I wasn’t as thrilled with their debut album New Eyes and the superb single “Rather Be” wasn’t enough to bring Clean Bandit -a mash up of classical and house, all the way to the top, but I kept listening nevertheless and discovered another couple of winners: “A&E” and “Mozart’s House”.
Enough to maintain my interest and while I still think it is a missed opportunity, New Eyes is a unique experience in a sideways developement in electronica and dance: the strings are for the most part intelligently integrated into the overall sound and while you’d think that the difference between really not just digital and analog but acoustic and electric instrumenents, between 19th and 21st century pop music is arresting when it works and even when it doesn’t, is never indifferent.
In a live setting strings and two turntables and a microphone plus guest singers should be entirely uniquely and different and I believe it should work, especially if they get Jess Gwynne to visit with them. She is a wonderful and soulful singer and she really helped the band sell this great pop landscape track. The problem with new Eyes is not enough songs of this caliber…
Anyway, I am gonna go. This is the best time for modern soul from the UK since the New romantics and unlike the New romantics, they aren’t blinkered by a world view or a fashion sense and they have better singers.
Clean Bandit are playing Webster Hall, Septermber 16th -a Tuesday but you can’t have every thing.
