Monkey Steak, the electronica duo comprised of Hanuman and Atki2 were formed in New Cross, South London in October 2000. Starting life as The Milk Junkies with DJ El Shalamar they made skewed drum and bass and ragga with heavy funk and jazz overtones. When El Shalamar moved on to pursue a more housey style of music, Hanuman and Atki2 became Monkey Steak. This is where tings got heavy. Initially Monkey Steak continued to pursue the drum and bass/jungle vibe with tunes such as Shiva Las Vegas, a rinsing dnb blast which is still a firm crowd favourite and Jamaican Girl Style a classic ragga/jungle cut. These went on to form part of the ‘Party Music for Twats’ EP. Monkey Steak have since diversified their sound quite considerably and now mix up a variety of styles including dub, ragga, hip-hop, 2step, grime, as well as more eclectic styles like funk, soul, bhangra, and rave. Monkey Steak’s exploration of garage and grime has been an important step in the development of the Steak Beat sound and has led to the first Monkey Steak release, Grim Dubs 01 released on Werk discs.

Monkey Steak have also worked on a variety of multimedia pieces such as the Independent film Kay (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438130/), the anthropological documentary, From lost to the River and the Victoria and Albert museum design symposium The Sound of Print (http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk/13065.htm) as well as Life’s a Dream, at the Blue Elephant theatre, Camberwell.