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In the first of a (hopefully) monthly ongoing piece BlackPlastic highlights a great song that you should rush out and buy this month. This month, the first ever song of the month is...
Pulp - Babies
Up until about a year ago BlackPlastic never really thought itself a Pulp fan. One visit to the fantastic Fopp and an exceptional deal on Pulp's Hits album changed that (for £3, how can you go wrong?).
Whilst the album was bought for such previously heard gems as 'Do You Remember The First Time?' and 'Common People' the track that really captured the imagination was track one, album opener, 'Babies'. 'Babies' is pure gold. The excitement of Cocker's first physical foray as a loved-up teenager is irresistable, perfectly capturing the complete normality of 80s South Yorkshire through the kaleidoscopic lense of teenage sexual desire. When Cocker sings "I want to give you children..." you almost believe it, and by the time he cuts in with the lush, join-in, "yeah, yeah, yeah yeah" bit you really do believe it.
And the line "I only went with her, 'cos she looks like you" has got to be up there with the most romantic lines of all time.
Cocker. The voice of a man with the words of a boy.
Buy Pulp - Hits at Amazon.co.uk here.
Blackplastic just got an email promoting The Juan Maclean's new single, Give Me Every Little Thing.
This email contained a fantastic qoute from the usually-boring DJ Magazine that goes as follows:
"(Described by DJ magazine as sounding) like Funkadelic and Kraftwerk persuading Arthur Baker to f*** off and let them invent electro-disco"
I'm not quite sure what it means, but it is easily the best review blurb I've heard in a while. Stick it on the cover and sell it in HMV. Brilliant.
Michael Mayer's Lovefood follows up on Get Wet nicely and Michael is great (his Fabric album is easily one of the best too). Nathan Fake (previously unknown to Blackplastic... Nice to meet you) has a couple of nice tracks slotted in before, at track nine, The Futureheads turn up with Kate Bush's Hounds of Love (Phones remix). It's good, but the remix doesn't add much and if you haven't heard this you need to get out more.
Track ten - Whitey takes us for A Walk in the Dark. Blackplastic love Whitey. He's great, and this is good too. Next thing you know some mad lady with a penchant for marrying Satan's grandpa turns up. It's the Fiery Furnaces, who Blackplastic hasn't heard before, but wants to hear again after this. Single Again is completely bonkers, sounding like nothing you've heard before with a fat drum beat riding a garage-type punk song. It is good. Better than Soul Mekanik's offering. It is almost the best song here.
A brief stop round Vitalic's house for Poney Part 1 via a few reasonably high-quality cuts sees us end up at Mr Fingers' classic, Can You Feel It? Still not the best track here.
The best track on Rob Da Bank's Fabric album is his 'One More Tune...' (i.e. that last song of the night that the crowd beg for), seperated as it is from the rest of the mix by silence. Jamie Principle's, sorry... Frankie Knuckles' Your Love. The original house record, Your Love transcends its genre. It is more than a record for dancing to, it is perfect for every location and time. The never-ending synth line combined with analogue bass and reverberating drums. The heartfelt vocal. Your Love is, without doubt, one of the best songs ever written. And as such Soul Mekanik never stood a chance.
Blackplastic shouldn't like Soul Mekanik, yet it does.
Soul Mekanik always give the impression that they are quite happy to through out mildly interesting 12"s full of yawn inducing prog-house. Yet somehow on both of the two occasions that blackplastic can remember hearing them they have managed to deliver beyond that expectation.
Example one would be the ace 'C'mon Over', as featured on the similarly great Hooj (RIP) compilation Le Future Le Funk. Whilst 'C'mon Over' doesn't really do anything or go anywhere, it does nothing so nicely that you can't help but fall for its charms, bringing the mix to a nice close at the end of CD one.
Example two fell through blackplastic's letter box yesterday. As a subscriber to the Fabric CD series the latest release always turns up by default. Blackplastic slipped the CD into the car stereo this morning and things were going nicely until track three rolled around, Soul Mekanik's 'Wanna Get Wet'. Really, this track is nothing special. Don't get excited. But damn the man if blackplastic wasn't up on the tables shaking what its got by the end. 'Wanna Get Wet' sounds like the sort of straight up record that assholes would call 'funky house' whilst their eyes are getting gouged out by someone who knows better. It could definitely be an Ibiza anthem... Play it loud enough and scallys will turn up, skyone camera crew in-tow.
Pause. Deep breaths. There is something appealing in this song but it's unclear what it is. The slightly-breathy female vocals? The stuttering man in the background? The pure sunshine that oozes out of the speakers once it kicks in? It's all such a clichés.
If you can't guiltily enjoy a bit of this in the sun of an Indian summer, what can you do?
P.S. This is not the best song on the album. Stay tuned.
