Dada Life

Swedish duo Dada Life stood apart from other EDM acts through a brand of humor that matched the scale of their bass drops, climbing to prominence across the 2010–2011 period. Formed in 2006 by Stockholm-based producers and DJs Olle Corneer and Stefan Engblom, the pair fused pop-tinged electro textures—the “Life” element—with deliberately ridiculous catchphrases such as “Bass don’t cry” and “Never bring your brain to a rave,” all wrapped in a bombastic stance that nodded to the 1910s and 1920s avant-garde movement known as Dada. Their 2006 single “The Great Fashonista Swindle” on Pickadoll mocked the Sex Pistols via its cover art, while “The Great Smorgasbord,” issued the same year on Southern Fried, celebrated processed meat; “Do the Dada,” released in 2007 on Alphabet City, playfully referenced the group itself. Each track proved reliable on dance floors that favored polished electro. The project took formal shape in 2009 with the Hussle-issued debut album Just Do the Dada, whose song titles included “Don’t Snort the Yellow Snow” and “So You Wanna Be a Prankster?” Subsequent European dates introduced crowds to an energetic live spectacle that sent inflatable objects sailing through the audience, while the duo’s tour contract compelled promoters to supply champagne and bananas backstage; failure to comply resulted in a tech-house set restricted to 188 BPM or slower. In 2010 the pair supported Tiësto on the road, handled remixes for artists ranging from Kylie Minogue to Chickenfoot, and joined Dimitri Vegas, Like Mike, and Tara McDonald on the single “Tomorrow (Give In to the Night).” The following year they topped the bill at Los Angeles’s Electric Daisy Festival, bringing a marching band onstage, issued the hit “Kick Out the Epic Motherf*&cker” on their own So Much Dada imprint, and launched the Sausage Fattener audio plug-in that supplied laptop producers with extra “sausage fat” bass. Their updated emblem—two bananas encircling a champagne bottle—first appeared on the 2011 release “White Noise/Red Meat” and later adorned the 2012 follow-up album The Rules of Dada.