EXCLUSIVE MIX: MAO RA SUN

Mao Ra Sun are a Brightonian duo centered around soulful, bassy electronic music. Having released their debut single 'Ways Of Seeing' earlier this year to wide critical aclaim, even from the omniscient Sun Ra - their debut album could well be one of the album highlights of 2014. We had a quick chat with the guys below:

Mao Ra Sun. Does that mean you have the cosmic sensibility of Sun Ra combined with the ruthless democidal tendencies of Chairman Mao? Or are you amateur chemist tipping your hats to the wonderful work of monoamine oxidases
Probably a mix of the former and the latter, minus any dictatorial tendencies though.

In your press shot you're covering your eyes like two 'see no evil' wise monkeys. Was the photographer really ugly or are you keeping your identity under wraps?
Neither, the photographer was a stunner but we’re both super ugly. Also we liked it in the early days of dance music when the music was anonymous and it wasn’t about image or hype, we’re in this for the music.

What is it that makes Brighton such a fertile ground for DJs and producers?
I guess Brighton always attracts arty free thinking types like ourselves from all over the world who end up staying here, it’s also so small that it’s easy to meet like minded people and play off each others creativity. I don’t think there are too many places like Brighton in the UK, when you go elsewhere you really notice it. We couldn't live anywhere where you don’t see at least one cross dresser a day. I did see a guy juggling in front of a queue of traffic recently and wanted to leave Brighton though.

Your debut single 'Ways of Seeing' with Tracey Duodou was pretty soulful, with some more dancefloor orientated remixes. Is the album going to be mainly song-based? Can you give us any hints of guests of collabs?
We're hearing you've worked with Mumdance...
The album’s a mixture really, about eight of the eleven tracks have vocals but all our tracks start out stripped back and clubby so they have rhythms and a tough low end that still works in the rave. We’re both fans of a full vocal track or two in our DJ sets anyway, it can add emotion, interest and works well dynamically. Yeah we did a grime track with Mumdance for Keysound but he’s not on the album, we plan to work together again but that guys rightfully blowing up at the moment so he’s busy. As far as album collaborations go we’ve got Lulu James on a few tracks, Dems on a a couple of songs, a new duo called Rivrs who are sick, our friend Marin kills it on her track & we’ve done an emo one with this band called Seasfire.

What's next?

We’ve already started writing our next album which is sounding tough & we’ve just done a remix of Moko’s next single ‘Your Love’, we’re also working on our live show to support the album.

Listen to the mix below -

Tracklist:

1. Uberstrung - Vermont
2. Hold me - Cooly G
3. Hangover (Moodyman Mix) - Moodyman
4. Journey To Kelper - French Fries
5. Plimpton - Lazlo Dancehall
6. Bedroom Jam - Erosion Flow
7. Links - Elgato
8. PD 124 - Four tet 
9. Jeremih loop - Mickey Pierce
10. Ways of seeing - Mao Ra Sun
11. Julia - Daphni & Owen Pallett
12. Able to Maximise (Mao Ra Sun remix) - Crookers
13. Fallen  - Last Magpie 
14. Falling (Mao Ra Sun remix) - Lune