"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.
