Splinter Sell This Version Splinter Sell This Version Splinter Sell This Versioiews Show All 8 Revease Edit Master Rel Sneaker Pimps followed the debut success of Becoming X with the different, yet strangely familiar, Splinter. Kelli Dayton, whose haunting vocals made songs like "Spin Spin Sugar" and "6 Underground" so evocative, is no longer with the group. While this takes the listener a few moments to re-adjust -- Dayton's voice was, after all, what made Sneaker Pimps so accessible -- this album is still worth the effort. Splinter is a superb disc, full of trancey, edgy psychedelia, interspersed with moments of blistering rock. The new vocalist, Chris Corner, is not nearly as good a singer as Dayton, although his breathy -- and at times whiney -- vocals suit these songs well. Although the comparisons with Portishead, Massive Attack, and Garbage are inevitable, the Sneaker Pimps have created an intricate album of trip-hop that is every bit as original as any of their contemporaries.
While Splinter may not have the standout singles that Becoming X had, it's pleasantly low-key and occasionally brilliant. Unfortunately your browser is currently not supported. You can also download the Spotify desktop client for access to all our great features.Of the trip hop acts to emerge in the wake of Portishead in the mid-1990s, Morcheeba embraced a more conventional soul-dance style and Moloko got discovered by the Ibiza set. Sneaker Pimps lost Anglo-Indonesian singer Kelli Dayton, guitarist Chris Corner assumed vocal chores for the second album, Splinter (1999), and the band threatened to implode during a gruelling tour of the US. They look pretty ravaged tonight, in a sexily dishevelled, rock-star way. They could be a boy band on the skids. Guitarist/bassist Joe Wilson has the suit and, well, heft of a bouncer, and drummer David Westlake, also wearing a tie, is no oil painting, but keyboardist Liam Howe is - in his capped-sleeve T-shirt - a regular teen dream. Corner also has pin-up potential, even if his hairstyle would give sleepless nights to Limahl of the 1980s comedy hunks Kajagoogoo.
Dressed in white flared jeans and a sheer white top that sticks to his skinny frame like cling-film, the snake-hipped frontman looks as though he is performing before a stadium crowd, or auditioning for the sequel to Velvet Goldmine, all insectoid elegance and heroin chic. If they're an odd visual mix, Sneaker Pimps' music is even harder to define. It's too undynamic to appeal to indie kids and not rhythmic enough to draw the dance fraternity (although the likes of DJ and Mixmag still write about them). Curl is typical, with its slow, atmospheric groove reminiscent of U2 during their "techno" phase. Unfortunately, much of the detail and drama of their songs is lost in the transition from studio to stage. The band readily acknowledge this, telling an interviewer: "We weren't designed to perform songs live." And so Destroying Angel loses the cloying, sickly-sweet intimacy of its CD counterpart. Half Life, too, lacks the torpid sensuality of the recorded version. All you can hear is the steady, heavy beat of the drums and the mannered vocals, any trace of Hartlepool, Corner's birthplace, smothered by his mid-Atlantic drawl.
Low Five features John Barry-esque keyboard sounds and could, at a stretch, be a James Bond theme were a Bassey or a Cher to give it the camp diva treatment. They also preview their third album, provisionally titled Bloodsport, with the track Blue Movie, which plays on the connection between religion and sex. Corner returns alone for an acoustic encore, recasting himself as Bowie circa Hunky Dory, and seems genuinely touched by the response. "You're beautiful," he tells his small yet devoted army of fans, although how many of them rush out to buy that third LP remains to be seen.Bloodsport LyricsBloodsport BloodsportPimps BloodsportMusic Don TMusic LoveNew MusicNanowrimo MusicPimps SmallPimps SickForwardMusic by Sneaker Pimps, from the album Bloodsport. Lyrics: OK, you had sedatives and cold champagne They say that must be the price of fame It's not a joke if you can choke on the thought of it You're not my friend to defend if you're loving it So Kurt I heard that you squeezed somebody's hand It doesn't hurt if you think about your fans Kiro...
E’ il lontano (ma non troppo) 1996 quando gli Sneaker Pimps ottengono i primi consensi con 6 Underground, pezzo dalle sonorità trip hop che viene subito usato per colonne sonore e spot pubblicitari. La canzone è il punto di riferimento dell’album d’esordio della band britannica, “Becoming X”. La voce è quella di Kelli Dayton, ma per i due lavori successivi è Chris Corner, uno dei fondatori del gruppo, a stringere tra le mani il microfono. Sono gli anni di Splinter e Bloodsport. Segue lo scioglimento della band, con sommo dispiacere del sottoscritto, che con la musica degli Sneaker Pimps è cresciuto. Dalle ceneri della band britannica nasce IAMX, progetto solista di Chris Corner, che proprio in queste settimane sta girando il Vecchio Continente per promuovere il suo ultimo lavoro, “Metanoia”. Destino vuole che il tour comprenda diverse tappe nell’est Europa, dove il sottoscritto si trova di stanza. Ovviamente non ho perso l’occasione per andare a vedere dal vivo un artista che, negli anni, ho avuto modo di apprezzare.
E così ho anche potuto fare una scoperta sorprendente. Se i fan degli Sneaker Pimps erano rappresentati da un gruppo piuttosto variegato, a un concerto di IAMX è possibile trovare, invece, un pubblico prevalentemente femminile e molto giovane. Ragazzine che arrivano a tatuarsi in pieno petto il logo dell’artista pur di emulare l’oggetto del desiderio (le cui canzoni, tra l’altro, sono intrise di riferimenti sessuali e caratterizzate da un’intensa carica erotica). Le infatuazioni delle giovinette per Chris Corner non sono un dettaglio di poco conto, suggeriscono qualcosa… Today I’ve been thinking about what hygge sounds like. Inspired by my pal Jake (whom you can find writing cool things about music and menswear over at Overdiluted.net), I have decided to introduce a more tuneful element to this blog. After all, I did say that I wanted to make my blog a more interactive, multidimensional experience, so where better to start than with some Sunday tunes? I had a poke around on Spotify to find out what other people thought hygge sounds like, and I emerged none the wiser.
Everything from Bonnie Tyler to Eminem to Nickelback (really?!) appeared on other users’ hygge-inspired playlists. None of these really spring to mind when I think of hyggesoundz, so I took the liberty of creating my own playlist to explain. I don’t really know anything about music, so I can’t deconstruct my choices in terms of chords or timbre or whatever else, but I think there are a couple of common themes that I feel make a tune quintessentially hygge. Firstly, there needs to be a certain amount of intimacy. From my playlist, I reckon Sometimes You Need by Rufus Wainwright sums this up well. It tends not to be super noisy and it’s easy to feel close to the music. You simply cannot convince me that Everything In Its Right Place by Radiohead is anything other than a fireplace brimming with embers. With hygge roughly translating as ‘cosiness’, it would be wrong for a song which captures this concept to be anything other than the musical equivalent of an extra jumper on a snowy day.