Liam’s song of the month
‘What’s that? An original piece of music, yeah course mate…..’
tUnE-yArDs – Bizness
I was not quite sure what way to go this month. I thought that by the time this went to print this tune would be huge, adorning an advert for a small computer or a stripy pair of trainers, either way I was sure it would have been used and I said to myself if it did I’d leave it and concentrate on something less obvious, a song with no exposure that needed all the little help it could get. But Bizness is not everywhere, not soiling my TV with poorly matched visuals and not sickening me with its relentless presence. It remains, in the most, pretty unheard and that’s one good reason to write about it. But primarily I’m focusing on it because it happens to be an incredible piece of music that needs to be heard.
Every so often you latch on to a track that is enjoyed by one and all, the track you reserve in the memory bank for pissed up song wars at summer barbeques. This is it. You’ll be hard pushed to find someone that does not like it. It begins with a strangely enjoyable shrill introduction opening the door to the vocal layers to come. They run through the song like a snake escaping from a sack of corn, they ebb and flow yet don’t repeat, don’t bore and certainly keep you interested – from dubby words and subtle charms to full on harmonic backing vocals, it’s a master class in singing. Merrill Garbuss’s voice is one you will not forget in a hurry. It’s a surprising, androgynous mix that is hard to put a nation on, highlighted in the Chorus, with it’s crush of words crammed in to the catchy tones: “Don’t take my life away, don’t take my life away”. It contributes wonderfully in its part but this song is not solely about the chorus, it is about the whole, exploding package . The song has an Afrobeat influence, the plucky guitar and off-kilter, M.I.A type drums in particular with the production not far – but also very far – from TV on the Radio. Again, it comes back to those layers – it is all about those layers. Layering like this can be attributed to decent Techno as well as Afrobeat – free to drop in bar by bar from the brrr brrr bass to the tappy percussion before ascending into the horn section, which arrives in a recognizable manner first time around before returning with a sound eluding to synthetic steel drums forces forwards to the majestic summit.
Bizness’s accompanying video is an eccentric revelation, a visual pleasure that lends to oddball humanity, Contorting faces and displaced dancing marry well with all the shiny goodness a video for this fascinating song is expected to contain. If it is your first exposure, then the full monty is highly recommended -I suggest both as big and as loud as you can.
I would like to thank a certain Jon Hillock and his New Noise Podcast for putting me on to this song. Hillcock is an unsung hero of radio that I cannot believe isn’t on the radio more regularly. Maybe it’s time for a few of the very good and well respected guys, particularly within The BBC, to step aside; after all you cannot replicate fresh talent.
