Three Dutch producers who made funk for the festival crowd

Not many Dutch dance acts can say that Annie Nightingale and Pete Tong were early supporters, but that is how Kraak & Smaak got going. The trio from Leiden, Oscar de Jong, Mark Kneppers and Wim Plug, started recording in 2003, and the UK label Jalapeno Records put out their first 12-inch records.

The interest of those two broadcasters led to airplay and a guest mix for BBC Radio 1, followed by remixes for British artists and DJ tours across the US and Australia. Their debut album, Boogie Angst, appeared in the UK in 2006 and was later released in the United States, where tracks found their way into television series such as Grey's Anatomy. A live band was put together to play alongside the DJ sets, and the shows took them to Pinkpop, Sziget, SXSW, Bonnaroo and Coachella. The Remix Sessions, with reworkings by artists including Jamiroquai and Kruder & Dorfmeister, followed in 2007.

Plastic People arrived in 2008. Its first single, “Squeeze Me”, featuring the singer Ben Westbeech, reached number six in the Dutch pop charts, and its flip-book style video drew praise from Perez Hilton and Kanye West. That year they played Glastonbury and Bestival, then performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! during a US tour. In January 2009 they won a European Border Breakers Award, the EU-backed prize for acts that cross borders.

A third album, Electric Hustle, came out in 2011. “Think” belongs to that smooth, rhythmic world, built for dancing but never in a hurry. The trio's real talent is turning a bassline and a vocal hook into something warm, which explains why a studio project from a small Dutch city kept finding audiences in places as far apart as Miami and Australia.