps, dropping spring reverb tanks on the floor, pulsing aerosol cans, plugging guitars direct into mixing desks and sampling YouTube vloggers. “We wanted it to sound full, bright, clear and playful,” they explain. “This time around we don’t hide behind distortion or delays.”
The record was produced by longtime collaborator Christopher Smith, then handed over to Hank Sullivant (MGMT) for mixing. A turning point that shifted it from DIY fuzz to vivid clarity: “It went from sounding like a live band to full-blown technicolour,” says Sharp. The record's vivid, neon-saturated artwork mirrors the record’s high-contrast production, the result is crisp, abrasive, and full of detail even in the noisiest moments.
With ‘100% MUSIC’, DANCEHALL didn’t want to capture a moment but make a record of themselves reacting to it with humor, urgency, and zero pretension.
In the ‘00s film Almost Famous, a wide-eyed teenage fan follows his favourite band across the country and winds up writing a Rolling Stone cover feature. When a similarly wide-eyed teenage Craig Sharp did the same in 2010s England, he came out with a black eye, a Geocities fansite, and in a band with their singer.
Obsessed with frontman/bassist Tim Smithen’s old band, Kill Kenada, he built a fansite on Geocities, stalked their live shows, and even accepted a stage-dive-induced black eye from Tim as a badge of honour.
Years later the two met in London. What started as a nostalgic meet-up turned into a demo writing session—passing a guitar back and forth like a game controller, they began layering riffs and vocal melodies in GarageBand. After writing together for a year they added the metronomic but fierce drummer David Keeler.
After regularly gigging in London, the trio self-released a string of 7" records and DIY cassette tapes, the band meeting to scalpel, fold sleeves and dub tapes. With the release of their debut album ‘THE BAND’ they toured Europe, played a bustling Rough Trade East in-store and gained airplay from BBC 6 Music and praise for their minimal yet melodic sound. ‘100% MUSIC’ is their clearest statement yet: urgent, honest, and punctuated with neon clashing production.