“The Young Punx are credible dance music provocateurs in the manner of the KLF” – Billboard
The Young Punx is the pop-culture mashup dance music side project of multiplatinum grammy nominated record producer Hal Ritson.
Hal is a London-based multi-instrumentalist with writing, production and performance credits on over a thousand tracks by artists as diverse as Duke Dumont, Katy Perry, Swedish House Mafia, Avicii, Ed Sheeran, Kanye West, The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Eric Prydz, and hundreds more.
The Young Punx is Hal’s long running personal dance music project, a freeform exploration of mashup sensibility on the dance floor, combining radically wide musical influences with house, breaks and DnB.
80s pop, opera, surf, ragga, shred metal, oldskool rap, cuban music, TV adverts, movie trailers and the weather forecast can all make a showing within a few minutes of listening! Tracks can range from from simple dancefloor reworks of pop-culture trends to crazed mashups of radically different music genres; stripped back club grooves, or guest performances by the most virtuoso jazz and rock performers in the world. There are no rules, yet Ritson’s auteur sensibility maintains a core artistic intent that both celebrates and undermines dancefloor clichés while embracing a joyous love of the diversity of music and culture.
The Young Punx first made their name in the early 2000s as bedroom producers putting out bootleg remixes on vinyl and mp3, which earned them “Bootleg Remixer Of Year” award from BBC Radio one with support from legendary DJs such as Fatboy Slim, Judge Jules and Annie Nightingale. Within one year their first signing to EMI, somehow remixing an annoying TV advert into a dancefloor smash, was 25-1 for the UK Christmas number 1. Subsequent releases were signed to labels such as Ultra, Avex, Toolroom and Kitsune, and included collaborations with artists such as Amanda Palmer and Peaches, Norman Cook, Don Diablo, Lenno, virtuoso guitarist Guthrie Govan and legendary rappers Count Bass D, Dizzee Rascal and Snoop Dogg.
The Young Punx have performed as a DJ duo with DJ partner Nathan Taylor (Medcab) and as a full live band, at such esteemed venues as Pasha, Privilege and Eden in Ibiza, Womb and Ageha Tokyo, Avalon LA, Melkweg Amsterdam, Ministry Of Sound and Fabric in London and festivals such as Glastonbury, SummerSonic, BlueBalls, NanoMugenFes worldwide.
The Young Punx now own and run The Old Hit Factory recording studios in London Bridge, (former home to Stock Aitken and Waterman / PWL). They also run MofoHifi Records, a label which is home to The Young Punx' own work but also curates new electronic talent, including signing tracks from dance legend Avicii and recent Grammy winner Alizzz 'before they were famous' as well as launching the careers of electronic wunderkinds Phonat and Bobby Tank.
“Breaks, pop, disco, drum & bass, opera and surf are all thrown in to create a giddying bombardment that doesn’t let up once throughout… a good-time party soundtrack ” – IDJ
“The Young Punx are redefining musical cool” – EQ Magazine
“Electronic authority The Young Punx is as conceptual as it is joyous and radio-friendly.” – Culture Or Trash
“Sheer Balearic heaven, managing to perfectly capture that 6am feeling on the White Island … with their irreverence shining through with each percussive snap and sundown note.” – Clash
“Their boundless energy and infectious enthusiasm shines throughout with an underlying organic live feel that’s perfect for that party atmosphere.” – Mixmag
Since 2006 The Young Punx have had a unique working relationship with esteemed Dutch multimedia artist Han Hoogerbrugge. Instead of hiring marketing companies, graphic designers and video makers to present a visual context for The Young Punx music, The Punx handed over all control of the visual presentation of the act to Han, whose darkly comic cast of surreal hand drawn characters, later animated in flash and 3-D rendering, act both as the main public identity for the band, and as an exhibited part of Hoogerbrugge's own portfolio.
Building on the 15 year history of digital art collaboration between The Young Punx and Han Hoogerbrugge we are delighted to announce that for the first time ever The Young Punx X Hoogerbrugge artworks are now available in the NFT marketplace, in partnership with music NFT specialists Twelve X Twelve.
The first works available will be based around The Young Punx' 2021 album “Hollywood Kiss”, an exploration of the tropes of glamour, sleaze and desire in the “Los Angeles of the imagination”. Han’s left field 3D renderings will take us from a disco ball world of glitz and glamour on an increasingly surreal journey to a place where a dancing Bob Ross finds his happy place amid smiling flowers, and psychedelic gorillas and mutant human giraffes boogie in exploding colourfields. Expect the unexpected!
The first drop, timed for Valentines day, has as its centrepiece “Hollywood Hearts” the first of series of glitterball artworks linked to the Hollywood Kiss album.
The NFTs brought to market will primarily be high affordable pieces available for any art or music fan, with limited numbers of collectors' edition 5k renders for gallery exhibition etc.
