Utah Saints

Despite their name, there;s no discernible link between Utah Saints and the U.S. state from which they’ve taken their name; instead, they hail from Leeds, and are an electronic dance music duo who’ve been prominent in the genre since 1990. Over the course of an illustrious career to date, Jez Willis and Tim Garbutt have become well-known within their own scene and beyond for the manner in which they’ve brought sampling into the dance genre, often taking classic pop songs - like Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’ on their single ‘Something Good’ - and mashing them up against dance beats in order to present them in an entirely new context. For the first decade or so of their existence, Utah Saints played live shows with a full band, but despite maintaining a strong live following across Europe, they decided to move in a different direction in 2001, and since then have only performed in front of crowds as DJs. Not that that’s had an adverse effect on their live stock, though; their set at Wickerman Festival in Scotland in 2009 was so influential that it was nominated for a raft of festival awards that same year, and the pair continue to tour the UK and Europe frequently; they’re cult icons within their own scene.