Mixing it up with the major
To the spaghetti western twang of a guitar, against a pink full moon and a flutter of bats, a bearded black figure swaggers out of the shadows. He is wearing reflective sunglasses, a red beret and a green combat vest. The laser gun, which stands in for his right arm, glints in the moonlight.
This is Major Lazer, a fictional Jamaican guerilla who survived the 'secret zombie war' of 1984 to become the frontman of the multi-vocalist dancehall project that bears his name. The project is masterminded by Diplo and Switch, two super-producers otherwise named Wesley Pentz and Dave Taylor, who created the character on a rum-soaked evening mostly, it seems, for fun.
Some critics have asked whether the cartoon character, who uses his laser prosthesis and a rocket-powered hoverboard to battle the forces of evil, is merely being used as a front for two Caucasian men making music from the Caribbean. But whatever the case, the animated character has become an integral part of Major Lazer's story.
The scene described is the first 20 seconds or so of the music video for Hold the Line, the rumbling, Auto-Tune-saturated opening track of Major Lazer's 2009 debut, Guns Don't Kill People ... Lazers Do. Directed by Ferry Gouw, the video was nominated at last year's MTV Video Music Awards for best breakthrough video.
It's an absurd, hyperactive piece of work into which you could - if you felt the need - inject all manner of post-colonial commentary ('If you can dig that deep,' Diplo says during a recent interview). It's more worthwhile to take the cartoon for what it is on the surface - a psychedelic, 1980s-inflected romp through a group of in-synch imaginations.
Switch is the man behind London's Dubsided label; he produced Sri Lankan firestarter M.I.A's first two albums, Arular and Kala. Diplo runs the Mad Decent tag, which counts Major Lazer, Rusko, and Boy 8-Bit on its roster of artists. The producers met while finishing track Bucky Done Gun for Arular. Later, both received Grammy nods for their work on M.I.A's stratospheric 2008 hit Paper Planes.
Since Major Lazer's ignition last year, Switch and Diplo have juggled the burgeoning project with their independent work as producers and DJs. Diplo's Brazilian baile funk documentary, Favela on Blast (he gathered material over four years in Rio de Janeiro), drops on iTunes on July 21. A new Diplo album will be released next year. But the Philadelphia-based DJ explains: 'Major Lazer is definitely top priority right now.'
He has ambitious plans for its future. 'Major Lazer has a lot of potential to be bigger,' Diplo says. 'We collaborate with so many artists in Jamaica - it's the biggest talent pool in the world.'
Guns Don't Kill People ... Lazers Do was recorded at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong studios in Kingston. It boasts sit-ins from some of reggae's brightest stars. Vybz Kartel, T.O.K., Ms Thing, Turbulence, Mr Vegas and Mr Lexx all appear on the record, alongside American stars Santigold, Amanda Blank, Ricky Blaze and Nina Sky. Diplo calls the futuristic album 'a hybrid that uses dancehall as a vehicle'.
The recording process sounds chaotic but fun, with some artists turning up unannounced to create tracks and others who remained out of touch until the last minute. After a dizzying two weeks in the studio, Diplo and Switch ran out of time. The album took a further 18 months to finish.
After last summer's noisy debut, Major Lazer has been quiet in terms of studio output. The duo is stirring again, following the end of their crew's US tour this spring ('Major Lazer is me and Switch at the core as producers, but together it's a loose band of about seven people,' Diplo explains).
They released a stunning free mixtape, Lazerproof, with electro-pop bombshell La Roux on May 26. Despite a quip on Mad Decent's Facebook page that 'you don't really need to be sold on this thing', so many people tried to download the playlist at once that the Mad Decent website crashed. The US tour aimed to launch Major Lazer's new EP, Lazers Never Die, which is set for release on July 20. The record is made up of three remixes, two new tracks and, adds Diplo, 'surprises I can't tell you about yet'.
In an incongruous move, Radiohead's Thom Yorke has lent his talents to a remix of Jump Up, the bounding Leftside/Supahype match-up from Guns. On track four, Afro-Portuguese trio Buraka Som Sistema have created a kinetic, if grating, remix of Bruk Out with T.O.K and Ms Thing. Opening song Sound of Siren, from M.I.A and Kingston rapper Busy Signal, was meant for Guns but didn't meet the album's deadline.
'It's something small to hold you over until 2011, when there'll be a new album,' Diplo says. His sights for Major Lazer loop back to the strong visual aspect of the brand. The DJ points to a planned Major Lazer series for Cartoon Network's bizarre grown-up arm, Adult Swim.
As co-creator of the character, Diplo is closely tied to its translation to the small screen. At the moment, he is fine-tuning the content and casting the voices. 'All I can say is that it's weird,' he says.
Adult Swim is the home of series such as Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and London's The Mighty Boosh - all of which likely sprang from severely altered states of consciousness.
Heaped onto Diplo's work in music and film ('I'm trying pretty much to have a takeover') is Major Lazer's relentless travel schedule. Their current tour takes the crew through Hong Kong on July 1, where Diplo and the Bronx's lewd Skerrit Bwoy will perform at Volar.
Switch was never part of the live show. 'If you had to choose between [watching] Skerrit and Switch, I think you'd know which to pick,' Diplo dares.
Until a sensational 'instructional video' was banned internet-wide, Skerrit Bwoy was perhaps best known as the international proponent of daggering, a violent dance style that hails from the Caribbean. 'It's a mix of pornography, gangsta rap and electro,' Diplo says.
Asked how a collaboration with the New Yorker emerged, Diplo says: 'I knew, just like us, that he was doing something different in reggae and dancehall. We came together because we are all very crazy.'
You have to wonder: with friends like these, who needs a one-armed, zombie-killing commando?
Major Lazer, Volar, July 1
