I.R.O.K, which stands for Intergalactic Republic of Kongo, are an Afro-futurist electronic punk band from London fronted by a Moroccan guy called Mike Title. Yes, they’re as good as that sounds. Last year, amid political unrest, they went to Egypt in the middle of a revolution. What started as hair-brained plan that should never have worked resulted in one of the most spectacular shows you’ll ever see. The footage looks like it had a Hollywood director and months of storyboarding - but it was spontaneous and completely real. We spoke to Mike Title from the band to find out how they pulled it off, ahead of the documentary premiering tomorrow on Noisey.Noisey: Hi Mike! What made you want to go out to Egypt?Mike: We went out to Egypt for two reasons, I guess. We thought that our screaming over rowdy percussion and distorted keyboards would go down well as we had already gone down a storm in Morocco and I didn’t fancy Luton again. But mostly it was an exciting time in Egyptian history. President Morsi was violently hated and the second wave of revolution was tangible. Our faces don’t fit for those exchange program type projects that remind me of Live Aid, so we had to think of another way to do something there.I.R.O.K have a history of playing outside traditional spaces, right?We live in controlled and extremely anodyne times, so we need the physical and mental escape. I used to laugh at mobile phone adverts. I’d laugh at the goons in them partying at fake music festivals. I was always like, music festivals don’t look like that. Then one day you turn around in a field off your head and it looks like a mobile phone advert. It came true. I was sick of the superficiality that goes with living in London too. IROK is a vehicle for us to personally explore places we wouldn’t normally go. London is humiliatingly lacking in a music scene. It’s lacking in passion. Europe feels generally deflated.How were things different when you went to Egypt?In Egypt we explored a place where the police were afraid to go for fear of death. But we were protected by people that loved what we were trying to do, and respected our connections to North African chaabi music. We basically all wanted to party and we found a crowd that cut so loose that it redefined the concept of gigs for me forever.What are you doing now?I’m currently in Morocco trying to get as deep into it out here as I can. I’m hoping that musically, I can bring something back from the experience rather than just sampling a mosque or whatever. It’s a hustle once you get out there but it’s better than rehearsals or gigs with bouncers and t-shirt stands. Wherever you go you’ll always find people that want to party. That’s just common sense.Egypt: How To Play a Gig in a Revolution premieres on Noisey tomorrow.
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