Le Disko — Shiny Toy Guns
A Los Angeles synth-rock single, a Motorola ad and a Hamburg-born remixer: how Boys Noize reworked Shiny Toy Guns’ “Le Disko” for the electro dance floor.
- First single from Shiny Toy Guns’ album We Are Pilots, released by Universal Motown on 7 August 2006.
- Boys Noize, aka Alexander Ridha, made a Fire Mix and a Fire Dub, both 5:56 long.
- We Are Pilots was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album at the 50th Grammy Awards.
“Le Disko” was a rock band’s single that found a second life with DJs. Shiny Toy Guns released it in 2006 as a synth-rock song; Boys Noize, who had launched his own label a year earlier, reworked it for the dance floor.
From Oklahoma to Los Angeles
Shiny Toy Guns formed in Los Angeles in 2002. Its founders, Jeremy Dawson and Chad Petree, had grown up together in Shawnee, Oklahoma. With Carah Faye Charnow on vocals and keyboards alongside Petree, they mixed synths, guitars and two lead voices. Their debut album, We Are Pilots, had an unusual life: first released in January 2005 through Stormwest International, re-released by SideCho in November 2005, then issued again by Universal on 17 October 2006, after the band signed in June that year.
The single and the ad
“Le Disko”, written by Jeremy Dawson and Steven Petree, was the album’s first single, released by Universal Motown on 7 August 2006. It reached No. 26 on the US Modern Rock chart and No. 14 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100. Advertising gave it a wider audience: OC Weekly noted that it turned up in TV commercials, most recognisably for Motorola’s RAZR2. The band made three videos; the official one is set in a club where women turn into monsters.
The Boys Noize Fire Mix
Boys Noize is Alexander Ridha, born in Hamburg in 1982. He founded Boysnoize Records in 2005 and released his debut album, Oi Oi Oi, in September 2007. In those years he remixed across rock and pop: Bloc Party’s “Banquet”, Kaiser Chiefs, Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”, Feist’s “My Moon My Man”.
For “Le Disko” he delivered two versions, the Boys Noize Fire Mix and the Boys Noize Fire Dub, both 5:56 long, which appeared on the single’s 12-inch. A 2007 CD single on Mercury paired the Fire Mix with remixes by Ferry Corsten, Tommie Sunshine and Disco D. The remix returned, retitled Boys Noize Vocal Mix, as the opening track of Girls Le Disko, the band’s remix compilation released by Ultra Records in December 2009.
Grammy night and the electro moment
At the 50th Grammy Awards, We Are Pilots was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album, in the same category as the debut album by Justice. Carah Faye Charnow left in 2008, the year of the second album, Season of Poison, and returned in 2011.
The Fire Mix belongs with the distorted electro of those years. For more from its remixer, read the story of Boys Noize’s own “Jeffer”.
FAQ
Who remixed Le Disko?
Boys Noize made a Fire Mix and a Fire Dub. Other remixes came from Ferry Corsten, Tommie Sunshine and Disco D.
When did Le Disko come out?
Universal Motown released it on 7 August 2006 as the first single from We Are Pilots. The Boys Noize remix later reappeared on the 2009 compilation Girls Le Disko.
Was Le Disko used in a Motorola ad?
Yes. OC Weekly described the Motorola RAZR2 commercial as its most recognisable TV placement.
