Singles Bar – Jimmy Davis vs. Johnny Hates Jazz vs. Lemon vs. Kung Fu Academy vs. Deep Purple

Singles Bar – Jimmy Davis vs. Johnny Hates Jazz vs. Lemon vs. Kung Fu Academy vs. Deep Purple

JIMMY DAVIS – Jimmy Davis

It’s Blaggers ITA, innit.  Jah!  Now I’ve no idea what Jimmy Davis is singing about, as it’s all very patois, and as one was brought up on received pronunciation one has no intention of finding out.  Things get a wee bit better on ‘The PAth One Chooses To Walk’, when it gets all spoken word and nineties UK hip-hop, and it doesn’t make me want to exact retribition on anyone, so that counts as a result.  The five tracks are all a bit on the retro hip-hop side of things, so it’s not really my cup of Earl Grey, but as these things go it’s pleasant enough.  No website as their MySpace site no longer exists.  Now, where’s my rawk!

JOHNNY HATES JAZZ – Magnetized

Well not here is the answer to my last question.  And don’t get me started on the Americanisation of the English language.  For shame.  But, yes, you read that right.  Johnny Hates Jazz.  One-ish hit wonders from the eighties who vanished in a puff of indifference after their second album (without Johnny) stiffed.  But here is Clark Datchler, without the other fella, releasing a pleasant enough MOR ditty, with a hint of dance, that will get some airplay on Radio 2.

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LEMON – Pussydrop

Now that’s just mucky.  And frankly there is no excuse for it.  It’s not even smutty muck.  Just mucky muck.  But that’s the world we live in.  Altogether now “Girl make that pussy drop, Spin it like a helicop, Pay attention when I back it up like a dumper truck, Move it like you know its hot, Take it to the very top.”  Billy Shakespeare is spinning in his grave.  And it’s a shame because the music is actually very catch, but this is the kind of thing that gives pop a bad name.  Aurual porn.

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KUNG FU ACADEMY – Super 8 Flashback

And now for some whimsical indie pop, courtesy of Zeitgeist homeboys, Kung Fu Academy.  And it’s whimsical indie pop with a hint of dance, as they vogue on through some rather catchy material.  There is some cracking bass work, a few disco shapes, and if they splash out on some singing lessons, they could be mixing it with the big boys.  When they’re more straigtforward as on ‘Junction’ and ‘Warpaint’, it falls over into indie generic, so here’s hoping they stick to the more experimental vibes of the title track and ‘The Long Fall’.

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DEEP PURPLE – Vincent Price

Ah!  Here’s the rawk.  Even if I couldn’t work out why Alice Cooper was adorning the sleeve of a Deep Purple single.  Anyway, this second single from their new “What Now?” LP is one of my favourite tracks on the record.  It’s got a good groove, pop pickers, and with some suitably spooky keyboards from Don Airey and a decent vocal from Ian Gillan, it burbles along merrily.  Bung in a good unreleased track in the shape of ‘First Sign Of Madness’ (which is actually on the German LP, so not really unreleased), and you’ll be thinking that this Bob Ezrin collaboration has been worth the wait.

Don Airey will have felt right at home in the video having done ‘Bark At The Moon’ with Ozzy Osbourne which benefits from a pole dancing nun, and there are reappearances of ‘The Well Dressed Guitar’ and ‘Wrong Man’ from the limited edition of “Rapture Of The Deep”.  A well priced and enjoyable EP.

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