Signed to Boysnoize Records, Shadow Dancer get down with electro-synth psychosis and dancefloor euphoria while hopping around the globe from one club to the other. Their album “Golden Traxe” is coming out next month. Listen to their top 20 2008 and read the exclusive interview below.

Tell us about your new release.
It’s just us paying tribute to a lot of music that has inspired us for a long time. There’s elements of house, techno, electro, acid and electronica all thrown in there, but it’s our own spin on those styles. We chose ‘Golden Traxe’ as the title because it had a nice acid house ring to it.

Who is Shadow Dancer and how did the project start?
We are two brothers, Paul and Alan, who started making music in childhood and simply never grew out of it. Shadow Dancer itself began around two and a half years ago; we’d stopped writing music in 2003, but I discovered Myspace and just wanted some new tracks to put on there, just for fun. It’s all a big, lucky, accident.

What’s up in Shadow Dancer’s world these days?
Gigs, interviews and a lot of excitement about the album finally coming out. Other than that, working on some new productions without resorting to repeating things that we’ve already done. I think it’s important that you don’t get stuck doing the same thing over and over, you have to progress in order to stay relevant.

How do you see today’s UK electro scene?
I have to confess to being a little ignorant about what’s going on in the UK. A lot of people still think we’re German or French, which in turn means we’re generally considered part of a more continental European scene. Which is no bad thing…I’m not that territorial, anyway; our influences come from all over the world, so there’s nothing uniquely British about it.

Influences and family?
Our parents possessed enormous record collections when we were growing up, which clearly had some effect on us. It was specifically Jean Michel Jarre that made a big impression and, undoubtedly, got us into electronic music. ‘Rendez-vous’ is the first album I remember buying with my own pocket money. I was fascinated with how he could make these sounds that you didn’t hear in pop or rock music. It took us a lot longer to get into dance music, though, as we were just one or two years too young for the acieeeed explosion of the 80s. Sadly.

As an artist what services do you expect from internet?
We definitely owe a lot to the existence of the internet. Ten or twelve years ago we started sending demos of (on cassette!) – it was a slow, tedious process, and you very rarely ever heard back from labels, which made it seem like the effort wasn’t worth it. Fast-forward to 2006: we put some stuff up on Myspace and suddenly we get labels happening upon us. There’s no sense that we forced ourselves in people’s faces, as I think that can put labels off. We were fortunate that Alex Ridha chanced upon ‘Poke’ on our profile and wanted it for Boysnoize.

How important is it for you today?
I’d be lost without it. It’s a great promotional tool, I buy all my music from digital stores, I need it to send and receive remix parts and final mixes for mastering (which would be a very drawn out affair if we still had to rely on the postal service), and – of course – I can’t imagine how I would cope without email.

Digital or physical, is there a place for both?
I think there’s a place for both. I love vinyl but, unfortunately, find them impractical at home (not enough space) and in clubs (too heavy and big). They do look and sound so good, and they’ll always invoke far more passion and emotion in people than an mp3 or WAV, simply because of their physical nature. In terms of DJing, we use CDJs and not Ableton because it does feel good to have some kind of hands on connection to the music you’re playing.

Smoking or non smoking clubs?
Health issues aside (although who actually goes clubbing to get healthy?), the smoking ban has killed off the atmosphere in some clubs. Having to spend half the night queueing up to stand outside the place you paid good money to enter seems unfair to me. Especially in the winter. If the venue has a well though out, punter-friendly smoking area, then fine; at least the crowd are treated with respect and everybody’s happy.
The plus side of non-smoking clubs, however, is that your clothes and skin don’t smell quite so bad the morning after…

The future of Shadow Dancer?
Difficult one to answer. Who knows? I’d like to continue writing, produce more albums, and always be diversifying and improving upon previous work.

And the music industry?
And another difficult thing to predict…illegal downloading has had a hugely detrimental effect, with labels and distributors now shutting down as a direct result, which is very sad. There’s always the argument that these same downloads are helping to promote artists, too…but I still think the digital music age is far too young for any real conclusions to be drawn.
I’m also sure that there are those within the industry who have worked out some contingencies we have yet to see, in much the same way that piracy didn’t kill off the videogame industry as many said it would.

Tracklisting in no particular order:

TIGA // Mind Dimension 2 // (PIAS)
APPARAT // Arcadia (BOYS NOIZE Version) // (SHITKATAPULT)
ZOMBIE NATION // Forza // (UKW)
SHADOW DANCER // Cowbois (STRIP STEVE Disco Rework) // (BOYSNOIZE RECORDS)
KELLEY POLAR // Entropy Reigns (In The Celestial City) // (ENVIRON)
SIRIUSMO // Mein Neues Fahrrad (BOYS NOIZE Rework) // (BOYSNOIZE RECORDS)
IN FLAGRANTI // Business Acuman // (CODEK)
POPOF // Elektic Circus // (AFU)
FEADZ // Numanoid // (ED BANGER)
HUGG & PEPP // Mormor // (DAHLBÄCK RECORDS)
LEN FAKI // Death By House // (COCOON)
HOUSEMEISTER // Inordertodance // (ALLYOUCANBEAT)
DAS GLOW // Sunburnt // (INSTITUBES)
ZZT // The Worm // (TURBO RECORDINGS)
MR. OIZO // Positif // (ED BANGER)
DOLBY ANOL // Cancer Linda // (BACK YARD)
LES PETITS PILOUS // Wake Up // (BOYSNOIZE RECORDS)
PHIL KIERAN // Tartan Paint // (COCOON)
DMX KREW // Acid Cow // (TURBO RECORDINGS)
LAIDBACK LUKE & A-TRAK // Shake It Down // (FOOL’S GOLD)

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