Just take a look at the electronic musicians that would find success in the years following We No Speak Americano, and how many have ties - direct or indirect - to Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP. Eventually, these sounds simmered to the surface of Australian electronic culture and began the transition away from bloghouse, informing the future.
WE DONT SPEEK AMERIKANO CRACK
It’s one of the only Australian electronic songs to crack the ARIA Singles Chart’s top five (#4), UK Singles Chart (#1) and the Billboard 100 in the US (#29), marking a monumental feat for homegrown club music that in turn, inspired a new generation of musicians to explore similar sounds. Yolanda Be Cool are commonly associated with Australian bloghouse, but their music - We No Speak Americano specifically - was more important in inspiring what happened after that time, and how Australians interacted with club music at a more commercial level. The song was inspired by bloghouse no doubts, but it was far removed from the conventional sounds of the genre niche, instead searching for something a little more modern and slick compared to the sound’s typical rough-around-the-edges grit. We No Speak Americano’s arrival teetered at the book-end of the bloghouse explosion, fuelled in Australia by artists such as AJAX - who’d sign We No Speak Americano to his dance music label Sweat It Out, but we’ll talk about that shortly - alongside international efforts that together, have helped influenced many of today’s electronic heavyweights.
Take a look at its impact in the greater Australian electronic conversation, for example. In turn, it gives a good reason to reflect on the record and its influence in Australian electronic how a fun, 1950s Italian folk sample blossomed into something that would kickstart the careers for some of Australian electronic’s elite. While it was technically released in February 2010, last week saw a 10-year anniversary special of the single emerge, including new remixes and even a re-edit from Yolanda Be Cool themselves, revisiting the song a decade on from its release and updating it to 2020 tastes.
Released in 2010, the Yolanda Be Cool and DCUP collaboration closed a chapter of Australian electronic and opened a new one simultaneously, forging a new generation of musicians and DJs - an entire label worth, to start with - with its earworming bounce, one that has seen been covered by K-Pop groups and Alvin & The Chipmunks alike, and parodied more than any other Australian song we could think of. However, one thing we’re incredibly sure of is that We No Speak Americano would be somewhere at the top. It’s near-impossible to encapsulate so many generations and movements within a defining list - one that’d probably be irrelevant in just a few months later, knowing the strengths of current-day electronica too - and because of that, it’s something that’s been mostly left in the drafts pile, waiting for a burst of enthusiasm to bring it to life. The ‘Best Australian Electronic Songs of All Time’ headline has been spinning around at Pilerats for a couple of years now, but constantly pushed back due to the simply huge amount of effort needed to bring it to life.
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