Meanderthals

The aptly named Meanderthals are a collaborative project between two longtime dance music fixtures: the London-based DJ/production duo Idjut Boys (Dan Tyler and Conrad McConnell) and Norwegian electronica veteran Rune Lindbaek. Drawing on their shared love of eclectic left-field disco, Meanderthals favor live instrumentation over overtly electronic sounds, and emphasize the mellower, psychedelic, and decidedly dub-influenced strains of the late-2000s Balearic trend. Though the participants had been friendly for years, their collaboration didn't come about until Tyler and McConnell happened to miss a plane flight back to London following a DJ engagement in Oslo. They called up Lindbaek and ended up having an impromptu jam/recording session at his studio, layering some bass, percussion, and guitars on top of a track by Swedish early electronic/ambient composer Ralph Lundsten. When Joakim Haugland of Smalltown Supersound Records heard the resulting track, dubbed "Andromeda (Prelude to the Future)," he encouraged the threesome to produce more material for a full-length release. After a few more sessions in Oslo with a handful of local musicians, and some editing and post-production back in London, Haugland got his wish, and Desire Lines dropped in May 2009. ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi