Jerry's Pick: "Oh Devil"

"Oh Devil"-Electric Guest

Anyone remember the Timmy Thomas hit single "Why Can't We Live Together," a wonderful one-hit-wonder top-tenner from 1973? It's a single notable for the simple, soulful rhythm Thomas taps-out on his Lowery organ. For me, that was the musical memory brought to the fore immediately after first hearing the Electric Guest single "Oh Devil" (the last song recorded for the band's latest project, Plural).

Later I read that Electric Guest's lead vocalist Asa Taccone referred to the track as a "throwback song." He told Patrick Green of Crave, "It has traces of nostalgia. It may sound familiar, but... you don’t know exactly where it came from," adding, "I love that!"

If you're familiar with Electric Guest, then there's a very good chance you already know the band's first hit, "This Head I Hold." Like that 2012 single, Asa puts his falsetto to work, this time over a tasty hypnotic reggae-inspired Latin-like groove.

The fantastic finishing touch on this 2017 Electric Guest production was most definitely the inclusion of the (Shaggy-like) vocal jams supplied by a talented young Jamaician who performs under the alias of Devin Di Dakta. Devin explained to Billboard, "They reached out to us about the feature on the song after they saw my work on the Internet and fell in love my musical style."

But there was another key yet intriguing layer in "Oh Devil" that took a bit of investigating to decipher exactly what it was and where it came from. Turns out the high-pitched "Oh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh"s heard throughout this production is a sample borrowed from an obscure track called "N.F.F.A. (No Fake Friends Allowed)" from Austrailian Kota Banks. Very nice touch guys!

I still have this bouncy-yet-haunting rhythmic jam in my iTunes recurrents despite the fact I discovered this Electric Guest song months ago.

And don't worry, listening to "Oh Devil" won't condemn you to eternal damnation... just three-and-a-half minutes of heavenly delectation.

Jerry's Pick: "Something For Your M.I.N.D."

"Something For Your M.I.N.D."-Superorganism

To borrow a line from Monty: "And now for something completely different." Let's just say no one will mistaken this tune for the latest Taylor Swift release.

There's so much going on with Superorganism's "Something For Your M.I.N.D." you'll put this two-and-a-half minute track on repeat in an attempt to decipher all of its aural components until you've become the latest victim of pop-hypnosis. And how many songs do you know-of that feature the sound of someone biting into an apple?

There's really a lot going on in this production, from a steady yet plodding synth and a stop-and-start rhythm to a myriad of audio samples topped with lyrics that are kinda cute yet curious. On my first listen I immediately thought this had to be a new Moldy Peaches production (remember "Anyone Else But You" from the Juno soundtrack?) as it had that exact same dispassionate delivery.

"I know you think I'm a psychopath/A Democrat lurking in the dark/This sucks, I'm the K-mart soda-jerk/Cirque du trash, I kept the stash/Of cocoa candy straight from Japan/Hologram Anne, she was never as near..."

Ohh-kaaay.

Superorganism came together last year when Brits Harry and Emily struck up a Facebook friendship with an Asian teen in Maine named Orono solely based on a mutual love of creating music. After discovering she could sing, the pair asked the 17-year old if she'd like to help them out with a project they were working on. Orono told DazedDigital.com, "So the next day they sent me (the demo) and were like, ‘Do you wanna write some lyrics?’ I was in bed, so I wrote the lyrics, recorded it on GarageBand on my shitty MacBook in like 30 minutes, then sent it back to them."

Harry picks up the story: "With the time difference, we were -- in the kitchen having some drinks, and within an hour of it getting sent through to Orono, we get this back from her. We were like, ‘Holy shit, can you believe how good this is?’ It’s one of those things where you get the right kind of combination of people and it all falls into place."

They had a feeling they had something uniquely special after they posted their experiment on SoundCloud and Spotify where it quickly accumulated tons of on-line clicks.

Harry explained its appreciation; "I think it has a real sense of playfulness. A lot of pop culture for quite a long time has been quite inward looking – kinda morose." In essence, you can file this one under "Fun!"

Incidentally, (via a dozen minutes of dogged Googling) I discovered the song's often repeated title -- "Something For Your Mind" -- is actually a 1990  a capella C'hantal vocal sample borrowed from a Speedy J remix titled "The Realm."

So, if your "M.I. M.I. M.I.N.D." is ready for "Something..."