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Your Drums
Written by oliviawallwork
This Saturday in the studio the assistant team – yes, there are now enough assistants to constitute a team with the arrival of me and Jodie – were called in to give our opinion on the percussion of Starin’ At My Shoes. The history of this one is long and complicated but mostly summed up by Jimmy and can be heard here. However, this was a couple of years ago now and the version I heard today couldn’t be more different! After reading Hannah’s blog on the Top Music Videos of 2012, Jimmy and Andy were inspired by the drums in Jessie Ware’s 110%…
… and wanted us to have a listen and recommend any improvements. The song definitely had a Jessie vibe, after a misleadingly thin and stripped back introduction, when the layers of percussion began. Now, my musical terminology is incredibly limited, and all I could offer in terms of critique was; ‘Oh, I like the tschhhh’ and ‘Can the bom bom bom be a bit louder? No, I mean lower… Hmm, maybe, like, deeper?’ Nevertheless, Ed managed to decipher what we were all trying to say and the final – I say final, but with this song’s history, I hesitate use such a definitive word – version had a beat that reverberated in our chests, juxtaposed with the soft ‘tschhhh’ and a strong ostinato. Jimmy said he wanted it to be something we could dance to and, by the end, we were all there having a little bop along to the playback.
It reminded me of AlunaGeorge, a London duo of a girl and a boy, called – suprise – Aluna and George, that fuse R’n’B beats with almost Chillout Ibiza style vocals. The percussion of their Your Drums, Your Love has the same ‘tschhhh’-ing and thumping base as our Starin’ At My Shoes – they’re just a bit more techno compared to the style of The Saturday Morning Canasta Club.