Photo: Press
With Disclosure, Rudimental and Flume bringing a little credibility back to the dancefloor and dominating the charts the world over, 2013 was certainly the year of electronic music. Just taking a glance over the radio playlists and the BRIT Awards shortlist, there doesn't seem to be any danger of that changing in 2014.
But what next? With Disclosure touring to reep the fruits of their success, who will drop something fresh enough to be crowned the new Kings Of Dance? If you're looking for likely contenders, then Bondax are probably a safe bet.
After receiving heavy radio play from the likes of Annie Mac and Nick Grimshaw, Lancaster friends Adam Kaye and George Townsend soon found themselves taking their ambitious bedroom music to new audiences with heavy gigging - something that really hit it's peak during last summer's festival season.
"Reading was brilliant," they told us. "We didn't expect it to be as amazing as it was. It was a funny one, because we played half an hour to 25 minutes and we were DJing, which is weird for DJs because there's no progression. It's almost like a medley of our own tracks which was a funny one. But for every tune, the crowd were just bouncing. It was really mad."
Thus followed the pattern that they've seen in audiences around the world - a pretty feral reaction from even the most unlikely of listeners. Which ain't bad, considering all the world has heard so far is a string of singles an EP.
"It's Pretty immense," admit Bondax. "We didn't really aim to be big in the underground of dance music, we didn't even aim to make an album - everything has been a mad surprise and we're really grateful for all of it."
Wath the video for 'Giving It All' by Bondax below
They continue: "Without sounding a bit gay here, it's really humbling. We've seen people going insane to 20 seconds of a kick drum and a voice-over saying 'BON-DAX'. It's mental. Mosh-pits are another thing we never thought we'd see, especially to 'I Wanna Be Ur Lover' by Prince."
The insanity comes with a price - albeit a small one. Naturally, any young duo making inventive dance music is going to be compared to Disclosure (and Bondax are pretty young - Adam is 19 and George 20). However the clean, ambient and soulful soundscape that Bondax occupy is pretty distant from the 90s house-inspired pop gems of Disclosure. Does the association ever become frustrating?
"We get asked this question quite a lot and justifiably so, because it is a weird one," they admit. "At the moment, with the whole movement and everything we may be quite early on in our career but we're not making more house-orientated music. We know where we're going and we have music that is miles from getting written about.
"At the same time, we do love that type of music so we're not offended to be grouped into that kind of world. It's helped us get to where we are."
Listen to 'Fires' by Bondax below
If there's one thing that will separate Bondax from their peers, let alone make or break them, it's their debut album - due for release later this year.
"It's going to surprise people because we have 'a sound'," say the duo. "We didn't know we had a sound but we aimed to have a sound and it will be kept under that cloak, but it's far more towards indie and soul than it is towards house and garage - which is what we often get grouped in with.
"The album will cover all of our different sides, and what we're excited about is that a lot of the tracks are like things you've heard before but really refreshing. In a completely non-arrogant way, we feel like the music is relatively original. When you sit down and listen to this album, hopefully you won't think it sounds like anything you've heard before. We're trying to push the boundaries without being so weird that you can't relate to it."
So comfortable are Bondax in their approach to music, that in 2012 they started their own record label, Just Us Recordings. However, they won't be releasing their debut themselves. Nope. You wanna know why? Simple: the huge demand of the massive audience they're about to reach.
"It's coming out through Relentless," the pair say. "We don't have the resources to do it ourselves. Both financially and in terms of pushing our music towards the people that need to find it, we were those people for many years and you've gotta respect that but it's lovely to see our music reach people that it wasn't necessarily intended for. To see them enjoy it is pretty special, maybe more so than the people you'd expect.
"Things have gone further than we've ever thought possible."
So keep your feet on the dancefloor and your eyes and ears on Bondax in 2014 - things are about to go a whole lot further.
Bondax will be appearing at Canal Mills in Leeds on Thursday 16 January and Sub 89 in Reading on 21 February. Meanwhile, they'll be supporting London Grammar on their UK tour throughout January and February 2014.
Below: Bondax, Thumpers and the ones to watch in 2014
