As far as typifying the mood of an entire nation, Matt Abbott and producer MiNI dOG couldn’t have picked a better name for their collaboration. Abbott is a 24-year-old guy from Wakefield, England that began doing stand-up performance poetry readings around Yorkshire. His poems were about his young experiences, often relating to his ineptitude with attracting girls at school. MiNI dOG, a local music producer and songwriter, contacted Abbott via Myspace encouraging him to try and lyricise his poetry so that it works better to music. The two soon courted the attention of A&R executives, got signed to Universal Music, got dropped by the label, returned to their indie roots, and now have a new album that’s due to be released next month.
One music journalist really kicked the credibility out of Skint & Demoralised by labelling them a Northern version of Scouting for Girls, which is the ultimate cuss. Nonetheless, there’s a dominant melodic bass line in their latest track that invokes a quintessentially classic British rock tradition. In that sense these guys are better than what some prissy London journalists give them credit for. After all, the North/South divide is an unfortunate and very ugly British trait that remains constant.
I went and educated myself on the North/South Devide. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of "who knew" this was not what I was expecting! It's different than most of what I've heard. Is it wrong that it reminds me of a more artsy, testosterone verion of Maria Mena? It feels wrong to say.
I like it.
And, what a new romantic?