The Cuban Boys are an English electronic group and

production team A production team is the group of technical staff who produce a play, television show, recording, or film. Generally the term refers to all individuals responsible for the technical aspects of creating of a particular product, regardless of wher ...

, currently composed of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn; the band formerly also included B.L. Underwood ("Blu") and Jenny McLaren (Autobahn's sister). Their music is characterised by fast electronic beats, heavy reliance upon samples and the repetition of the

name drop Name-dropping (or name-checking or a shout-out) is the practice of naming or alluding to important people and institutions within a conversation,. story, song, online identity, or other communication. The term often connotes an attempt to impress ...

"the Cuban Boys" in the background of many of their tracks. They achieved success after being aired on John Peel's

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

show with sample-heavy dance tracks and

cut-up The cut-up technique (or ''découpé'' in French) is an aleatory literary technique in which a written text is cut up and rearranged to create a new text. The concept can be traced to the Dadaists of the 1920s, but it was developed and popularized ...

s and were responsible for the UK No. 4 hit single " Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" which was released through

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

Band formation

The Cuban Boys formed in 1998 using the Internet as a publicity and collaboration tool from the outset. After a web-only release of an anonymous dance track, "Diophantus Arithmetica", with hints that it was by

Noel Gallagher Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the chief songwriter, lead guitarist, and co-lead vocalist of the rock band Oasis until their split in 2009. After leaving Oasis, he formed ...

, they recorded "Oh My God! They Killed Kenny" (later retitled "Kenny"), which featured sampled dialogue from '' South Park'' combined with "The Bump" by

Kenny Kenny is a surname, a given name, and a diminutive of several different given names. In Ireland, the surname is an Anglicisation of the Irish ''Ó Cionnaith'', also spelt ''Ó Cionnaoith'' and ''Ó Cionaodha'', meaning "descendant of Cionnaith" ...

. This was played extensively by John Peel and took the 6th position in the 1998

Festive Fifty The Festive Fifty was originally an annual list of the year's 50 (though the exact figure varied above and below this number) best songs compiled at the end of the year and voted for by listeners to John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. It was usually do ...

. Following this it was released as the band's first single. A six-track EP, ''Blueprint for Modernisation'', followed. A track from this EP, "Cuban Boy (Cuban Boys Go Boom! Mix)", went on to be used as the theme music for the BBC sitcom '' Still Game''.

"Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia"

The Cuban Boys' next single, " Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" was built on a sample used from "Whistle Stop" by Roger Miller which was featured in the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

movie ''

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is dep ...

''. It was first featured online as part of the Hampster Dance song on the website of the same name. It was picked up by producer

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

who championed it and found a label to release it. The same sample was later used as the basis for the song "Irritating Hamster" by DJ Mavica, then as part of the Cuban Boys' hit (a close but noticeably different imitation of the original sample was used in the final release, as the licensing fees could not be met). "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" became a No. 4 hit in the UK in December 1999, following months of speculation and rumours - all of which turned out to be false - that the men behind the Cuban Boys project were in fact

Paul Weller Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul mu ...

and

of Oasis. Either way, the track received many requests for play on radio, and was heavily hyped as a contender for the

Christmas number one In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume ...

spot. Upon release, the single peaked at No. 4 on the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

chart, outsold only by

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

(with "

The Millennium Prayer "The Millennium Prayer" is a song recorded by English singer Cliff Richard, in which the words of the Lord's Prayer are set to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne". It was released in November 1999 as a charity single in the lead-up to the new millenni ...

"), and a re-release of

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

's "

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

". It also took the number one position in the 1999

. The Cuban Boys co-wrote Atomic Beat Boy with Helen Love, released as a CD single, followed by a 12" remix EP 'Helen Love Vs Cuban Boys: Does Your Heart Go Boom'.

''Eastwood''

In 2000, the Cuban boys released their first album, ''

Eastwood Eastwood may refer to: Places ;in Australia *Eastwood, New South Wales **Eastwood railway station **Electoral district of Eastwood *Eastwood, South Australia ;in Canada * Eastwood, Ontario *Eastwood, Edmonton, Alberta, a neighborhood ;in the Ph ...

'', through EMI but, despite the popularity of "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia", ''Eastwood'' suffered poor sales. It was not released in time to capitalise on the success of "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" and was given limited marketing. Some of the older tunes featuring unauthorised samples had them replaced by obvious imitations. Following the commercial failure of ''Eastwood'', the band were dropped by the label and left with some bitterness, later expressed through their releasing of a 7"

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the Sex Pistols' "EMI".

Later work

Commercially, little was heard of the band itself after ''Eastwood'', although they released several limited release singles and EPs. The band focused mainly on Internet downloads, and made much of their early discography available free of charge from their various websites and on Myspace. All the members became involved in other projects and although the Cuban Boys never formally split up, the band ceased to be active around 2001. Its members continued to work together under various names, most notably Spray. Following the death of John Peel in 2004, the Cuban Boys (now consisting only of Skreen B and Ricardo Autobahn) reformed to release a tribute song, "The Nation Needs You", as a free download.Cuban Boy
Discography
Following this, they returned to producing individual tracks, releasing some of them as download-only or limited release CD singles. In 2008, they released their first full album since ''Eastwood'', ''The Satellite Junkyard'' on their own record label, House of Beauty. In 2010, the Cuban Boys released a

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

compilation of their singles. ''Art vs Commerce'' amounted to twenty one tracks, and was released once again on House of Beauty Records. The cover for the CD consists of a booklet with new artwork and a detailed history of the band. Their third album, ''Machines'' was released in 2017.

Related acts

Members of the Cuban Boys have also worked on music under various names: *The Beatbox Saboteurs (Skreen B and BL Underwood) *Wave Runner *Space Kats * Spray (McLaren and Autobahn) *Dynamo Beat (Skreen B and BL Underwood) *PigynClust (Skreen B and BL Underwood) *Blu Thunder (BL Underwood) * Ricardo Autobahn (solo) *Rikki & Daz (Ricardo Autobahn and

Daz Sampson Darren "Daz" Sampson (born 28 November 1974) is a British professional football manager/scout, music producer and broadcaster. Sampson is known for his commercial dance music as part of several groups and his television appearances. He has had n ...

) *The Barndance Boys (Ricardo Autobahn and

)

Discography

Albums

*''

'', EMI (2000) *''The Satellite Junkyard'', House of Beauty / self-published (2008) *''Art vs Commerce - The Singles Collection'', House of Beauty / self-published (2010) *''Machines'', self-published (2017) Additionally, the Cuban Boys have featured on alternative compilation albums such as

Damaged Goods Damaged goods or Damaged Goods may refer to: * Goods that have been damaged, where goods are items that satisfy human wants and provide utility * A person considered to be less than perfect psychologically, as a result of a traumatic experience ...

' ''Totally Damaged'' sampler (unique track) and have done remix work featuring on other bands' singles and EPs, e.g.

Helen Love Helen Love are an indie band from Wales whose music is a combination of punk rock, bubblegum pop and disco dance music. The band was formed in 1992 by Helen Love (vocals, guitar) with Sheena (guitar, keyboards), Roxy (bass, drum machine), an ...

Singles and EPs

*"Oh My God! They Killed Kenny!", Rough Trade Shop (1998) (7" single, limited edition of 1000) *''Blueprint for Modernisation EP'', Org Records (1998) (6 track CD, limited edition of 1000) *" Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia", EMI (1999) - UK No. 4 *"Inertia Kicks", Stone the Kubist Records / self-published (2000) *''Old Skool for Scoundrels EP'', Prim & Proper / self-published (2000) (7" EP on yellow vinyl, limited edition of 1000) *"EMI", Damaged Goods (2000) (7" single) *"Drink" (originally "Drink Drink Drink"), Sanctuary Records (2001) (unreleased promotional CD) *"The Nation Needs You", self-published (2005) (promotional CD and free download) *"Spooky!", self-published (2007) *"The Penthouse Messiahs", self-published (2008) *"Summer Song", self-published (2009) *"All Girls Have a Volvo", self-published (2009) *"I'm Backing Britain", self-published (2009) (promotional CD) * "Datacrime 2011", self-published (2011) (downloadable single)

References

External links

Cuban Boys website
{{Authority control English electronic music duos Musical groups established in 1998 Musical groups from Devon Electronic dance music duos Record production duos British record production teams