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Mark E Smith. Discuss. Like Marmite, the Pope or T4 Sunday presenters, Mark E Smith tends to inspire strong reactions in people. To some (most famously John Peel), his 30-year tenure as leader of arthouse gutter-rockers The Fall has seen him script some of the most poetic couplets and forward-thinking hooks in popular music. To others he’s a drunken, punch-happy semi-psycho who wouldn’t know a decent tune if he fell over it in the street. Even The Fall’s biggest doubters would have to admit, however, that Smith makes for a great collaborator, as hook-ups with Inspiral Carpets (I Want You), Elastica (How I Wrote Elastic Man) and long-forgotten 90s dance act D.O.S.E. (Plug Myself In) have proved. Von Südenfed is a collaborative project that finds him working side by side Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner of Mouse On Mars, and from the dirty, pounding sound of Fledermaus Can't Get It (Domino) the forthcoming album could be something special – it might even swing a few opinions in Mark’s favour. Jamie T’s Sheila (Virgin) seems to have been released about 14 times now, although perhaps that’s due to its ubiquity as a blog-shared MP3 over the last couple of years. You have to wonder if Jamie didn’t shoot himself in the foot sales-wise by leaking pretty much every track from his album onto the internet months before its release. Sure, it worked for Arctic Monkeys’ debut album, but that appears to have been something of a fluke. Whatever, Sheila remains a fantastic song, both lairy and tender, and while Jamie might be afflicted with the sort of über-cockney stage-school vocal tics that have come in for criticism of late, he does work them like a champ. Canadian songstress Feist is the acceptable face of MOR, her close associations with Broken Social Scene and eccentric producer Gonzales ensuring that she doesn’t find herself lumped in with the watery likes of Dido. My Moon My Man (Polydor) is simultaneously foot-stomping and sunset-lovely, and gets itself a fancy Hoxton haircut on the b-side, courtesy of a fantastic Boys Noize remix. Also this week: Glaswegian indie kids Parka do fast, rousing and hooky on the boozy rush of If You Wanna (Jeepster); and New York electro-popper Shy Child earns himself an honorary Hoxton citizenship on the neon boogie of Noise Won’t Stop (679). And finally, have you finally tired of the Crazy Frog ringtone that you drunkenly downloaded four years ago? Then pay a visit to Toneshared.com, where you’ll find a plethora of weird and wonderful ringtones produced by electronica artists such as Vladislav Delay, Atom Heart and Leafcutter John. They’re all free, and they won’t make people next to you on the bus want to punch your face off – although Thomas Brinkmann’s oddball Birthday ringtone might get you a few funny looks.
Joe Madden
All singles are released on 07 April 07.
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related info
www.jamie-t.com my space: jamie t www.jeepster.co.uk www.toneshared.com
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