Robyn and Royksopp are floating in space

Monument is the 10-minute opening track on Robyn & Royksopp's mini-album Do It Again; an eerie, atmospheric (if somewhat ponderous) groove that slowly gives way to a muted saxophone solo.

It now comes with an equally spooky video, where the dance gurus wake up suspended on a floating disc in outer space. Some awful fate seems to have befallen them all (not least in the haircut department) as Robyn mutters to herself silently between the lyrics - an apparent sign of a disturbed mind.

Or maybe she's just a big fan of Michael Wilson in the Police Academy films. You decide.

Robyn & Royksopp - Monument


Michael Wilson - Police Academy 2

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Just in: Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me

Jessie Ware's new single, Say You Love Me, has just had a simultaneous premiere on Radio One and 1Xtra - where Mistajam played it three times in a row.

And, yes, it's that good. If Tough Love tugged at your heartstrings, this is going to snap them in two.

"I don't want to fall in love / If you don't want to try," sings our heroine. "But all I've been thinking of / Is maybe that you might."

Simply beautiful.

Jessie Ware - Say You Love Me

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Jax Jones + Janet Jackson = Jubilaton

Go Deep is not one of the best-loved singles from Janet Jackson's vast back catalogue - in fact, it was a zero-score answer in the final round of Pointless a fortnight ago - but it is something of a corker. A flirty, flyweight funk track that makes ample use of the Flexatone (a percussion instrument more frequently employed to make the oooooh, spooky sound effect on Playschool).

Janet Jackson - Go Deep

The song stalled at number 13 back in 1998, but it must have made an impression on a young Jax Jones who has reswizzled Go Deep for his debut single, also called Go Deep. The dance remake re-contextualises Janet's vocals over a dark house beat, in a much the same way that Duke Dumont reworked Whitney's My Love Is Your Love earlier this year.

Not coincidentally, Jax Jones was a featured artist on that single, too. So Jax, if you're reading, can you do Toni Braxton's He Wasn't Man Enough next? Thanks.


PS: As something of a Janet remix afficionado, I wonder if Jax Jones ever heard the Masters At Work versions of Go Deep? They took a broadly similar approach to her vocals over a nine-minute, saxophone-fuelled late-night jam. It's quite something.

Janet Jackson - Go Deep (Thunder Mix)

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Banks on your TV

Banks' new single, Beggin' For Thread, is something of a monster; particularly the Middle 8, where she plumbs the very depths of her vocal range before rising a full octave to a throaty scream of "my tracks are better".

It's spine-tingling stuff - and she more than does it justice in this live performance (and her first ever TV spot) from Jimmy Kimmel's chat show on Friday.

Bonus points for continuing despite almost swallowing a mouthful of hair.

Banks - Beggin For Thread

In case you missed it last week, Banks broke her social media silence to post a statement about British girlband Neon Jungle, who've covered her single Waiting Game on their new album...

People keep asking why I let Neon Jungle put my song "Waiting Game" on their album when my album has yet to come out. The answer is I was never asked. I was as shocked as you to see this song made up of my own heartbeats on their album. A song that was born from my real life, my real heartache, my real fingertips when I was at one of the most confusing times in my life. How strange it is to see it used on someone else's album before it even comes out on mine. It makes me feel very uncomfortable. Like my own thoughts were stolen from me and sold as someone elses. I am a new artist and new to this business and I am told it is legal. But it feels really icky. I guess I can only hope Waiting Game means as much to Neon Jungle as it did to me when I wrote it....... BANKS

Ouch. To be fair, Waiting Game has been available to buy for over a year now, so it's not like Neon Jungle have snatched the prize from under Banks's nose. But their version is a poor imitation of the original - the band's over-produced vocals simply don't convey the desolation and desperation of Banks' performance. Compare and contrast below.

Banks - Waiting Game


Neon Jungle - Waiting Game

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Alt-J dashed off a song in 20 minutes and its the best thing they've written*

Speaking to The Guardian recently, laugh-a-minute indie rockers Alt-J (pictured, above, on the best day of their lives) said their new single was written to appease their US record label.

Apparently Atlantic, home to the Bee Gees and Bruno Mars, didn't think the Miley Cyrus-sampling Hunger Of The Pine was a big radio single (what were they expecting, Livin' On A Prayer?)

And so, the band settled down to write "the least Alt-J song ever", taking a "joke riff" they'd been playing in rehearsals and fleshing it out with the most perfunctory chords and rhythm imaginable. Whereas the band typically spend weeks agonising over every note, The Guardian said, Left Hand Free was written "in about 20 minutes".

The result is just what the label wanted - a big, dumb summer singalong, with a bigger, dumber video to go with it. But the band haven't surrendered completely.

The lyrics are a none-too-subtle dig at US politics, with scathing references to gun culture, and the imperialism of the "new economic order" (NEO? OMG! Gee whiz, girl, you're the one for me).

Still, as much as the band have characterised this as a throwaway joke, it's so infectiously catchy that part of me wishes they'd write all their songs in 20 minutes. Perhaps their super hilarious joke has backfired?

Alt-J - Left Hand Free

* Apart from Tesselate, obviously.

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Ella Eyre's funtime puzzle page

Ella Eyre - big of voice, big of hair - has delivered a rollicking new single called Comeback. A bluesy pop stomper, its essentially Adele's Rolling In The Deep on a hen night, complete with a sweary call-and-response section to upset your granddad.

The lyric video came out yesterday and it contains an odd section where the words are typed onto a crossword grid. First of all, who in their right mind types out a crossword?). But more importantly, Ella gets all the answers all wrong. In most cases she doesn't even have enough letters to solve the clues.

Can you work out what any of these are supposed to be?

Across
11 Humorous play with naughty goings-on (7,5)
13 Island regarded as the Japanese mainland (6)
14 Shrewdness (6)
17 Small Horse, native to the West Country (8,4)
20 Ray of Light (7)
21 Gimcrack (5)
22 Hurting (4)

As much as I'd like the 20 across solution to be "Madonna", the answer's more likely to be Sunbeam. The other solutions are probably (in order): Comical farce; Honshu"; Acumen; Dartmoor pony; Sunbeam; Shoddy; and Sore.

Ella, if you're reading, I think you should do the decent thing and re-record the song using these words as the lyrics. I'm not saying it'd be an improvement, but the lyric video would be accurate and that would help with my OCD.

Thanks.

Ella Eyre - Comeback

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