Disco Montego | |
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Also known as | Kaylan, Studio 347 |
Origin | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
Genres | R&B, dance |
Years active | 1995 | –2005, 2010
Members | Dennis Dowlut |
Past members | Darren Dowlut |
Disco Montego (earlier known as Kaylan) are an Australian R&B and dance music performance, song writing and production duo. The Dowlut brothers Dennis and Darren, formed Kaylan in Melbourne in 1995. They released an R&B album No Commandments in 2000, which reached No. 23 in Australia and spawned three Top 50 singles. In May 2001, they became the studio based group, Disco Montego, and released further singles followed by Disco Montego in September 2002. Their production work included remixing Mariah Carey's "Boy (I Need You)" in 2004. The duo's music career was cut short when Darren died of cancer on 5 August 2005, six weeks after being diagnosed with a chest tumour. In 2010, Dennis revived the Disco Montego name with Michael Abdul and released "Hearts on Fire" to celebrate the FIFA World Cup. 2010 Dennis released his new band, Electric Empire's Album independently. Electric Empire have sold over 30,000 copies of their debut album world wide independently. With releases in the UK, Japan and France and touring the world with shows at Glastonbury Festival and Royal Albert Hall supporting Beverly Knight.
Dennis Dowlut was born in ca 1974 in United Kingdom, his younger brother, Darren, was born in ca 1978 in Mauritius. The Dowlut family relocated to Melbourne, Australia. By 1995, Dennis and Darren formed Kaylan as a R&B performance group, it was named for a nephew. Their parents returned to Mauritius. In 1996 the band signed with Warner Records.
From 1998, Kaylan started recording tracks with Rockmelons' Ray Medhurst, Bryon Jones and Jon Jones producing. Their first release was "Rock Me All Night" in March 2000, which peaked at No. 14 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Singles Chart. "Shake It" followed in August (No. 15) with the album, No Commandments (No. 23 on the ARIA Albums Chart), appearing in September. A third single, "Because of You" was released in March 2001 (No. 50). While working on No Commandments, the Dowlut brothers also wrote two tracks for Bardot (2000) the debut album by winner of reality TV contest Popstars, the pop group Bardot. They performed a dance role for Baz Luhrmann's film Moulin Rouge! (2001). Kaylan toured nationally in support of Vengaboys, then Destiny's Child and followed with a tour supporting Bardot. A bonus disc of five tracks remixed by Studio 347 (Darren Dowlut, Dennis Dowlut and Tony Vass) was released with No Commandments in Australia. Studio 347 remixed tracks, "These Days" and "ASAP" for Bardot and "When We Were Young" for pop vocal group Human Nature.