Beardy Brit Hop

I had this in the post this week from www.3barfire.com, a very fine musical website- go check it out!

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobilus Pip – Angles

Sunday Best

The crazily titled Dan Le Sac and Scroobilus Pip first popped up on the radar last year with their Radio 1 championed “Thou Shalt Not Kill” a new age indie baiting take on Baz Lurhmans “ Everybody’s free To wear sunscreen”. Chuckled at by the people it aimed to offend, ‘Thou Shalt’ offered us such wisdoms as “Thou shalt not read NME.” And “Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they’ve become popular”

As novelty singles go, it was slightly more bearable than Road to Amarillo, and the pair were picked up by Rod Da Banks Leftfield Sunday Best label to record an album. On the face of it, this should be a bad idea. A bearded ‘spoken word’ poet and a scruffy home studio beat maker, releasing a long player as a follow up to their version of a moronic novelty single.

Given time to flex their creative muscles and work out some of their angst however this is actually pretty good. Dan le Sac the beatmaker here has carefully assimilated a range of influences from golden age hip hop to ninja-ish scuffed beats via crackly electro. This of course is a well trodden path but Le Sac pulls it off by keeping the groove tight and pairing the drums with melody. As far as the rest goes this is definitely a song driven release, and Pip steps up with aplomb, ditching the catchy soundbites for a genuinely rewarding intelligent dissection of all things philosophical to the delights of old school comic Tommy Cooper.

Whilst others mining this vein have been happy to ‘keep it real’ and in the process produce dull and lifeless plod hop, Angles manages to keep it upbeat with a healthy sprinkling of melody and fun. Stand out track and new Single Look for The Girl, adds a lilting pop hook to the beats and ends up a cracking summertime ditty.

This is surprisingly good stuff that manages to be quintessentially British without crossing the Kate/Lilly Mockney naffness divide. Keeping it real in its truest sense, Le sac and Pip add a surprising shed of integrity to the pop canon, and in the process create something a little more substantial that the current crop of street popsters.

Tobold Hemming