Cuban Boys

One of the earliest groups to harness online platforms for exposure, Cuban Boys operated as an anarchic production outfit in the vein of the KLF. The quartet briefly achieved recognition during the closing years of the 1990s through their eccentric dance-pop built from fragmented samples. Assembled in Torquay during 1998, the lineup comprised Ricardo Autobahn, his sibling Jenny McLaren, Skreen B, and B.L. Underwood, none of whom ever disclosed their actual identities. Initial notice arrived when rumors circulated that Noel Gallagher of Oasis had created their track “Diophantus Arithmetica.” Their first release, the South Park-sampling “Oh My God! They Killed Kenny,” earned placement on influential Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s Festive Fifty list, after which the group issued the self-financed EP Blueprint for Modernisation; its cut “Cuban Boy” later served as the theme for the Scottish sitcom Still Game. Late in 1999 they scored an unexpected hit when “Cognoscenti vs Intelligentsia,” derived from the early internet meme Hampster Dance itself rooted in Roger Miller’s “Whistle Stop,” climbed to number four on the charts. Compelled to excise every unlicensed sample from their recordings, the band watched their debut album Eastwood fail commercially, prompting their label to drop them and inspiring a caustic cover of the Sex Pistols’ “EMI.” Thereafter Cuban Boys focused on self-released material distributed via their official website, among them the 2004 John Peel tribute “The Nation Needs You,” the 2008 album The Satellite Junkyard, and the 2010 compilation Art vs Commerce. Autobahn and McLaren subsequently collaborated on two albums as Spray, while Autobahn also handled production for Glen Campbell’s 2002 Top 20 remix of “Rhinestone Cowboy” and for Daz Sampson’s 2006 U.K. Eurovision Song Contest entry “Teenage Life.”