THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Music

The Good

D’Steph – Lack of Love (feat vox & Jacks)

Jalapeno Records 30/04/12

Belgian D’Steph drops a deep and moody remake of the classic 88 acid house anthem by Charles B & Adonis, featuring vocalist Vox & Jacks. It’s not as good as the original, but it gives a new spin to the track and (owing to the sharp and rolling synth arp) reminds me of the 1980s slow, psycho italo disco track Can’t Be Serious by Ginny – which is always a good thing. D’Steph creates an authentic, rushy feel with a snappy, harcore-esque breakbeat and atmospherically enhancing, reverb drenched vocal stabs. Good!

The Bad

D’Steph – Getting It On

Jalapeno Records 30/04.12

And, after showing how to respectfully re-imagine a track, D’Steph then goes on to show us how not to do it on the very same EP. The instrumental is OK, a sort of Inner City ‘Good Life’ vibe going on, with percussive synth stabs pushing it along, but, man o man, sticking one of Marvin Gaye’s most famous vocals all over the top in such a slapdash way is pretty cheap, doesn’t add anything to the tune and, actually, borders on the sacrilegious.

Bad; and not in the Micheal Jackson sense of the word.

The Ugly

AlunaGeorge – Just a Touch

Tri angle Records, June

Hype is a funny old thing. Tri Angle records have had their fair share of it recently, a lot of it centred around mysterious producer Evian Christ (who turned out to be not so mysterious trainee teacher in Merseyside). The mystique they built up as a label got a lot of people excited, and some of their releases have been quite interesting. But then: this. Just a Touch by AlunaGeorge will be branded as wonky off key R&B, but in today’s ever expanding universe of odd music, this is simply suburban. If you gave an overexcited Justin Bieber fan a microphone and a cracked copy of fruity loops, this is probably what they’d come out with. Yes, it’s got a hook; unfortunately it’s crap. Ugly!