FACT Singles Club, March 17 2013

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Each week on the FACT Singles Club, a selection of our writers work their way through the new music of the week gone by.

With the way individual tracks are now consumed, the idea of what constitutes a single has shifted dramatically in the last half a decade, and its for this reason that the songs reviewed across the next seven pages are a combination of 12″ vinyl releases, mixtape cuts, Soundcloud uploads and more. All are treated equally – well, most of the time – with Four Tet, Earl Sweatshirt, Les Sins and more in the line of fire.

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Justin Timberlake – ‘Suit and Tie’ (Four Tet Remix) (6.2)

Lauren Martin: After listening to The 20/20 Experience all week I’m just happy to hear a different version of ‘Suit & Tie’, which I find too middle-of-the-road for someone as brilliant as Timberlake. First things first though – when does Kieran Hebden sleep? Seriously. It feels as if the man has done approximately 71% of all remixes ever at this point. I’m not mad at it though. Four Tet’s remixes are typically luscious, brooding affairs and this is no different. I love the way that the kick-drum acts as the anchor, allowing those disorientating vocal samples to scatter around Justin’s falsetto. Really quite lovely. (7)

Joe Moynihan: Like the rest of Four Tet’s recent dancier stuff, the subtle groove that just gets dizzier as this remix progresses is absolutely irresistible. The dusty percussion in the second half is great. Love that muffled kick – sounds like someone got locked in a cupboard and instead of trying to break the door open is just having a wicked time in there. Justin’s vocal stem isn’t too overpowering for the remix’s nuances and that quasi-Todd Edwards ‘ah-errrrr’ vocal chop running throughout is classy as. (7)

Maya Kalev: Despite Kieran Hebden’s best efforts to become indistinguishable in all but hair from Dan Snaith, he’s onto a winner with his remix of JT’s recent comeback single ‘Suit & Tie’. Stripping the track down to its bare essentials – effectively JT’s buttery vocals and a convincing 4/4 pulse – Four Tet retains the original’s smoothness and reminds us why we all fell in love with Timberlake to begin with (clue: it had nothing to do with strings). (7)

Steve Shaw: Sounds knocked up pretty quickly, which isn’t a bad thing necessarily – and it’s wicked he’s gone for a Gene Hunt-box-bangin’ approach – but I don’t think it can make this track raw, and I doubt I’d take it seriously in a set. It leaves me wanting a real remix, too – from Tuff Jam, actually. (6.5)

Joe Muggs: It’s good. With the FaltyDL remix and now this, Hebden’s really nailed that dropping one cymbal in and switching the whole track up thing now hasn’t he? I love the Justin album massively, though, and hearing the vocal tweaked like this is a bit odd. I’m sure it’s absolute dynamite “out”. (7)

Chris Kelly: An example where the whole is not greater than the parts. Despite the media overexposure, I still enjoy ‘Suit & Tie’: the lush orchestration, the chopped-and-screwed breakdowns, and Timberlake’s dynamic vocal melody. Four Tet hangs his remix entirely on the latter, fusing it with a paint-by-numbers beat and barely anything else; those percussive ad lib samples don’t do enough for me. (4)

Chal Ravens: This is brilliant, obviously, but that’s about as much of a surprise as saying a Mars Bars in batter is brilliant. Of course it fucking is, because you started off with a delicious gooey Mars Bar. The issue here is why would Hebden want to fiddle around trying to improve a Mars Bar when ‘Mirrors’ is JT’s real wet haddock, crying out to be smothered and fried in Four Tet’s magic batter? End of revolting metaphor. (7)

John Twells: JT’s original ended up growing on me after initially sounding a bit too ‘mum-dancing-in-the-kitchen’, but this mix just feels totally surplus to requirements. If you’re going to remix a track you’ve really got to make sure it stands out from its source, and Hebden’s version doesn’t really do enough for me to honestly say I’d ever listen to it without pining for the original. Sure there’s a dusty 4/4 and it’s pretty incredible that Hebden was even asked to do this in the first place, but to be honest it’s totally forgettable. Pass. (4)

The Knife – ‘A Tooth For An Eye’ (7.2)

Lauren Martin: I’ll never forget that video of Karen Andersson accepting an award as Fever Ray at the 2010 Swedish Grammys. As applause rang out, she slowly walked onstage and pulled back the red hood that covered her face to reveal a plastic mask of melted blobs of skin. Then she took the mic, quietly mumbled and hummed incoherently into it for a few seconds, then left the stage in silence. It’s the perfect visual distillation of how weird and brilliant The Knife are, and how weird and brilliant Shaking The Habitual is hopefully going to be. Their new single retains the hallmarks of The Knife’s sound – those androgynous, effervescent vocals and creeping multi-layered instrumentation – but they’ve injected their chilly sensuality with a rush of carnal power that I find truly thrilling. It’s great to have them back. (8)

Joe Moynihan: Never really got into The Knife as much as I probably should but this is decent, especially the segments that sound a bit like a rhythm-driven Crash Bandicoot level (Mark Mothersbaugh, I see you). Not massively moving overall, but I’m still really enjoying some of the dreamlike twists it takes over the course of the six minutes running time. The crystallised arpeggios that sweep over the quieter interludes like an impromptu rainstorm are gorgeous. (6)

Maya Kalev: Karen Dreijer’s mangled vocal in ‘A Tooth For An Eye’ is a bizarre instrument in its own right, fitting right in with the jangling beats, glassy snares and raw synth passages. She sings of of ice and foot-sucking with all the wonderful weirdness fans of The Knife – myself included – love so loyally. After seven years pursuing side projects, the best electronic pop act of the last 10 years is back with a track as good as anything off Silent Shout. No big deal. (8.5)

Steve Shaw: I demand this in a club. Love the arrangement, reminds me of African psych-rock / disco, and it’s got that languid 12” style from back in the day as well. If anything it should have more going on; be twice the length and have some totally over-the-top strings, horns, and dedicated solo for that bass. Failing that, a Four Tet Gene Hunt-box-bangin’ re-edit of this would be sick. (8)

Joe Muggs: Loads better than that other one they just put out. Makes me want to go and do a ritual or something. (7)

Chal Ravens: Love how they’ve made the all the percussion seem so weighty and alive, like a one-man band with a bunch of gamelan gongs and teaspoons tied to his wrists. But halfway through they’ve thrown in a synthetic funky slap bass and things get over-crowded – you’ve got about five different rhythms clamouring for your attention over Karin’s voice (which has always been The Knife’s trump card, no matter how innovative the sonics) and it smacks of too many hours lost in Logic’s multi-tracking vortex. But then the beat comes back and half the instruments drop out and everything’s brilliant again. They keep you awake, those two. (7)

John Twells: I don’t know exactly what it is about The Knife that irks me, but they’ve always one of those bands that everyone else talks about with hushed whispers while I’m left wondering what it is I don’t ‘get’. Honestly they make me feel quite left out – everyone else get to go to the shows and have a laugh and I’m sat at home trying to get Skyrim to work on my PS3. Saying that, ‘A Tooth For An Eye’ is quite endearing; I do like the ‘Paul Simon goes to Scandinavia and eats fermented fish’ vibe – maybe there’s hope for me yet? (6)

James Blake feat. Brian Eno – ‘Digital Lion’ (6.3)

Lauren Martin: Ugh, be still my beating heart. When that gutteral bubbling around the one minute mark levels out into a kind of percussive lunar transmission, it feels like warm honey pouring through my veins. There’s so much going on here but it melts together beautifully. Blake’s steady rolling hum, the forlorn brass, the way that guitar strum sheds the slightest glimmer of light over it all – it really is an inspired collaboration. Although I hope Blake has a sense of humour, because the Overgrown album cover is definitely going to get the ‘lonely at the top’, Take Care photoshop hack job soon. (9)

Joe Moynihan: As much as I liked — and still like — James Blake’s debut LP, it rarely made me say “James, mate, what are you bloody up to?” as often as his earlier head-melting synth-driven work for R&S, Hessle and Hemlock. Everything about Overgrown so far though, even the jokes artwork, has made me more excited about it than maybe any other album announced so far this year. Much like ‘Retrograde’, ‘Digital Lion’ sounds as though he’s hit the sweet spot between more accessible “songs” and oddball experimentation, with those lush synth pads and pastoral acoustic guitar strums flowing in and out of instances of wide-eyed chaos. (8)

Maya Kalev: Like Jai Paul on a lackadaisical tip, ‘Digital Lion’ recalls Blake’s productions for Hemlock without coming close to their raw excellence, so the result is a dilute facsimile of his former CMYK greatness combined with the wettest vocals of his album. This track is also called ‘Digital Lion’, the phrase repeated throughout like a vapid mantra. No matter how many annoying hi-hats Blake sticks in his track – and there are plenty – its melody is uninteresting, the harmonies unmoving and its title, lest you forget, ‘Digital Lion’. That, coupled with the risible album cover (a sullen school photo superimposed on Twilight desktop wallpaper), makes me wonder if the whole thing’s an early, especially elaborate April Fools trick. (4)

Steve Shaw: New Age balls. (3)

Joe Muggs: I really like JB, there’s something steely about him and his music that stops it being the soppy sub-Radiohead nonsense it could so easily be. I’m a bit iffy about the use of the word “digital” in lyrics – it seems dated before you’ve even said it – but he gets away with it. Musically this is just amazing, especially really loud. What did Eno do in it? (8)

Chris Kelly: Blake’s voice continues to morph into Antony Hegarty’s on this hypnotic collaboration. Eno’s ambient textures are the perfect pairing for Blake’s propulsive percussion and overdubbed R&B vocal gestures. That fog-cutting horn is the sound of Overgrown heading straight for the 2013 zeitgeist. (8)

Chal Ravens: You could slice this record down the middle to cleave the wunderkind’s wibbly-bibbly vocals and shuffling techy drums from Egghead’s serene ambient topiary – it just doesn’t feel like they came up with this together, which is surely an opportunity missed. All the constituent elements are strong but it never quite takes off. (5)

John Twells: I’m gonna come clean straight away, I hated James Blake’s last record. That being said, the snippets I’ve heard of Overcome don’t sound quite as annoying as its predecessor and he seems to have reigned in his desperation to sound like a castrated civil rights activist. ‘Digital Lion’ is beautifully produced, and typically considering Eno is involved, has an ambient haze to it that I’m always a sucker for. It’s all very adult, mind you – I feel like I need to borrow Justin Timberlake’s suit and tie to listen to it properly. (6)

Earl Sweatshirt – ‘Whoa’ (7)

Lauren Martin: Right. I’m still torn between taking OFWGKTA very seriously or not seriously at all, which is exactly what they want I’d imagine. I didn’t jump on the Odd Future bandwagon hard when they blew up because I found the “It’s rap, duh” defence of their lyrics tiresome, but I’ve kind of accepted the shock-factor humour in that they are to rap what Left ver Crack were to punk rock so yeah, they can live. Sonically this follows up nicely from last year’s superb crew effort ‘Oldie’ in the eerie production and nonchalant vocal stylings but it’s the “ooooooooah” in the background that really makes this. It’s cool as hell. Also, Earl and Tyler have bloody great voices. You know it’s definitely an Odd Future track when you hear it which, for all my misgivings about them, is to their credit. (6.5)

Joe Moynihan: For admittedly lazy and probably superficial reasons, I struggle to care about most of Odd Future’s output. Earl is really likable though – his straight casual flow as enjoyable as hearing DOOM or Aesop Rock make words with a ridiculous syllable count sound majestic. Not too sure on Tyler’s half-arsed spelling bee hook but the piano that comes in more than makes up for it. (7)

Maya Kalev: Who’d have thought that mainstream rap would find one of its most eloquent figureheads in the Odd Future kid behind one of hip-hop’s more loathsome paeans to rape? The first single from Earl Sweatshirt’s forthcoming album Doris was an unexpectedly introspective affair, and his new single is pretty good, even if its themes are pretty miscellaneous, summed up by the line “misadventures of a shit-talker”. Earl delivers his verses with the kind of languid braggadocio only a teen can really pull off, but he gives due props to Flocka, Rozay and, of course, Tyler, who’s as much a problem as ever. Not only is the beat he produced average, his hook is terrible. If Earl wants 2013 to be his year the way 2012 was Frank’s and 2011 Tyler’s, he’s going to have to step out from his mentor’s shadow. (6)

Steve Shaw: Shits all over ‘Yonkers’. (9)

Joe Muggs: The video’s a bit Sleaze Nation circa 1999, amped up a bit. Track’s a bit Stone’s Throw meets Def Jux, like most of the Odd Future stuff really. It’s nice to see people making a success of their neuroses and drug in-jokes, and they’ve all got skills, but nothing from this lot’s ever made me hyperventilate with excitement. (5)

Chris Kelly: Earl is done with closet-cleaning after ‘Chum’ and is ready to justify the hype. ‘Whoa’ is his most writerly rap yet, with the type of grimy imagery, interior rhymes, and Def Jux acrobatics that are built for Rap Genius, best summed up in his line “Steaming tubes of poop and twisted doobies full of euphemisms.” Tyler stops by, dropping a couple 16s and a crew shout-out chorus, but like his simple beat, he’s smart enough to stay out of Earl’s way. The titular “whoas” are a stoned Greek chorus making an in-song commentary on the young rapper’s mastery. (7)

Laurent Fintoni: To be honest what me or any other critics think of this is irrelevant, because like it or not those guys are now the voice of a generation (see Tyler’s recent tweet about mastering). Track’s nice though, nothing outstanding. And Earl still has a flow that shows the potential for him to be one of rap’s greatest voices of the 2010’s. To be continued but this will do for now. Oh yeah piano sample on the chorus is kinda weird. (7)

Chal Ravens: Love the queasy inversion of the G-funk template – the jarring high-pitched synth whine, atonal piano noodling and zombified “woahs” give it a real horrorshow vibe. Earl’s lines are hard work, as ever – one day they’ll publish a York Notes for this kid. But maybe what I like most is the adolescent aggression on show – he and Tyler are just a pair of right moody little chin-jutting door-slamming firecracker-throwing know-it-alls. God I would’ve hated them at school. (8)

John Twells: Of all the Odd Future gang Earl has always been the most interesting, and while I was starting to feel like he’d been lyrically castrated since returning from his Samoan exile, ‘Woah’ is a irrefutable way to show that the magic’s still there. The beat is business as usual (and Tyler-by-numbers), but it’s really just a blank canvas for Earl to paint one of the finest lyrical performances I’ve heard all year. Quite how he manages to sound smart, poetic, angry and yet nothing like a purposefully-forgotten Rhymesayers also-ran is beyond me. Good job – maybe we’re due a great album from the OF camp yet. (8)

Hyetal – ‘Northwest Passage’ (6.6)

Lauren Martin: Yeah, this is pretty nice. I like the ever-so slight rush of bells that tinkers in the background and those keys that come in in the last minute for the melody are lush. It’s a decent effort but I’m not exactly bowled over by it either. Although thanks are in order for Hyetal in collaborating with Gwilym Gold. Not only does he have a gorgeous voice but we can now get a physical release of his rather than having to suffice with his Bronze Player format, which was conceptually interesting but as much practical use as a Lindsay Lohan plea bargain. (6)

Joe Moynihan: Interesting tune this. Not too sure how well Gwilym Gold’s ethereal vocals sit with those relentless and rumbling drums, but the rich, dreamy synths are superb. The breakdown is particularly stunning, with the vocals restrained to gentle washes over the abrasive yet twinkling synth chords. Second drop is very special indeed. (6)

Maya Kalev: Les Sins take note: this is how you do loveliness without falling into the vanilla trap. Tinkling chimes that sound like supernovae made aural, thick gleaming synth chords and unintelligible but yearning vocals from Gwilym Gold are all offset by silky hi-hats, warm yet crisp claps and propulsive kicks that rescue ‘Northwest Passage’ from any hint of cheesiness. This is better than anything Hyetal’s released before, which augurs well for his forthcoming album. (8)

Steve Shaw: I’ve always had a lot of time for Hyetal. He seems to have ideas bigger than what he’s able to pull off on his home set-up, more in line with that ‘80s Miami boogie-cruise sound that, unfortunately for independents, always had loads of money, a huge studio and crew of engineers behind it. If you’re into the smaller sound – what are the blogs calling it now? Chillwave? Vapourwave? – this is nice. Hats off to him. (7)

Joe Muggs: He’s definitely making the most of those drum sounds, same as on his album. There’s a high drama here waiting to happen but it never quite does somehow. Actually I think what this is missing is a proper vocal – there’s a song structure there waiting to turn into something, which is probably what makes it a bit frustrating. (5)

Chal Ravens: Really got into Hyetal the first time round – he’s still using that warm, warped synth tone from ‘Phoenix’ and ‘Beach Scene’, but the laidback tempo and Gwilym Gold’s seraphic vocals suggest he’s been taking notes from the lachrymose house of John Talabot recently. Gold, by the way, is a proper weirdo pop star and well worth getting to know if you haven’t yet – tragically Dalston on the surface, but last year he developed a music format that sounds different every time you listen to it. (6)

John Twells: While the Panda Bear-lite vocals should probably get on my nerves, I actually really like how ‘Northwest Passage’ develops. Hyetal treats the voice incredibly subtly and the track is an smartly thematic continuation of the Broadcast LP which I liked a lot. It feels like he’s successfully trying to weave a pop element into his sound but not going all Darkstar on us. Either this or I’m just a sucker for cheap drum machine sounds and rolling, cinematic 80s synthesizers? Probably a bit of both. I’m getting old. (8)

Les Sins – ‘Grind’ / ’Prelims’ (6.1)

Lauren Martin: For me, it’s the slight imperfections that make this kind of house enjoyable. The little yelps, dips and ticks. ‘Grind’ has got an amiable enough groove and it’s super smooth but to be honest, all it does is make me want to listen to Moodymann. I don’t get what’s going on in ‘Prelims’. Is that bassline being played inside a sock? It feels like eating crisps with your headphones in, and you’re convinced everyone can hear you chewing. (5)

Joe Moynihan: Yeah, this one is smooooth spelt with like twenty more Os. There’s nowhere enough funky bass guitar licks in house music at the moment for my liking and the one here is pure juice, absolutely not from concentrate. Really digging the airy, moonlit atmosphere (those little snippets of laughter and post-beverage ‘ahhs’) and the way the synths wander around the persistent house loop. Sort of like if Moon Safari-era AIR teamed up with Pink-era Four Tet. Mate… (8)

Maya Kalev: Everyone’s favourite milquetoast Toro Y Moi has gone all rave on us, and the results are predictably flaccid. I don’t know why Chazwick Bradley Bundick felt the need to give his side project a multilingual name too, least of all one as inappropriate as Les Sins, but there’s a lot I don’t understand about him, least of all his appeal. There’s nothing sinful about ‘Grind’, and though its vocal samples, driving best and analogue textures should work, at least on paper, but the whole thing is cloying and sexless, the jazzy diversion in the middle only reinforcing its dinner-party vibe. (4)

Steve Shaw: Wait, this is Toro y Moi? I thought this was some new outfit. Immediately remove two encouragement points. Your boogie is way better than these pleasantries, Bundick. (5)

Joe Muggs: I never paid a lot of attention to Toro Y Moi but I’m so completely well disposed to anything to do with Dan Snaith after all the recent Daphni stuff that it could be the reformed Steps performing it and I’d probably have a spiritual orgasm over it. But this is good. ‘Prelims’ is instant, swervy and weird and I totally love it and want to share my drugs with it and get it to hang out with me for the rest of the night so we can watch the sun rise together, and I don’t care how ugly it’ll look tomorrow. ‘Grind’ seems generic, but very quickly I think “who cares?” – it’s got that whole DJ Harvey thing of making you think that everything older than 1988 is more futuristic than everything after. Or was that just a special moment I had once? Anyway. It’s really really good disco music. (9)

Chris Kelly: Les Sins allows Bundick to exercise his extravagance in style. ‘Grind’ is a soulful cut, with a ‘Billie Jean’ beat and touches of intergalactic disco. Tougher to digest but just as rewarding, ‘Prelims’ lays in a synthscape that gurgles, shimmers, and pulsates over an increasingly hyperactive beat. With this single, Les Sins seems that much closer to fully supplanting the coldly-affected Toro y Moi project. (6)

Chal Ravens: I know it’s meant to be “groovy” but for fuck’s sake, is that fake vinyl crackle? ‘Grind’ is what it sounds like in Gilles Peterson’s brain when he’s going through airport security or ordering his Ocado delivery or suchlike, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the other side, ‘Prelims’, a belated love letter to dubstep written on celeste-like synth tones borrowed from Caribou. Toro Y Moi (for it is he) has just released a top drawer album so I dunno why he wants to cloud his catalogue with these directionless experiments, pleasant though they are. (5)

John Twells: I have a real soft spot for Chaz Bundick’s productions, and I ended up digging his recent LPAnything in Return a lot more than I thought I would. These two tracks show a similar grasp of melody and are infused with that inescapable lilting soul he injects into everything he does. In the wrong hands this kind of lightly jazzy house music is as dull as ditchwater (and mildly offensive to boot) but it’s the little subtleties Bundick drops in that make his productions really shine. It sort of sounds like Dam Funk crossed with Theo Parrish, and how can you argue with that? (7)