Pnau
Pnau first gained recognition through their 1999 debut album Sambanova, which later won an ARIA Music Awards for Best Dance Release.
[16] The album was pulled from record stores for using uncleared samples, but re-released in June 2000 and peaked inside the ARIA top 40.
Littlemore further explained that his opinions are influenced by the albums' commercial success, which is an easy headspace for him to get into since "everyone loves Empire of the Sun, it's sold 1.1 million records.
"[18] Despite the seemingly unfavourable album response, several tracks received considerable acclaim - the most noteworthy being "We Love the Fresh Kills" which was a significantly popular single for the duo at the time.
[6] However, because of Again's lackluster success the pair parted ways for some time to work with other artists such as Robbie Williams,[21] Van She,[22] and Lost Valentinos.
[23] In 2007, the duo reunited and wrote over two-hundred songs together and started to lay down an entire album with Littlemore's brother Sam as producer.
After receiving the track, the Littlemore brothers and Mayes agreed to scrap almost everything they had laid down to focus on a more vocally centred album.
The album not only featured vocal work from Steele and Littlemore, but also had many guest appearances such as Ladyhawke, Feadz, Nik Yannika from Lost Valentinos and Michael DeFrancesco from Van She.
[25] The album was released to high critical acclaim[6] and gained unexpected favorable attention from John,[7][26][27][28] declaring it to be the greatest record he'd heard in ten years.
[32] Empire of the Sun has achieved international success having been certified 2× Platinum in Australia[10] and gold in the United Kingdom,[11] as well as winning eleven ARIA awards.
[12] PNAU makes it clear on their Myspace numerous times that not only is Empire of the Sun a side project of theirs, but that they are also the producers.
[34][35] The reality had been that Nick Littlemore had left Empire of the Sun to begin work on the fourth Pnau album along with John.
[8] In 2010, Pnau's track "Baby" (remixed by Breakbot) appeared in the release of Sony Computer Entertainment's "Gran Turismo 5", in the Background Music (BGM) playlist.
In February 2011, Pnau released "The Truth", the lead single from their forthcoming fourth studio album, Soft Universe.
[37] The album was positively received, although mainly critics expressed discontent with the lack of the "endearing weirdness of previous Pnau and Empire releases.
[39] On 10 March 2012, the first remix track from the anticipated, upcoming John rework album commissioned for Pnau was leaked, initially airing on Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 broadcast.
Over the next few years, Pnau released singles with Budjerah, Troye Sivan, Khalid, Bebe Rexha and Ozuna.
