Formed in the late 1980s, Itch-E and Scratch-E is a music duo consisting of pioneering electronic artists Paul Mac and Andy Rantzen. They released their first album Irritable in 1992 and were mainly active in Sydney’s thriving underground rave scene.

A year later, they followed up their debut with the album Itch-E Kitch-E Koo, which featured the mega-hit ‘Sweetness and Light.’ The track found surprise commercial success, propelled by spots on music programs like Rage and on triple j (this extract is from triple j Hottest 100 2). It soon won the ARIA Award for Best New Dance Release in 1995 – the year the category was introduced. Paul Mac’s acceptance speech created a media furore when he stated: ‘We'd like to thank all of Sydney's ecstasy dealers, without whom this award would not be possible’.

Along with signalling a shift in youth culture towards electronic dance music, the track was acclaimed for its innovative playfulness with sound. In this excerpt of the song’s intro, repetition, a chittering breakbeat and angelic sampled vocals are used to build to eventual euphoric peaks.

Read our interview with Paul Mac.