Kicking off the the first of three singles today with the latest from Ben Harper and Relentless Seven entitled ‘Shimmer and Shine’. A strangely apt title for the musicians as well, because the band hit the ground running with a rather tasty little drum intro and squally venomous little guitar lines which hold together an above average barroom rock soundtrack. Ben Harper however takes a little more getting used to, amidst this little musical hurricane his voice meanders in a manner reminiscent of a twelve year old on a picnic, no sense of urgency…just kind of aimlessly wandering along in the confines of the song. Worry not however because once you get used to it, it all hangs together in a pleasing enough fashion and for those who fancy them as a live prospect they have a live show at the London Forum on the 19th April.
Next up is ‘Tiny Dancer’ the latest from Ironik featuring Chipmunk and Elton John, apparently this is one of this year’s most hotly anticipated releases. Well all I can say is some people are easily pleased, yes it’s obviously ‘butcher someone’s back catalogue’ week because this is essentially ‘Tiny Dancer’ with a bit of a tweak here and there and some bloke mumbling over the top. Edith Bowman will doubtless froth at the mouth over it, I personally think it’s shit. And no I don’t care if Ironik has had 20 million hits on myspace or Bebo…it’s still shit. Out on April 27th.
Black Gold close proceedings today with their new single ‘Detroit’, now available in its brand new Shark Attack Beach Remix. There’s an earnest vocal buried under lots of trendy burpy sounding synths and every trick in the book has been slung at this track to the point where it’s starting to annoy me a bit now and it’s not even finished. If I skip forwards and listen to the original mix is shed loads better without the “Nathan Barley” treatment. So yes, I will recommend the track if you listen to the original version, however the remix is f*cking dreadful. They’re playing the Camden Crawl on the 25th April while this single is out on May 18th.
