the drugs do work!

This new kid is really eating into my blogging time. Before its arrival I had great stretches in the evenings to sit down and muse about the various inconsequential things in lfe. These days blogging is restricted to the late hours and consequently its becoming more infrequent. In addition there was a bit of a lull in interesting releases on the seven inch format and I've also put a moratorium on any turntable purchases for the foreseeable future.

Thankfully there's been a glut of releases on seven inch over the past week or so and I'll run a quick rule over some of the ones that I've picked up.

The ridiculously catchy 'That's not my name' by The Ting Tings is out on seven inch and boy are my kids happy with that purchase. They jump around the gaff singing 'they call me stinky' at one another. The b-side features an inspired 'TNMN - Your Mix' which has guest vocals by lots of fans who rang an answering machine and left their name. Smashing.

Next is a little ditty penned by the legendary Tom Waits and sung by Bafta winning actress Scarlett Johansson. It's a bit weird to be honest. The production is great but Scarlett somehow manages to sound like Sinead O'Connor singing down a chimney. David Bowie seems to be doing backing vocals which makes it even stranger. I'm not sure but I think I like it.

Santogold has released a new seven called 'Les Artistes' and it starts off like something from one of David Kitts early albums. Simple guitar riff and a drum machine. But lo and behold the dulcet tones of Kittser are replaced by Santi White. You can catch Santogold in Crawdaddy on the 1st of June. Pencil it into your diary or use your fancy touchscreen phone if you have one of them.

A spur of the moment purchase was 'Black Moon' by A Human. Its reminiscent of early eighties new wave music that seems to be all the rage this weather. It's a funny tune to be honest but once again I think I like it. It must be the nostalgia factor.

Another blind purchase was 'Mother Mary' by Foxboro Hot Tubs. Apparently they hail from somewhere in the US but they sound like they could have been supporting The Housemartins somewhere in Hull back in the eighties. It's neo indie jangle assuming that's an actual genre.

Not one but two new seven inches from Hot Chip. Well actually the second one is a remix of the first. You've probably seen the video for 'One Pure Thought'. A pure piece of pointilist brilliance. I wasn't digging their new album at first but I'm coming around to it now. This tune has a nice samba driven riddim running through it includes all the usual pop hooks that these guys have in abundance. The Toddla T remix on the second seven inch takes the original riddim and turns the tune into a ragga influenced techno grime dancehall mash up. It's the business.

Something else that I found in the crates recently is the Masters at Work remix of Seeline Woman by Nina Simone. It's a promo 12" released to promote the first Verve Remixed album back in 2002. Its a sparse epic that retains most of the beauty of the original.