Rob Dougan
Robert Don Hunter Dougan is an Australian composer, known for his genre-blending music. Mixing elements of orchestral music, trip hop, and bluesy vocals, his work is tangentially relatable to electronic music. "Clubbed to Death" was re-released on his debut album Furious Angels in 2002, seven years after its initial release, as well as providing several variations of the song, most notably the Kurayamino variation; he has also provided a variation of the Moby song "Porcelain".
Also recorded as Rob D · Robert Don Hunter Dougan
Rob Dougan
- Name
- Rob Dougan
- Birth Name
- Robert Don Hunter Dougan
- Born
- 1969
- Birthplace
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Occupation
- Songwriter, composer, producer, mixer, remixer
- Nationality
- Australia.
- Fields
- electro.
- Languages
- English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Robert Don Hunter Dougan is an Australian composer, known for his genre-blending music. Mixing elements of orchestral music, trip hop, and bluesy vocals, his work is tangentially relatable to electronic music. "Clubbed to Death" was re-released on his debut album Furious Angels in 2002, seven years after its initial release, as well as providing several variations of the song, most notably the Kurayamino variation; he has also provided a variation of the Moby song "Porcelain".
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Rob Dougan. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q963350 · wikipedia · Rob Dougan
In this article
Biography
Biography
In 1995, he teamed up with Rollo Armstrong to remix the U2 song "Numb"; the remix was titled "Numb (Gimme Some More Dignity Mix)".
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Rob Dougan • Birth Name — Robert Don Hunter Dougan • Alias — Rob D The OT Quartet Dignity Rollo & Rob D • Born — 1969 • Birthplace — Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Genre — Trip hop, electronica, neoclassical • Occupation — Songwriter, composer, producer, mixer, remixer • Years Active — 1991–present • Label — Sony, BMG, Reprise, Warner Bros. • Associated Acts — Rollo Armstrong Don Davis • Website — http: www.robdougan.com/ https: subscribe.robdougan.com/
Early life, family and education
Early life, family and education
Dougan was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1969 to Don and Margaret, one of six children. Raised in Sydney, he attended Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview then the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where he studied acting. In an interview, he recalled the only albums in the family home were of Beethoven, Louis Armstrong, Cleo Laine and Ennio Morricone.
Career
Career
From 1991 to 1995, Dougan was a producer and remix artist. In 1994, his remixes started charting in the United Kingdom. He also released his first single, "Hard Times". In 1995, his hit single "Clubbed to Death" gave him a recognised name in the UK dance club scene. He produced half a dozen remixes of it, including the "Kurayamino Variation". His label Mo' Wax Records was pleased and commissioned the follow-up, "Clubbed to Death 2" (later the bonus track on the album). CTD2 was never released as a single, but appeared on the James Lavelle disc of the 1996 DJ mix compilation album, Cream Live 2. During this time, he contributed music to Impossible Princess, the studio album of fellow Australian, Kylie Minogue. "Furious Angels" was not released on Mo' Wax, but Dougan eventually released it as a single in 1998 on Rollo's label Cheeky Records. Dougan worked for the following six years, doing remixes and licensing his tracks, in order to self-produce the album, which was backed by a full orchestra and a full choir. "Furious Angels" also featured as the musical score accompanying the introduction sequence for the 2000 racing simulation game Grand Prix 3. In 1999, his exposure increased dramatically when his "Clubbed to Death (Kurayamino Variation)" was featured on the soundtrack of The Matrix. He contributed two more tracks to the soundtrack of 2003's The Matrix Reloaded, "Château" and "Kung Fu" (a shortened version of "Furious Angels" made for The Matrix Reloaded). Some of the orchestral material for these tracks was recorded at 20th Century Fox Newman Scoring Stage where Star Wars had been scored. "I'm Not Driving Anymore (instrumental)" was also used for the trailer of the film and as background music for the DVD menu. The song was also featured in the 2001 racing movie Driven with vocals. He credits this career breakthrough to support of American DJ Jason Bentley. In 2002 in the UK, and 2003 in the rest of the world, Dougan released his debut album Furious Angels, which was met with "Generally favorable" reviews from critics. Later in 2003, a two-disc re-release of Furious Angels featured all-instrumental versions on the second disc. In 2006, Dougan was reportedly writing "a couple of songs" for Sugababes (for whom he produced the single "Too Lost in You"), and working on two albums of his own — one original, one classical. A short film made for jewelry designer Solange Azagury-Partridge, The Letter, directed by Laurence Dunmore and starring Thandiwe Newton and Jason Isaacs features new music by Rob Dougan; the short film, however, does not mention the title of the song. In May 2015, Dougan released The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sessions on his official site. The EP, recorded at London's Air Lyndhurst Studios with a 84-piece orchestra and 50-voice choir, consists of five instrumental songs and a 20-minute film of the sessions. In October 2016, Dougan released Misc. Sessions EP on his official site. The EP, recorded at Abbey Road Studios with a 10-piece and 50-piece string section, consists of five tracks, with orchestra and instrumental mixes and an 18-minute film. In 2018 Dougan compiled and released Films: Past and Future his first solely instrumental release, comprising 21 tracks available for the first time on vinyl, CD and digital download. The album was released via direct-to-fan company PledgeMusic just at the time that the organisation announced it was experiencing issues and had failed to pay many artists the monies that had been pledged to them. In a personal project update posted on 18 February, Rob confirmed that he had been affected by the issues but, having already released the album digitally, had met the costs of physical releases himself, with the CD, vinyl and accompanying book due for release on 4 March 2019. In February 2019, Dougan released The Life of the World to Come, a brand new four track EP which includes "The Life of the World to Come", "Beautiful Things", "Quasimodo's Dream" and "And Then I Think of You". Each song was released with an accompanying instrumental version and two of the tracks were cover versions - "Beautiful Things" written by Leslie Bricusse and "Quasimodo's Dream" by The Reels. The EP is published by Engard Ltd and was released by Dougan himself via Gumroad.
Style
Style
Dougan's vocal style has been compared to Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, his composition approach to that of film score composers John Barry and Barry Adamson. He frequently uses orchestral elements in his music, notably Elgar's Enigma Variations in "Clubbed to Death (The First Mix)." Though placed in the camp of dance and techno, in an interview with the Guardian early in his career, Dougan distanced himself from the genre, identifying more strongly with Classical music: "I'm associated with dance music, with electronica, which makes me feel ill. I only learnt all the boring computer crap as a means to an end. Virtually all musicians these days use computers, but if you write a book on a computer, nobody calls it electronic writing... I know it's not a fashionable attitude, but there is a musical hierarchy, and writing a song is not the same as writing a symphony. Classical music is a lot harder to do: it's richer, and it will leave you with more."
Non-musical activities
Non-musical activities
In 2004, Dougan founded a vineyard called La Pèira in the Terrasses du Larzac region of France.
Studio albums
Studio albums
List of studio albums, with selected chart positions • Title — Album details — Peak chart positions • AUS • Furious Angels — * Released: July 2002 *Label: Cheeky Records, BMG * Formats: CD, digital download, LP — 174
Compilation albums
Compilation albums
List of albums, with selected details • Title — Release details • Films: Past and Future - An Instrumental Anthology — * Released: 9 December 2018 * Formats: CD, digital download, LP • The Opening Trilogy — * Released: 2019 * Formats: CD, digital download, LP
Extended plays
Extended plays
List of albums, with selected details • Title — Release details • The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sessions — * Released: 9 May 2015 * Formats: Digital download • Misc. Sessions — * Released: 23 October 2016 * Formats: Digital download • The Life of the World to Come — * Released: 21 February 2019 * Formats: Digital download
Singles
Singles
List of singles, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name • Title — Year — Peak chart positions — Album • AUS — IRE — UK • "Hard Times" — 1995 — — — — — — — Non-album single • "Clubbed to Death" — 92 — 27 — 24 — The Matrix: Music from the Motion Picture and Furious Angels • "Furious Angels" — 1998 — 125 — 45 — 42 — The Matrix Reloaded: The Album and Furious Angels • "—" denotes a title that did not chart, or was not released in that territory.
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
List of miscellaneous, with selected details • Title — Release details • Clubbed to Death 2 — * Released: 1999 * Formats: 12″ • Rehearsals (Dec 2018) — * Released: 2018 * Formats: CD-R, digital download
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1995
Rob Dougan-Clubbed to Death (1995) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
2002
Rob Dougan - Furious Angels (Disc Two - Instrumental Versions) CDRip ~soapdi.sh~ (2002) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Will Hodgkinson. Sick of dance music. The Guardian. 29 August 2003.
- 2.Margaret DOUGAN Death Notice - Sydney, New South Wales Sydney Morning Herald. tributes.smh.com.au.
- 3.Rob Dougan Profile.
- 4.Kylie Minogue's 'Impossible Princess' offered new insights into a then-unheard range of influences. Double J. 2022-10-24.
- 5.D, Spence. Rob Dougan Interview. IGN. 2003-05-23.
- 6.Metacritic. Metacritic.com. 3 June 2003.
- 7.Robdougan.org. 13 July 2006.
- 8.solangeazaguryp. The Letter, by Solange Azagury-Partridge. YouTube. 7 December 2009.
- 9.robdougan.com.
- 10.Aizlewood, John. Rob Dougan: Furious Angels. The Guardian. 2002-06-28. 0261-3077.
- 11.Clements, Andrew. Elgar: where to start with his music. The Guardian. 2020-10-28. 0261-3077.
- 12.La Pèira Team. 27 February 2017.
- 13.ARIA. Rob Dougan ARIA Chart history to June 2025.
- 14.PledgeMusic. Rob Dougan - Films: Past and Future.
- 15.Rob Dougan Subscribe. All 3LP Vinyl and Duel Deluxe CD Deluxe Edition: The Opening Trilogy. 17 April 2019.
- 16.Discogs. Rob Dougan – The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Sessions.
- 17.Gumroad. Rob Dougan - Misc. Sessions.
- 18.Gumroad. Rob Dougan - The Life of the World to Come.
- 19.cite Ryan page=86
- 20.Hung Medien. Discography Rob Dougan. irish-charts.com.
- 21.Official Charts Company. Rob Dougan.
- 22.Discogs. Rob Dougan – Clubbed To Death 2.
- 23.Discogs. Rob Dougan – Rehearsals (Dec 2018).
- 24.AllMusic. Rob Dougan > Overview.
- 25.Warner Bros. Records. Furious Angels. 2003.
- 26.AllMusic. Clubbed to Death.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,307 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Rob BourdonPerson
- Rob CavalloPerson
- Rob De LucaPerson
- Rob DerhakPerson
- Rob du BoisPerson
- Rob EllisPerson
- Rob FisherPerson
- Rob GrillPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Rob Dougan?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.