Slipper have emerged butterfly-like from their cocooned universe and have just served up a delicious feast on this limited, vinyl-only single. ‘Hands Against The Rain’ is a dizzyingly intoxicating recipe of jazz-infused Latino beats with waves of electronica topped off by the sultry vocals of Andrea Black who bewitches and snakes her way around your senses.
A perfect summer soundtrack for lovers dancing drunkenly in the early hours on a sandy beach with waves lapping at toes and the wine flowing freely, if the bendy bass and infectious rhythms do not get the hips gyrating then you are with the wrong person on that beach.
Temple Of Sound provide two further remixes of the title track, pushing and pulling it into more percussive led tunes similar to the music that Neil Sparkes, who provides percussion in this incarnation of Slipper, has produced with both Temple Of Sound and Transglobal Underground.
The other track on offer, ‘Life Is Hip’, is akin to Portishead going lounge; bass ebbing and flowing, a constant undertow of vinyl scratching and bursts of fruit-flavoured big band action. Meanwhile Andrea Black continues her seductive, sinuous dance of words with that dark, dangerous voice.
Oh, how I want her to come and whisper in my ear at each and every sunset. Once you hear her you will know why - she could melt a glacier with one word. It conjures up images of those sixties American films of ladies in sunglasses and headscarves driving big cars along cliff tops with palm trees in the background on the run from a very smart but slightly sinister gentleman, utterly compelling and all the more fun for it.
Quite essential for those that like their music a little eccentric and out there and absolutely perfect for the coming summer months.
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9Steve Gray's Score