domu presents pete simpson - it won't mean a thing

right around i had heard mr. scruff's amazing "this way", which featured pete simpson's vocal stylings, i discovered that dominic stanton aka domu had recorded an album with simpson. i believe it was through atjazz's remixes of "coming back around" which a friend of mine was lyrical about following a visit to his studio or attending one of his dj-gigs. none the less the "look a little further" album was a marriage domu's soulful & funky beats and pete simpson's smooth singing and it's something special.

the influences throughout the tracks are worn on their sleeves and it's very much a mixture of motown, minneapolis and detroit but you hear the london perspective shining bright. as usual there was that one track that became a repeated listen, no that's a lie since there are two or three for this album. the title track "look a little further" with it's squirming synth bass and it's anthemic vocal, "the way i see" that sounds like something d'angelo could have pulled out in the 90's and this one, "it won't mean a thing".

when this album was in my conciousness another funky brit had pulled out his album "jim" and on that was "figured me out" which floored me with it's funky rhythms and "it won't mean a thing" is on the same par. another source of funk was circulating through my mind as well and that was stevie wonder's "love light in flight" which had come back in proper at the time thanks to all sorts of re-edits.

to a certain extent also change's "let's go together" but that was more of a personal rediscovery. i had just started to like jazzy m's "jazzin' the way you know" after despising it since it's release, have to thank the knee deep brothers since their remix changed my mind. basically "it won't mean a thing" combines great songwriting with funky rhythms as did with the previous examples mentioned. the keyboard programming on this is quite nice and that stiff but chunky synth-bass is a delight.

i could go in great detail about all sorts of musical elements, but i'll just put it like this: as brilliant as domu's production and beats are, pete simpson goes one step above it and sings his ass off. the only real question is how the demo idea for this track sounded like? it ends on a classy soulballad kind of thing with simpson with just broad pianonotes and upright bass. domu may done it to bridge it better into "i'm left dreaming" but it does want you hearing a full on ballad version of the song

buy here (junodownload)