FOALS (DJ SET)
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 12:31PM 
Foals always wanted to make kids dance, but it was not ever thus. Four of their five members coalesced from the ashes of various circuit-hardened bands. They were bored of the anally retentative indie-math-post-whatever nanocosm they inhabited, and tired of the staid, codified dynamics of the rock show. They wanted to make music that was new, vibrant and exciting, to recreate the feeling the first time they'd heard Repeater or Daydream Nation. Edwin Congreave had never played an instrument before, but during his shifts in an Oxford restaurant he'd introduced Yannis Phillipakis (the nascent band's first-among-equals) to enough hours of mindblowing music to warrant a place in any rehearsal room or recording studio. It was decided that Edwin, now armed with a few curious analogue eBay finds, would become their synth player, and his cutting-edge knowledge of labels like Kompakt, DFA, R&S and Strictly Rhythm and understanding of the dynamics of the dancefloor would become the crucial final piece of the sound of their debut album, the tight, uncompromising and brutally funky Antidotes.
Edwin's love of the dancefloor started early with his mum's collection of Chic, James Brown and Chaka Khan. While the other kids at primary school were into Oasis, he was vibing to Ultra Nate's Free, Armand Van Helden and The Bucketheads. As he grew up he moved on to Underworld, Orbital, and his friends wanted him to DJ their parties because his records sounded great after a litre of Merrydown and some Oxfordshire soapbar. Edwin gladly obliged, always most content when engrossed in music. After joining Foals he would DJ through the night after the visceral, chaotic house party sets that made the band's name, and as the band grew in stature and crashed into the mainstream he'd play at their after-parties, be they swanky label-funded Kensington nightclubs or airless basements in his native Oxford. The one thing that remained constant was Edwin's sets; always striking that perfect balance between obscure and popular; always sending the party into raptures.
As time went on Edwin's DJing at the band's raucous afterparties became as big an event as the shows themselves. Edwin would join the dots between post-punk, disco, house, techno and, in his own words, "electro that isn't shit" and sweaty fans of the band would turn up in their hundreds to throw themselves around all over again. Now known as a DJ in his own right, he has been invited to play sets in prestigious clubs all over the world, and has strong followings as far afield as Australia, Mexico and Japan. The only question that remains is: WHERE NEXT FOR THE ONE THEY CALL THE OXFORD MOODYMANN?
We’ll let this deeply funky DJ set speak for itself. It’s a scorcher!