Need AN (Adult)…
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[7.00]
Scott Mildenhall: Disclosure, AlunaGeorge, Hot Natured and Julio Bashmore have all found themselves having unexpected UK chart hits of varying size in the past few months. Each did so with a kind of deep, dark house similar to what “Need U (100%)” has to offer; on paper something of a throwback, but in practice completely futuristic, exactly what you’d play if you happened to be driving KITT around town at night. It’s sparse yet warm and completely captivating, and it’s the kind of thing that’s finding a champion in a man with one of the biggest gigs in British radio, Nick Grimshaw. Like him, it pulls off the trick of being deemed “cool” by London “tastemakers” while remaining hugely accessible — this was his record of the week recently, and now looks like it might be heading for number one. His current pick, Gorgon City’s “Real“, has already soared to the dizzy heights of the iTunes top 50 on the back of three plays alone. The premature Guardian piece proclaiming that “pop is moving out of The Club and back into the garage” should be here any time now.
[8]
Anthony Easton: My friend Pat and I were talking about the taxonomic differences between funk and disco the other day and we noticed that there were more similarities. Mostly it was about electronics versus horns, but of course there was overlap. This is a good example of that thesis through the lens of history-as-mutable-memory.
[8]
Will Adams: It seems unfair to dismiss this because Disclosure has already targeted the deep house demographic of my heart, though there are other reasons why this doesn’t quite do it. That was a poor choice of a snare sample, and I’m not sure why it’s cut like an extended mix but it’s still under four minutes. That doesn’t make those synth stabs any less sweet, though.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: So far in her career, A*M*E has been associated with energetic sounds. She wrote a song for K-Pop-outfit f(x) and had her own single “Play The Game Boy,” which was all high-stepping 80’s pop sounds. Over Duke Dumont’s simple-but-sweet house production, though, she reveals a new side to her sound — restraint. She’s utilized as the vocal hook, but she delivers her few lines in an unflashy — but still strong — fashion. A*M*E proves to be versatile.
[8]
Brad Shoup: It takes an astoundingly long time to get to A*M*E, but I suppose that keeps things FRESH. So many words, so much stress: she’s in control of the conversation, and that’s fine. Some of the edits are jarring, and it’s a bit odd to hear that Male Adele soul-hum when it’s clear it’s not going to be the focus, but again, the choice to wait was deliberate, and I think it works.
[7]
Ian Mathers: In the abstract, this seems like a song I would like less than A*M*E’s own single. And yet here, for me, the hooks land.
[7]
Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: A*M*E gives a good performance here — her melodies on the second verse swoop around, keeping the song in a brief state of flux — but she is here to be upstaged by the disembodied diva sample that drives the track forward. It’s a haunting, odd snippet that simultaneously undercuts A*M*E’s starry-eyed lyrics whilst responding in a crooked type of satisfaction. It rumbles, cocksure and spiky, stealing the song away from its guest, even as Dumont downsizes his beat to a minimalist strut. A freakier, creepier 12″ mix must be round the corner…
[6]
Iain Mew: The beat keeps reminding me of Big Bang’s “Feeling”, though this is probably not meaningful despite A*M*E’s presence. And she is crucial to enlivening the track, which would be dull without vocals and annoying if it extended the intermittent hum, but fizzes with her input. I like the slight uncertainty concerning who it is that needs who, come the chorus.
[7]
Alfred Soto: Declarations of mutual self-destruction are okeedokee with me when a house beat, sampled murmur, and sequencer are the proverbial pistols aimed at the head. A*M*E doesn’t need the echo though — record her dry!
[7]