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Exclusive: The 2 Bears playlist
The 2 Bears' Raf Rundell selects the songs and club nights that have shaped their sound
Most popular London club nights
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Listen to the tracks on Spotify
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Listen to the Spotify playlist
Listen to tracks from Raf's slection and more in one handy Spotify playlist.
The 2 Bears’ recently released debut album ‘Be Strong’ is a beauty. It’s a summer record: a tops-down, midriffs-out, hotpants-on booty wiggler, evocative of afternoons spent at Notting Hill Carnival with a bunch of your mates, getting pissed and listening to the mingling of Caribbean music, dancehall, dub and reggae, all within the frenetic framework of early house and UK garage. Here, Raf Rundell takes us through the songs that have influenced their sound. Listen to the tracks below or hear a selection in our Spotify playlist.
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‘Ring The Alarm’ – Tenor Saw
‘An early ‘80s classic that has been sampled, covered and redone loads – but this original is the best.’
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‘Flylife’ – Basement Jaxx
‘The anthem from Basement Jaxx’s early pub parties at the George IV in Brixton.’
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‘Make Me Believe In You’ – Patti Jo
‘Amazing soul music with sass, produced and written by Curtis Mayfield.’
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‘Is It All Over My Face’ – Loose Joints
‘A disco classic, produced by Arthur Russell.’
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‘Loose Lips’ – Seiji
‘A definitive, early broken beat record by supadon [that’s “brilliant producer”, to you and I] Seiji.’
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‘Be Strong’ – The 2 Bears
‘Shameless self promotion.’
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‘Warning’ – Firefox and 4 Tree
‘I was obsessed with the Philly Blunt label in 1994 – and this one still sounds good today.’
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‘The Goat Stare’ – Loefah
‘Early dubstep benchmark. I once played this at the Panorama Bar in Berlin and someone gave me the "cuts-throat" sign.’
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‘Beau Mot Plage’ – Isolee
‘This is stone-cold, far-out genius – in other words, house music with adventure and soul.’
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‘Luciano’ – Word Power & Sounds
‘Roots reggae with a positive message.’
The 2 Bears' essential London club nights
The 2 Bears’ ‘Be Strong’ is the culmination of a decade spent on the dancefloor – Joe Goddard is also a member of Hot Chip while Raphael ‘Raf’ Rundell is the music industry player who first signed Toddla T. Tracks like ‘Church’, ‘Work’ and ‘Be Strong’ are anthems for the unity and cultural cross-pollination of London’s diverse nightlife. As you might have guessed from two imposing men who wear bear suits, there’s a sense of humour at work here. Guffaw-out-loud lyrics talk of the capital’s trannies, its DJs, producers and loved-up ravers, who, as on ‘Bear Hug’, just want to give you a sweaty cuddle. We take a peek into Raf Rundell’s favourite raves to find the source of their fun-loving sound.
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100% Dynamite
‘We always used to go to this party by Soul Jazz Records about ten years ago, in the Blue Angel pub in Islington. Reggae, which they were playing a lot of there, wasn’t in fashion at the time. It was seen as a bit “back-packy” – for twenty-something boys who smoked too much weed and listed to King Tubby dub albums in their bedrooms. But it was always great and they had brilliant guests – you’d see Andrew Weatherall down there bringing out loads of reggae records that nobody else had.’
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Bugged Out
‘We might be doing something with Bugged Out this year too! It’s a pretty important night in London. They brought a lot of people over to the UK for the first time, a lot of techno royalty, like Green Velvet or Little Louis. I don’t know many clubs that have lasted as long as that and have kept evolving – I went to its next evolution, the Bugged Out Weekender, two weeks ago too. It was very surreal indeed! Those blocks of chalets are like being on a council estate in Luton with a load of zombies.’
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Bunga Bunga/Bear Factory
‘We’ve done a few of our own bear raves. We realised, because we’d done our own thing so much in the past, that sometimes when we do things for other people, we feel we could have done it better ourselves. When you’re in your home town, its important to represent yourself. But then we’re doing Fabric this Friday, which is exciting, but we’re also doing another Bunga Bunga party in April with Horse Meat Disco at the Bussey Building in Peckham. There’s always a young, vibey crowd there.’
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Greco-Roman
‘It’s been a fairly important party in our bear development. The parties were started by Joe and a mutual mate of ours, Alexander Waldron. They used to do one called Uber Alles on a Sunday afternoon at Monkey Chews at the back of Camden and then they started doing them a bit more seriously, as proper raves. I got involved after Joe saw me DJ at the Secret Disco at Bestival. They were pretty chaotic and hedonistic and always very last minute, but really brilliant. The parties are not Greek or Roman and not homoerotic or anything but they are fairly down at heel!’
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Horse Meat Disco
‘They run a brilliant regular night which is a tall order. It’s a part of people’s weekly diet. They’re brilliant hosts, they put on great people and people love to play at that party. I saw Weatherall and Derrick Carter down there last year – so I’m a bit of a Horse Meat Tourist!’
See our Horse Meat Disco listings -
It’s On
‘It doesn’t exist anymore but this party was at Gossips in Dean Street, an old Soho dive. I went here when I was first working in music as a press officer. They had some interesting people playing: Norman Cook would pop in from time to time and Frank Tope was a regular. The credo was “top tunes, shite mixing”. It seems like quite a normal thing nowadays but it was quite a novel idea to me at the time: going to see a DJ who was dicking around and playing a load of different music wasn’t something I’d been into before.’
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Rooty
‘The Basement Jaxx parties were crucial, even back when they were just called Basement Jaxx at the grotty George IV pub up Brixton Hill. Thomas Bangalter [one half of Daft Punk] and DJ Sneak were playing and, to my 19-year-old self, it felt like a new frontier. As teenager ravers from south London, we might have gone to Club UK in Wandsworth or the Complex in Islington but the Jaxx parties had more of a neighbourhood vibe. All the dreads and the gay boys and then suburban teen ravers like me were there, and everyone was getting on and having a great time because the music was so exciting. When you’re at a party like that, it makes you feel that it can change something in some way, however marginal.’
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Trouble Vision
‘I’ve been involved with a couple of their parties in the last year or two and Toddla T and I do our Girls Music thing there. Trouble Vision is a really interesting one: it gets huge numbers through the door and the first time I went, I was wondering where all these people had come from, you know? But they put great line-ups together and there’s enough of everything in there… some really cutting-edge people and some more established. Getting Toddla T, Shy FX and David Rodigan on one line-up is really great.’
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