Back in 1987, Mo & Benoelie were DJing for Ghent's youth every weekend, playing all sorts of music which was loved in those days. Back then they already reasoned that they should never shut themselves off from any style of music, that every blend, every genre, every movement was theirs for the taking. At first, they were being turned on by the strange and experimental sounds coming from the city's Boccaccio club. Over there, 12-inches were purposefully pitched down and extended, the result being a deep, metronomic, groove-laden experience, which later would be labelled as Belgian New Beat. Also back then, they made their first trip to Ibiza. Seeing Alfredo playing early electronic stuff mixed with all sorts of pop and funk at Amnesia, Mo & Benoelie really got hooked. Always open to new musical revolutions, they adapted all these sounds and experiences and took them to their new 300 capacity residency called the Fifty Five where they were playing every Saturday marathon sessions from 10pm till 8am.
A couple of years later, when there was only house music being played in clubs, Mo & Benoelie were being seen as the 'outsiders' in the Belgian club scene. They played 'other' stuff inbetween. They were not afraid of mixing stuff like The Residents, or The Cramps, or even campy disco inbetween the 'popular' 4/4 house & techno music. Soon they started to develop a loyal following, which would later result in a new scene in Ghent's diverse but booming nightlife.
New parties were being thrown at different locations, and all promoters were trying to find the most original one, because in Ghent there were no Clubs at all. You had 'Free The Funk' in an old glass factory, 'Pablo Eskimo Bar' in an old underwear factory, 'Belmondo' in a contemporary arts museum, 'PopLife' in one of the city's oldest concerthall..
The legendary R & S Records (that was also based in Gent) released "Free The Funk Compilation 1" back in 1995, which was an unmixed compilation with mostly instrumental, mid tempo electronic funk. Four follow ups and a lot of parties later, Mo & Benoelie programmed the first Eskimo compilation: "The Past Presents The Future, The Future Presents The Past" (2000). Their amalgamation of new beat, funk, dub, house, techno, party hip hop, new wave, edgy post-punk disco and more was a revelation to those bored of linear mix albums.
Several follow ups and a Sidetracks later, in January 2003, Johnno Burgess (Bugged Out!, Jockey Slut) decided to give the guys a break and invited them for a DJ slot at one of his Bugged Out! parties @ The End in London. Since then, they were being seen all over the world as the Glimmer Twins..
In 2004 they shortened their name into 'The Glimmers' for obvious reasons and released their highly acclaimed 'Remixed, Re-edited and F*cked Up' album for Eskimo Recordings (The White Box). A DJ Kicks in the famous series for !K7 Records followed (2005) and more recently they mixed their 'journey' in the amazing FabricLive series runned by top night club Fabric in London.
Meanwhile remixes have been done for Bloc Party, The Killers, New Order, Roxy Music, Isolee, Phoenix, Pop Del Arte, Snow Patrol, Calvin Harris, Shirley Bassey and The Chemical Brothers.
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.