PBR Streetgang Celebrates 20 Years of Underground House Music with PBR Twenty Album: A Must-Hear Collection of Quality Beats.

Kono Vidovic April 13, 2023 237 4 5

For two decades, PBR Streetgang has been blazing the trail for underground house music, leaving a trail of electrifying beats in their wake. Since their fateful meeting in Birmingham, Tom Thorpe and Bonar Bradberry have crafted a legendary career, taking inspiration from Apocalypse Now to name themselves PBR Streetgang.

Their journey has been nothing short of incredible, and now, they’re celebrating their monumental milestone in style. Brace yourselves as PBR Twenty, a collection of their most essential releases and remixes, is finally hitting the shelves in 2023. Get ready to be swept off your feet as you immerse yourself in a vast array of quality beats, expertly curated by the talented duo themselves.

As the album drops this week, we had the chance to sit down with the guys and pick their brains about their favorite tracks from the comp. So, dear PBR Streetgang fans, buckle up and get ready to groove as we dive into the highlights of their 20-year journey.

Tom: ‘Downstroke.’

This track is probably the most recognised, or at least the one that really helped propel our career. It felt like we had a little moment with this record. We’d made several tracks prior to this, but really, we were still experimenting with kit and exploring finding our sound.

This track came together relatively quickly. I’m a sucker for a bassline and found myself working on a particular sound I had discovered one evening. I think I stayed up all night tinkering on the groove. Once I was completely happy, I took it to Bonar’s where he had a small studio space in his attic. Bonar has always been a natural producer, making drums is his super-power. Once we put the two together, we knew we had the start of something exciting. The rest came together very quickly – I hate using the phrase but it kind of wrote itself.

The last part was the vocal. We thought it needed one, and out of nowhere I started singing the lyrics to ‘God made me Phunky’ by Mike Dunn. I’ve no idea why. We quickly set up the mic and Bon laid it down but with a nice little twist.

We were both happy with the result, and quietly confident it would be well received. Our assumptions were correct, resulting in a fair amount of success off the back of the release.

Tom: Romanthony – ‘Bring You Up’ (PBR remix)

Still one of my favourite remixes we’ve ever done. We’re both huge fans of the late Romanthony, and individually have a fair amount of his back catalogue. So, when Glasgow Underground asked us to submit a remix we jumped at the chance.

I think ‘Bring U Up’ was the labels choice. It was perfect for us as we both have copies of the original and absolutely love it. We were genuinely really excited before starting work on it.

Although we didn’t have an exact idea of where to take it, we’d been in a great flow in the studio prior to starting the project. Within the first session the bones of the track came together. Not sure if we were channelling our love for the guy but everything we wrote just seem to work. Honestly, we couldn’t be happier with the finished article. I hope we did him proud!

Tom: ‘In the Turret.’

I’m really fond of this track for a number of reasons, one being it wasn’t made in our conventional manner, and the other, we had no idea what to do with it so sat on it for months. By 2016 (when it was released) we had a nice routine of making music – the standard practice was to spend most of the week working together in the studio, however this record started life from a villa in Ibiza back in January 2015. I was cat sitting for friends whilst they were travelling.

I had no intention of making any music as I wanted some headspace from the machines. That didn’t last long! I started messing around on Ableton, I had no plan or idea of what to create, I just started compiling sounds. The process was slow but, I didn’t mind that part (for a change). Each day I would pick up where I’d left off and keep adding bits. I left Ibiza with lots of ‘clips’ that meant nothing.

I think it stayed like that for another six months, I almost forgot about it. One day I rediscovered it, took it to the studio and we started to arrange the mess I’d made. The sounds were not our usual style, and still sounds a little non PBR like.

Once complete we were both unsure what it even was, never mind if we liked it. I sat on the hard drive for months before I suggested sending it Craig Richards. To our surprise he absolutely loved it, signed it, created his own remix, and released it on a fresh label by himself called ‘Ship to Shore.’ Strange how things work out!

Bonar: Eddie C ‘My woman’ (PBR remix)

I have a feeling this could be our first proper remix, either way it was a while ago, back in 2010.

Having little experience remixing before, I remember we were nervous about it but were keen to do a pro job. Eddie C along with Wolf Music have great reputations so there was some pressure to deliver something that they would both like.

I can remember it took a long time – just sorting through the stems and picking out parts to work with took maybe three days. Next, we re-recorded all live drums with our mate Danny Harrison to give it that live, loose feel. Then we worked on it some more writing new synth parts and basslines but as it was our first ‘proper’ remix we were really going for it, so we asked our long-time friend and mentor – Jim Baron from Crazy P – to help replay some or our parts. Jim’s musicianship is incredible, and he really elevated it, his bass keys and piano takes were beautiful, it just brought it all to life even more. I would say in total we spent three to four weeks on it. We kept going back to it, amending, adjusting, and tinkering. It was never ending.

On submission we were both relieved that Eddie and the label loved it. We’ve always had great feedback from this remix. I guess it says something when you know Harvey is a fan!

Bonar: Bryan ferry ‘One Night Stand’ (PBR remix)

This came about through Isaac, Bryan’s son. He himself is a great DJ with a rich in-depth understanding of electronic music. Unbeknown to us we were on his radar – he’d been listening and collecting our music for a while.

As far as I can recollect Isaac was helping with suggestions for acts and producers to remix singles from Bryan’s Avonmore album – so essentially, he just got in touch and asked if we fancied it. It was surreal opening a message with a short but direct message one day, along the lines of “would you like to remix my dad, Bryan Ferry?”. Still to this day we pinch ourselves and say… “shit how did that happen?”

Our end conclusion for this read.

In conclusion, PBR Streetgang has left an indelible mark on underground house music for the last two decades, and with the release of their PBR Twenty album, they have given their fans a chance to relive the highlights of their musical journey. The album showcases a remarkable collection of quality beats that have been expertly curated by the talented duo themselves.

We had the chance to delve into the highlights of their 20-year journey, and it was a fascinating insight into their musical genius. As the album hits the shelves, we want to thank PBR Streetgang for their incredible contribution to the world of music and wish them the very best for the future. Finally, we urge our readers to support PBR Streetgang by purchasing their vinyl album here and experiencing the sheer joy and excitement of their music. Thank you, PBR Streetgang!

Tagged as: Album, Interview, Music Review, PBR Streetgang, Q&A, Twenty.

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Kono Vidovic

DJ | MUSIC CURATOR & SELECTOR | PODCAST MAKER | BLOGGER Professional online interpreneur. Coffee practitioner. Electronic music culture maven. Total music guru. Infuriatingly humble problem solver. Food & sports fanatic.

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