As the dense cloud of dry ice engulfing the stage thins out, the silhouettes of two young men in black jeans and face-concealing trademark hoodies emerge from the swirls of smoke, their appearance accompanied by a hard-hitting electronic beat that the crowd before them instantly tunes into and literally goes crazy to.

This is essentially what went down when Brighton-based Maltese lads South Central followed up Fatboy Slim’s DJ set at Ta’ Qali last month, but it could just as easily refer to any of their performances in the past two years or so, whether headlining their own gigs in the UK, Europe and beyond, as opening acts on tour with The Prodigy and Pendulum, performing on the same stage as Rage Against The Machine in Finsbury Park or wrapping up the Sonisphere Festival after Iron Maiden last year.

Rage Against The Machine and Iron Maiden are hardly bands one would expect an electronic act to perform with, surely.

“To be entirely honest, we were scared stiff of stepping onto the stage after Iron Maiden since we had to close the festival,” Robert Chetcuti, the keyboard-handling half of this much-talked about duo admits, adding the gig actually went rather well despite their fears.

Witnessing thousands of hard-rockers getting into their music was quite a pleasant surprise.

The duo’s connection with rock festivals is more plausible when one bears in mind that South Central’s earlier work involved a fair bit of guitar work.

“It did… but that was then, and this is now,” Keith Camilleri, the computer whiz half of South Central states quite matter-of-factly.

A dab hand at inventing customised sound gadgets and devices, he is also responsible for the stream of warped, processed beats and sounds that reel out incessantly from the speakers during live performances.

“We’ve moved on from the stuff that’s on (2008 compilation) The Owl of Minerva.”

Not dismissing guitars entirely, as anything and everything can be used in the studio, he defines their music now as “dominated by synths; a clear pointer we’re moving more towards electronica instead of flitting in between genres”.

Given that new album Society of the Spectacle was finished around a year ago (although it was only released last month), where are their musical bearings rooted right now?

“We’ve moved further on from the songs on the album,” Chetcuti explains.

“As we’re promoting the album, we need to focus on that as well as taking care of our fanbase.”

Camilleri concurs, but assures they’ll still be “doing their thing”, which he explains, “is basically to find the right balance of dance-orientated music that will still appeal to audiences beyond the clubbing circuit”.

Acknowledging the indie-dance streak at the core of South Central’s early releases, this rather seems like the next logical step, perhaps more so given they’ve spent so much time on the road with The Prodigy and Pendulum, whose music is equally informed by an electro-rock crossover.

Having toured and performed in so many different cities and countries, it may seem odd that South Central only got to perform in Malta last year, when they opened for The Prodigy.

“We had wanted to play here for ages, but hadn’t got the opportunity,” Chetcuti confirms. But did the experience live up to their expectations?

The funny side was that no-one seemed to realise they were Maltese. “Everyone interviewed us in English, so we surprised them all by answering in Maltese,” he laughs.

Strangely enough, the current two-man line-up is more often than not billed as a DJ act, when in reality it is much more than that.

“We started out with a full band line-up, but that format is currently on hold,” Chetcuti explains.

“We have to call our act a DJ set because we use bits of songs by other artists in our set”, he says, referring to the mind-blowing mash-ups of epic hits by Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Rammstein and countless other artists that they throw into the mix during their sets.

“That said however, the music is played and processed live during the set, which gives us an edge over normal DJ sets as we have more freedom in changing and manipulating the music instantly in reaction to the crowd response.”

If their way with a ‘DJ set’ seems rather outlandish, that’s probably because South Central don’t often do things the conventional way. Take the first single off the album for example; Demons was released as a free track with the Fireplayer remix app.

In contrast, they took a risk with the controversial music video for next single The Day I Die (which was recently also released through the Fireplayer app), which might be deemed as rather graphic by some.

“It was a risk but it was something we really wanted to do. There were mixed reactions to it, but I’d say that the majority of people understood the point behind it…and on a positive note, everyone liked the track,” Camilleri says.

Other hints of South Central’s far-from-ordinary approach are the inclusion of Gary Numan and A Place To Bury Strangers on the album. “Numan is one of our heroes so working with him was a dream come true…an honour for us,” says Chetcuti.

Despite the album being only weeks old, South Central’s focus is not weighed down by related promotional duties.

“We’re currently working on new singles which we’re keen to release so we can share where we’re at right now with our music,” Chetcuti is keen to point out.

Camilleri is just as enthusiastic. He says the duo have been experimenting with some new sounds and techniques and are quite excited with what they’ve done so far.

Of course, before releasing anything there’s their first full gig in Malta at Gianpula on Saturday to look forward to.

“We’re planning to lay on something special for the occasion so we hope to see you there.”

South Central: Come Back Home Live will be held at Gianpula on Saturday. Local DJs Darvas, Jay Zinga (Mathematikal), Squeak and Lierbag will be performing.

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