and completely completely bloodless
― lex pretend, Monday, 3 February 2014 15:26 (ten years ago) link
kind of in 2 minds about that assessment - perhaps writ larger here maybe but it's nothing that hasn't been innate in everything they've yet done i'd say
otoh though the thrilling/terrifying prospect of them having a track called TELEPHONE BANKING feels like a tru reckoning alright; dreadful thatcherkid mondeo pop corporate kowtow for cloying whimsy advert spot (better yet - hold music) or insurgent 'penthouse & pavement' style flash of fangs? (i. oh god i knew i'd sink into marcelloblivion someday) (ii. should probably take mdc's hint and finally listen to vampy weeks if only just to accrue ammunition) (iii. hey don't suppose anyone else has ever wondered about all the sophistipop mnek could conceivably cover no ok i'll see myself out)
either way - as iirc was suggested on the dumont thread - the opinions of those for whom whose aesthetics are outright vexed or consolidated by this lot will not be relevant ultimately
― r|t|c, Monday, 3 February 2014 19:55 (ten years ago) link
btw last year may have brought back the one hit wonder vibe but consecutive weeks at the top now feels a v notable diff kettle of fish imo
― r|t|c, Monday, 3 February 2014 19:58 (ten years ago) link
oh yes and
http://www.planetnotion.com/2014/01/23/botw-premiere-clean-bandit-rather-be-royal-t-remix/
(you really rather want his remix of route 94 'my love' (also purportedly featuring jess glynne, only this time sounding like a goat) instead though)
― r|t|c, Monday, 3 February 2014 20:06 (ten years ago) link
Kinda want to elaborate on the VW comment upthread now I've listened to everything that's out there, and yeah I agree there's something in the new single that was latent in them all along. This sense of tidiness, of fussed-over arrangements, they're kind of the *prissiest* dance act ever, and I'm eagerly anticipating to the inevitable handwringing from continuum bores.
Like, considering their obvious and overt pop sensibility, they're such a weird band, just the sheer oddness of building a dance act out of a string quartet, this mix of Fisher Price house music and chamber pop. They're kind of the apogee of the Grange Hill rave thing I was talking about re: the Rudimental album. There's almost zero danger in this end of the Black Butter stable, none of the grit *or* the glitz of UK funky, just a kind of primary coloured collaborative virtuousness. Even the ruffer end of Black Butter has a kind of soft play boshiness to it.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 4 February 2014 14:09 (ten years ago) link
Best thing about them is their way with a tune and an out of the blue sonic juxtaposition, like the one where she's bouncily singing "get down low to Rihanna on the stereo" and there's this dolorous solo violin in the background.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 4 February 2014 14:11 (ten years ago) link
I suddenly like this "Rather Be" much better than the first time I tried listening to it. I think I like it more without the video.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 14 February 2014 05:17 (ten years ago) link
"rather be" has the most streams in a single week of any song on UK spotify ever
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 14 February 2014 12:23 (ten years ago) link
4 straight weeks at No.1!!
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 11:11 (ten years ago) link
Started to catch on in Australia as well, entered at #15 this week and is currently #4 on iTunes.
― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Monday, 17 February 2014 11:16 (ten years ago) link
Whatever that means these days (xp).
No idea what Matt DC’s going on about, as usual – hey, no offence, I’m fifty, I’m allowed not to give a shit – but all I hear from “Rather Be” is formula. Chris Martin soundy-likey vocal? Check. Beats enter in second bit? Check. The only thing in the current top five that’s even more formulaic is “Shot Me Down.” And HE’S going to be 47 this year. Who’d have thought I’d start feeling nostalgic for the sodding Audio Bullys?
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 17 February 2014 11:19 (ten years ago) link
for some context, marcello, the only songs in 2013 to stay at No.1 for this long were "get lucky" and "blurred lines"
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 11:24 (ten years ago) link
Things have gone downhill rapidly and/or there’s not much else out right now.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 17 February 2014 11:33 (ten years ago) link
A week late but that's a great post Matt
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 17 February 2014 11:39 (ten years ago) link
i have gone from being disappointed by this to full-on hating it. they sound like incredibly annoying people, too, middle-class nice'n'twees get out of my life
― lex pretend, Monday, 17 February 2014 11:57 (ten years ago) link
can you actually imagine any of them in a club???
― lex pretend, Monday, 17 February 2014 11:58 (ten years ago) link
or DANCING??
like, some thought disclosure were a white ppl version of garage/house but they had no idea how much whiter it could get
― lex pretend, Monday, 17 February 2014 11:59 (ten years ago) link
feel like their album cover should come with a KEEP CALM AND LISTEN TO TWEE HOUSE sticker on the front
― lex pretend, Monday, 17 February 2014 12:00 (ten years ago) link
Just put a donk on it, lex
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 12:01 (ten years ago) link
Sort of shocked there isn't a big jackin remix of this. "There's no place I'd rather - BWONK BA BNNG BNNNNNNNNGGG"
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 12:02 (ten years ago) link
Their album will be called Sticking To Our Long-Term Plan and will be marketed as House music for hard working families.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 17 February 2014 12:10 (ten years ago) link
I feel like all the things dance purists were unfairly saying about Disclosure can be accurately applied here.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 17 February 2014 12:13 (ten years ago) link
they sound like incredibly annoying people, too, middle-class nice'n'twees get out of my life
It's always good when you can take a break from the coal mines to join these discussions.
― imago bands and their discontents (_Rudipherous_), Monday, 17 February 2014 15:23 (ten years ago) link
oh i didn't realise they were white. should have known it wasn't a asian singer but rather the classic exotification of japanese culture in a pop video trope
― prolego, Monday, 17 February 2014 15:34 (ten years ago) link
rewatching the video again and the japanese dude pulling off his face at the end to reveal the white singer probs gives it away. i feel dumb.
― prolego, Monday, 17 February 2014 15:38 (ten years ago) link
Maybe so, but what dance music purists think about pop-dance acts like Disclosure and Clean Bandit feels pretty close to irrelevant, don't you think?
Jess Glynne's voice lends it a nice bit of rawness; without that I doubt it would have gone anywhere tbh
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 16:00 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQgljrdZbDQ
Question and answer: What is a rapper doin when he starts at hardcore, but can't sell enough records to remain in the record business?
Answer: He goes pop. This answer is not set up to diss anybody who starts at pop, but for the rappers who started out hardcore, and now makin weakass dance music, cause they couldn't stay down with the hardcore.
I just got a question for you: How does it feel to wake up every morning, and look in the mirror, and realize that you're a fuckin ho?
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 16:14 (ten years ago) link
This from an album whose lead single was weak ass dance music based on the Tubular Bells theme.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 17 February 2014 16:21 (ten years ago) link
are you talking about "mozart's house"? i didn't think that was weak-ass at all, the beat was appealingly clumsy and boshy, a counterpoint to the fiddliness, which is lacking in the current thing
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 16:59 (ten years ago) link
"dust clears" was terrible though, with a truly unforgiveable video that i had managed to avoid til now
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Monday, 17 February 2014 17:02 (ten years ago) link
in fact that video may have turned me against them permanently :(
I was wondering how long it'd be before anyone called them out for being middle class. Not that it matters given that the UK dance scene is absolutely fucking FULL of Oxbridge educated yuppy types but because they're making nggggggggggggggh daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark bass music no one gives a shit.
― Matt DC, Monday, 17 February 2014 19:35 (ten years ago) link
Best moment on any of their songs is the bit on A+E when she sings "I'm a come for you I'm a predator" and then follows it up with the weediest vocal noise imaginable.
― Matt DC, Monday, 17 February 2014 19:40 (ten years ago) link
"UK dance scene is absolutely fucking FULL of Oxbridge educated yuppy types"
It is? I have no idea tbh
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 17 February 2014 19:45 (ten years ago) link
I'm being pretty elastic with the term 'yuppy' here. But yeah there are a fair few out there, except nobody ever mentions it because it doesn't matter.
I like most of what I've heard from CB so far but I'm not going to ride in too hard to defend them here because a) like Vampire Weekend I can totally see why people would be annoyed by them and b) they genuinely only are one ill-judged debut album away from being the musical equivalent of an Innocent Smoothies-sponsored alldayer in Victoria Park.
― Matt DC, Monday, 17 February 2014 19:49 (ten years ago) link
Yeah they have a potentially horrible debut in them. "The musical equivalent of an Innocent Smoothies-sponsored alldayer in Victoria Park" is what I assumed Lex was getting at.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 17 February 2014 20:16 (ten years ago) link
At least in Australia, Clean Bandit would no longer code as middle class specifically, this kind of vibe is now the advertising monoculture. "Rather Be" sounds like a bank or insurance advertisement to me (that's not even particularly a diss).
The other reference point that occurred to me, in vibe rather than sound, was Morcheeba's third album.
― Tim F, Monday, 17 February 2014 20:23 (ten years ago) link
"Rather Be" sounds like a bank or insurance advertisement to me (that's not even particularly a diss).
totally.
the beat is kinda cool on this but it's just so precious
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, 17 February 2014 20:30 (ten years ago) link
i bet you they think "call me maybe" was Pop Gone Right
― le goon (J0rdan S.), Monday, 17 February 2014 20:34 (ten years ago) link
that backlash was quick
― katherine, Monday, 17 February 2014 21:12 (ten years ago) link
I bet you any money that 'Rather Be' totally fills up unheralded High Street dancefloors in places like Croydon and Wembley and Romford.
― Matt DC, Monday, 17 February 2014 21:14 (ten years ago) link
Also splitting this scene down class lines doesn't really work, like even though you know that Clean Bandit and MNEK and Scrufizzer and Syron all come from different backgrounds, they'd all have been hanging out in the same sixth form college music room at lunchtime.
― Matt DC, Monday, 17 February 2014 21:16 (ten years ago) link
what about barnsley or rhondda or worksop
― Pedro Mba Obiang Avomo est un joueur de football hispano-ganéen (nakhchivan), Monday, 17 February 2014 21:16 (ten years ago) link
― Matt DC, Monday, February 17, 2014 9:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah, I'm not gonna weigh in on what happens in London, but I feel like around here this kinda vibe is much more attractive to people hanging out in middle-suburban shopping malls and clubs than to some reverse-idealised notion of white uni-educated innocent smoothie drinking yuppies.
― Tim F, Monday, 17 February 2014 22:23 (ten years ago) link
I would describe it as a Boost Juice feel more than an Innocent Smoothie feel.
― Tim F, Monday, 17 February 2014 22:24 (ten years ago) link
it'd be something you drink through a straw, man
― Internet Alas (wins), Monday, 17 February 2014 22:26 (ten years ago) link
Yes I think there is consensus around that point.
― Tim F, Monday, 17 February 2014 22:29 (ten years ago) link
Leveraging all those years of music lessons! Demonstrating how to make pop music without disappointing your parents so much that they stop paying your rent!
― Dan I., Monday, 17 February 2014 23:08 (ten years ago) link
Wait that song went to #1 wtf
― Dan I., Monday, 17 February 2014 23:10 (ten years ago) link
missed the top 40 in Japan but that's about it
― 504 Gateway Timeout Boyz (some dude), Saturday, 22 November 2014 13:43 (nine years ago) link
ha that's perfect
― r|t|c, Saturday, 22 November 2014 14:10 (nine years ago) link
japan rejecting the orientalism :)
― lex pretend, Saturday, 22 November 2014 14:43 (nine years ago) link
this song is v boringly pleasant
― I Love Makonnen: New Answers (The Reverend), Saturday, 22 November 2014 23:57 (nine years ago) link
the one dropped snare in the middle of the chorus is everything imo
― 504 Gateway Timeout Boyz (some dude), Sunday, 23 November 2014 00:11 (nine years ago) link
I remember this song
was a good song imo
― why do I hate that thing (excluding imago, marcos) (wins), Sunday, 23 November 2014 00:12 (nine years ago) link
Rev otm
― deej loaf (D-40), Sunday, 23 November 2014 00:13 (nine years ago) link
the one dropped snare in the middle of the chorus
It's almost not even a chorus. It sounds like a pre-chorus but then there is no chorus, just the vamping on the title words. I think it's a beautiful construction.
― timellison, Sunday, 23 November 2014 02:22 (nine years ago) link
Oh, I just heard the dropped snare! You were talking about the vamping part as being the chorus.
― timellison, Sunday, 23 November 2014 02:24 (nine years ago) link
That also suggests that the part before ("If you gave me a chance..." etc.) is a pre-chorus.
― timellison, Sunday, 23 November 2014 02:26 (nine years ago) link
there's some interesting ideas going on in the newest single with jess glynne but i'm not sure if it really comes together as well as it ought to
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Sunday, 23 November 2014 02:43 (nine years ago) link
i just think of it as a chorus with multiple parts. is it really a vamp if it appears with every single chorus?
― Murghan Troidor (some dude), Sunday, 23 November 2014 04:32 (nine years ago) link
I think so. I don't think the term is only used to describe situations where improvisation is going on.
― timellison, Sunday, 23 November 2014 05:00 (nine years ago) link
The chorus is "No-no no-no / No place I'd rather be"
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Monday, 24 November 2014 11:13 (nine years ago) link
The rest of this album has faded but Rather Be sounds better than ever.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Monday, 24 November 2014 11:44 (nine years ago) link
I played out a remix of this on Friday night as the last song of the evening and it was joyous.
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Monday, 24 November 2014 11:53 (nine years ago) link
I don't really get the 'boringly pleasant' tag it's been given. There are so many different hooks, and as is alluded to above, it's hard to tell which bit is the chorus. I also like the casual cheesiness of 'with every step we take/Kyoto to Dubai'. And the way the little 'dadalada-da-dah / dadalada-da-dah dah' vamp gets passed on from instrument to instrument. And that missed snare. And the way it drops out and comes back in with 'yeah-e-yeah-e-YEAH-E-YEAH-E YEAH YEAH!'. I like it all really.
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Monday, 24 November 2014 11:57 (nine years ago) link
oh and the almost-clumsiness of those club-marimbas on some of the phrases where they sound like a fumble, but it's def on purpose.
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Monday, 24 November 2014 11:59 (nine years ago) link
and the italo-house pianos and how they land and mimic the rhythmic pattern of 'it's a shot in the dark but I'll MAKE. IT.'
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Monday, 24 November 2014 12:00 (nine years ago) link
Can we go back to the "Chris Martin soundalike vocal"
― why do I hate that thing (excluding imago, marcos) (wins), Monday, 24 November 2014 13:06 (nine years ago) link
aka 90% of British chart pop in the last 10 years
― Piss-Up Artist (dog latin), Monday, 24 November 2014 14:19 (nine years ago) link
you made me laugh, cortana!
― vacuum head tree disease (imago), Monday, 9 March 2015 09:41 (nine years ago) link
went to school with two of these absolute dullards, i have latterly realised. one of them was so indistinct i didn't even know him, and i made a point of knowing who everyone was
― vacuum head tree disease (imago), Monday, 9 March 2015 09:42 (nine years ago) link
That advert really makes me want to punch them all, hard.
― emil.y, Monday, 9 March 2015 11:20 (nine years ago) link
clean bandit sounds like some sort of no-brand cillit bang
― we reward the hake (NickB), Monday, 9 March 2015 11:29 (nine years ago) link
we're far enough from the EOYs to say with some impunity that everyone who voted for them is a literal disgrace
― vacuum head tree disease (imago), Monday, 9 March 2015 11:43 (nine years ago) link
Don't give a hoot who they are or where they come from. Rather Be's still a jam.
― nuumerykah (dog latin), Monday, 9 March 2015 11:56 (nine years ago) link
Agree 100%, even hearing it on the radio every day for the best part of a year hasn't killed it.
― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 9 March 2015 12:24 (nine years ago) link
I'm glad people get so much joy from it, cannot fucking stand it personally.
― Paul Johnson asks: Do homosexuals like John Major (Tom D.), Monday, 9 March 2015 12:29 (nine years ago) link
Their non-"Rather Be" tracks are terrible.
― Tay-Tay Brooklynpants (Murgatroid), Monday, 9 March 2015 23:51 (nine years ago) link
"Their non-"Rather Be" tracks are terrible."
this is true =\
and the "rather be" video is horsewaste, too. still was the best thing all over radio last year
― soyrev, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 01:44 (nine years ago) link
enjoyed the first 5 seconds of water before the music started
― saer, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 19:02 (nine years ago) link
seeing the advert they feature in is the closest i've come to putting a boot through my tv since david cameron was announced as uk prime minister.
― stirmonster, Tuesday, 10 March 2015 19:38 (nine years ago) link