Sam Binga & Addison Groove Get Back to the Raw on 'BAGS INC.' [Q&A]

Sam Binga and Addison Groove first crossed paths during the UK’s early-2010s juke and footwork surge, putting their instincts on record with 2013’s BS3 EP for Modeselektor's 50 Weapons imprint. More than a decade later, the Bristol producers have stretched that chemistry across a full-length project.

BAGS INC., their debut collaborative album on Binga’s Pineapple Records, began with a 72-hour session at Devon Analogue Studios. Surrounded by drum machines, analogue synths and effects, the pair chased raw ideas rather than polished arrangements, pulling from Chicago box jams, Detroit jit, electro, acid and Bristol’s soundsystem culture. Those sketches were later shaped into 12 fast, stripped-back club tracks and road-tested everywhere from Outlook Origins to a live hardware set at fabric.

Ahead of the album, Binga also visited Beatport's Los Angeles HQ for a Beatport Live x Pineapple Records takeover, closing the night alongside Machinedrum and Cesco (watch the video below). 

We caught up with Binga and Addison Groove to discuss rainy Tuesdays, studio chaos, machine funk and where BAGS INC. goes next.

You first crossed paths more than a decade ago during the UK juke and footwork crossover era, and have collaborated sporadically since. Why did now feel like the right time to make a full record together?

Sam Binga: In some senses the record’s actually been in the works for a couple years now - there was a point in late 2022 / early 2023 where Pineapple had a bit of money in the bank, so I figured it would be an idea to do something exciting with it. I know Tony enjoys nerding out over synths the same way I do, so that’s why I booked out Devon Analogue. We got the initial ideas done there, and then whittled away at it as and when we felt like it ever since. Fortuitously, now feels like a good time to release it though - seems like there’s a renewed appreciation for all things raw and ‘ghettotech’...

Addison Groove: We didn't lean on current trends too much when making this album, but we do have a love for the more analog jackin sounds from places such as Chicago, Detroit and Miami. But really it's just nerding out in a room of gear and seeing what hits our ear.

The album came together during a 72-hour session at Devon Analogue Studios. What was it about working in that environment, with such a defined window of time, that shaped the record? Do you think it would have sounded different if you'd approached it over a longer period?

Sam Binga: I’m a big fan of trying different ways to approach how you make music - I think that’s why I love collaborating in general, as it helps you get out of whatever routine you usually end up in. So just being in a space with no distractions, so much inspiring kit, and having a bit of rough thematic framework going in just got us firing out quick sketches and ideas, knowing that it would be pointless spending the time EQing hi-hats or worrying about arrangement details.

Addison Groove: There is an excitement of going into an environment where there is a load of gear you haven't used before that you get free reign on. I grew up looking at pictures in future music of Oberheim Xpander’s, Waldorf Wave’s and Pultec eq’s and wondering how they sound or what the knobs feel like, or what sort of sound the buttons make when you click them. Devon Analog gave us the chance to try that, and at times it could feel overwhelming but the plan was to sketch out as much as possible, not make a tune as such but get ideas down to take back home and tinker away at.

How did you divide the work in the studio? Was there an unspoken understanding of who gravitated towards certain ideas, or did those roles emerge naturally as the sessions unfolded?

Sam Binga: while we were in Devon Analogue, we both pretty much just went for it with whatever we were vibing off at that moment - so maybe Tony would be jamming out on the 303 and I’d be patching that through some classic FX units, or I’d get a riff going on an Oberheim, and Tony would be tweaking the controls live while improvising on a 909. It’s such a fun place to be as a music nerd, so it’s easy to get lost in a ‘creative mess’ - and that’s how all the best stuff happens, in my opinion. Once we took the sketches back to Bristol, there was a fairly intense period of figuring out what we’d recorded, and why - some things that sounded amazing at 3 AM with a bottle of rum definitely sounded a bit less exciting on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in the studio!

Addison Groove: It was those rainy Tuesdays where we’d sift through it all, do the less exciting bits that in turn lead to the finishing of tracks.

BAGS INC. draws on a rich lineage of UK club music and Midwest dance music. What is it about those sounds that continues to inspire you, and how did they shape the sound of the record?

Sam Binga: There’s just something about raw, simple ideas, done well, and presented with enough panache that they don’t feel like pastiche. I still hold onto the idea of the ‘ideal’ club environment - sweaty basement, one strobe, big system, locked in crowd, grooves not buildups - and this kind of music fits that vision perfectly for me.

Addison Groove: I still play the music of Deeon, Godfather, Funk, Johnson, Traxman - the dance mania catalog basically. It’s especially fun playing it to a crowd who haven't heard it before and seeing them lose themselves. Timeless club music. Along with that is footwork and juke which will forever be a part of me and the journey. So those influences will always come into the music, the hard part is not over doing it when making that sort of stuff, keeping it simple is a lot harder to do.

You first road-tested tracks from BAGS INC. at Outlook Origins before launching the record with a live hardware performance at fabric. Was the project always conceived with live performance in mind, and if so, did that influence the way you wrote and produced the record?

Sam Binga: The idea of building this into a live set bubbled up over time, and came together once we had the bulk of the album finished - while the initial sessions at Devon Analogue were very compressed, time-wise, it took a while to get everything into a finished state - and then were was a point where was almost like we suddenly realised, ‘hang on - this is actually a full album now - and it’s sick!’.

Addison Groove: I think from the way the album was made - noodling around on synths and groove boxes - that gave us the idea that we can do this live and how fun that could be. And then once the idea of a live set at fabric came around it really made us start to think how this was possible. Thankfully toward the end of last year Roland released the TR 1000 which became the backbone of the live setup.

BAGS INC. has a distinct visual identity, from the artwork through to the videos for 'FKN SRS' and 'Sacude'. How important was it to build a visual world around the record, and what ideas or references informed the project's aesthetic?

Sam Binga: I found the initial visual inspiration super early in the project - I was looking at Jonny Dub’s photography website, and the image of a super-clean low-rider in Tokyo grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. It just seemed to sum up the project so well - taking iconic American influences, and then reworking them across the world, but giving them a different spin.

BAGS INC. feels like more than just an album. What are your ambitions for the project over the coming year, and where do you see it evolving from here?

Sam Binga: Now that we’ve got the live kit, I’d obviously love to do more live shows, but I also want to get to a place where we can jam out ideas in the studio using that same setup, and then just tweak them into a releasable format from there, rather than having full separation between the ‘writing’ and ‘performing’ aspects of the process. I think there’s a really dope immediacy you can get from working that way, and I think it would be sick to tap into that more directly.

Addison Groove: We did an all night event at Strange Brew recently, we took the machines and it became a sort of hybrid style set and I think that sort of format is something we’d love to keep doing going forward. Any opportunities to take the kit to different spaces and environments would be a welcome challenge for both of us.

Sam Binga & Addison Groove's BAGS INC. album is out now via Pineapple Records.

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