Black Sugar Transmission: Spiky on the outside, Squeezy on the inside?
As fascinated as I was to hear about the massive 4-album Squeeze tribute project, Squeeze Revisited, I really had no idea what to expect from the resulting tracks.
After all, the participants are largely unknown artists (although Chris Holland is doing a song!), and they’re basically unpaid too. They are people from all over the world, recording the songs with whatever tools they have available to them, and sending the almost-finished product to Burning Sky Records to be mastered into a cohesive album collection. Kind of a pig in poke!
But as David mentioned recently in the comments to my original post, the first song is up now on the Squeeze Revisited MySpace page, and I have to say, I love it! Because I don’t want to make this too long, I will simply tell you three things I love about it:
- It still really sounds like Slap and Tickle, but it also feels fresh and new
- It has a dance beat, but there’s also something sensuous about the song – it’s sexy Slap and Tickle!
- You can hear every single word clearly
That’s all. Go listen for yourself; I think you might like it too!
Posted by babylonandon. I'm Corina, and you may recognise my passionate ramblings about all things Squeeze or Glenn related from the Unofficial Glenn Tilbrook Site (formerly) at Babylonandon.com. I still love Glenn and Squeeze!
Thanks for the kind words about Black Sugar Transmission’s cover of “Slap & Tickle,” Corina! I have to agree with you that it is a “sexy” cover of the song – I think it’s rather brilliant, myself. Andee of New York City’s Black Sugar Transmission is a fantastic artist and a pleasure to work with.
I can tell you that Andee is currently putting the finishing touches on a video to accompany the track that we hope to be posting on our MySpace page very soon – it is a fabulous homage to Squeeze and very cool, indeed.
I can also tell you that we’ve started to receive some more amazing covers, as well, including covers of “Messed Around,” “Take Me I’m Yours” and “Touching Me, Touching You” that have surpassed even my greatest expectations – stay tuned!
Cheers, and thanks again!
Alan
Burning Sky Records
Oh wow! Very exciting news about the additonal covers coming in, Alan! And I will go check out that video… (Linked in David’s comment below)
There seems to be a rash of bands doing Squeeze covers recently. The Hot Rats (the brilliantly inventive band with Supergrass‘ very own Gaz & Dan, teamed with legendary producer bloke Nigel Godrich) have recorded ‘Up The Junction’ for their Turn Ons CD. What else is out there?
The video of Black Sugar Transmission’s cover version of Slap & Tickle is now viewable on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCgJTF4ZlTg
The Squeeze footage in the Black Sugar Transmission video comes from The Old Grey Whistle Test Vol. 2 DVD which has classic live performances from artists such as: The Style Council, The Who, Roxy Music, Joan Armatrading, Hall & Oates, Squeeze, Siouxie And The Banshees and the Undertones.
Excellent stuff. They have done a great job and look forward to the album.
Snipturn
Hey all, this is Andee from Black Sugar Transmission. Thanks for the props on “Slap & Tickle”! David asked me to weigh in here with some thoughts on my cover of the Squeeze classic.
Basically I have been in the Burning Sky Records loop since I got involved with their first project, Sensory Lullabies, the Jellyfish tribute album three years ago. And when I got an email from Burning Sky guy Alan Heaton announcing plans to do a Squeeze tribute, I immediately jumped on “Slap & Tickle”.
I’ve been listening to that track since the early 90s and always loved it for the same reason that I love other Squeeze songs: it’s very catchy and memorable yet is filled with clever lyrics and superb musical detail.
But my relationship with this particular song changed entirely one night when I heard a DJ play it over a loud PA system at a club. Suddenly it dawned on my what a sexy dance song “Slap & Tickle” is! I started playing it in my own DJ sets after that. Those pumping eighth-notes in the chorus get me every time…
And so it was a no-brainer, covering this track as Black Sugar Transmission, since BST leans toward electronic and dance stylings. Once Alan gave me the green light to record it, I banged “Slap & Tickle” out in about three days. I kept the basic key/melodies/tempo of the original version intact, but amped up the electronic elements and replaced the 16-th note synth parts with guitar.
I also tried to make each verse sonically unique, and broke up the vocal phrasings, too, so as to not slavishly copy Difford & Tilbrook’s singing.
The outro/guitar solo section is pure BST — dark, sticky, hard and dancey. I added it at the last minute to put more of my own definitive stamp on the track.
And that’s that. Thank you for listening to the song. To hear more Black Sugar Transmission, do visit http://www.myspace.com/blacksugartransmission and seek us out on itunes and CD Baby!
You have to throw the stone to get the pool to ripple…
Thanks so much Andee for giving us an insight into your inspiration – we love your version of Slap & Tickle and think you deserve all the plaudits for reinventing and reinvigorating it. It’s really great that you stopped by to leave your comment – thanks so much and good luck in everything you do.