"Sweetness and Light" is a song recorded by Australian

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

group

Itch-E and Scratch-E Itch-E and Scratch-E are an Australian electronic music group formed in 1991 by Paul Mac (a.k.a. Itch-E, Mace) and Andy Rantzen (a.k.a. Scratch-E, Boo Boo), both playing keyboards and samples. The duo recorded as Boo Boo & Mace! during the lat ...

. The song was released in May 1994 and peaked at number 65 on the

Australian singles chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian record chart, music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA beca ...

. The group have later said they weren't sure if the song was good with Andy Rantzen saying "When we'd finished mixing 'Sweetness and Light' I said 'Hmm, this is a bit disappointing' and Paul replied 'I know, where did we go wrong?' At the

ARIA Music Awards of 1995 The Ninth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) was held on 20 October 1995 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. There had been a 18-month gap since the ...

, the song won the inaugural ARIA Award for Best Dance Release. In his acceptance speech, Paul Mac controversially declared "We'd like to thank all of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

ecstasy Ecstasy most often refers to: * Ecstasy (emotion), a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness * Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness, visions or absolute euphoria * Ecstasy (philosophy), to be or stand o ...

dealers, without whom this award would not be possible." The televised version censored the speech, causing a media frenzy, but Mac was unrepentant, years later calling it "the best career move I ever made. I got in so much trouble for that, but I don't care. I'm still proud of it. I meant every word, and I still do."

Reception

In 2015, "Sweetness and Light" was listed at number 1 in In the Mix's '100 Greatest Australian Dance Tracks of All Time' with Nick Jarvis saying "Paul Mac and Andy Rantzen's greatest track symbolises the turning point when the previously underground rave scene suddenly stepped into the mainstream consciousness."

Track listings

1994 CD single # "Sweetness and Light" (Radio edit) - 4:04 # "Sweetness and Light" (Fanatically Remixed By South End) - 5:45 # "Sweetness and Light" (Sound & Suthers At the Controls) - 5:32 # "Transcendental" (Alien Headspace's Ideal Forms remix) - 11:57 2012 Digital single # "Sweetness and Light" (Puddles remix) # "Sweetness and Light" (StephenFox remix) # "Sweetness and Light" (Bside's Long mix) # "Sweetness and Light" (Telafonica remix) # "Sweetness and Light" (Highly Dubious remix) # "Sweetness and Light" (Glowing Sugar remix) # "Sweetness and Light" (Vajra remix) 2017 Vinyl single # "Sweetness and Light" # "Sweetness and Light" (For Life remix)

Charts

Release history

References

{{reflist 1994 singles 1994 songs ARIA Award-winning songs