How Far, How Wide?

Sia “Breathe Me (Four Tet mix)” – This is one of the best things I’ve ever heard from Four Tet – it’s all spare layered percussion, bass, and vibes with vaguely Fiona Apple-ish vocals. It’s a nice fresh take on post-trip hop downbeat pop, and quite an improvement on the Dido-gone-indie album arrangement. So far, this Four Tet mix is only available as a 10″ white label in the UK.

Scarce “All Sideways” – Unlike 99.9% of all bands who ape the Pixies, Scarce got it right, or at least they did on this song. The charm of the Pixies wasn’t just about loud/soft dynamics, or Kim Deal’s rolling basslines. That’s the easy stuff. To really get that Pixies sound, you need a male singer who sounds absolutely batshit insane, and compliment that with background vocals from a woman who sounds just a little too calm and self-assured – maybe the subtext is that she will soothe/save the damaged protagonist, or perhaps it’s a Charlie Brown thing and he’s being victimized by this dominating, ultimately indifferent woman – take your pick. Scarce’s singer Chick Graning was a bit over the top, but in a good way – there’s something about his shrieking and warbling falsetto that is very compelling even if it seems contrived and exaggerated. I appreciate his sense of melodrama, I really do.

“All Sideways” is taken from the band’s only major label album Deadsexy, which was released with little fanfare back in 1995. I’d want to say that they were a one-hit wonder, but that’s not even true – the video for “All Sideways” was on 120 Minutes once, twice tops, and that was it. I loved the song immediately, but was (and still am, I checked) unimpressed by the record. If you’re still interested in checking it out, I’m sure that if you scour enough cut-out bins and used record stores, you’ll find it for dirt cheap.