From the puppet porn video of their Ian Dury cover version to their new genre-twisting album Everyone’s Entitled To Our Opinion, Slyde are giving breaks a healthy boot up the arse…
It’s no secret that EQ, and especially our resident breaks head, Believe, are big fans of Finger Lickin’ Records, and when the label puts out albums like this, it’s easy to see why. In Slyde – aka Jason Laidback and Robin 12tree – Finger Lickin’ has found a duo who have a rare talent for making proper breaks songs. Their new album, Everyone’s Entitled To Our Opinion, really shakes up the genre, throwing together live elements, sassy vocals (courtesy of Jamaica’s dancehall queen Lady Posh, among others), a touch of rock, and even a cover version of the Ian Dury and the Blockheads classic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, complete with a puppet porn video (which you can see HERE). This isn’t just dance music with lyrics, it’s songs made for dancing too.
The boys have a pedigree for making good tunes though. As a producer and remixer, Robin has worked with the likes of Moloko, Jean Jacques Smoothie and Shirley Bassey, while Jason, originally signed to Big Life, got on the controls of De La Soul and Naughty By Nature. The duo have also collaborated with Keith Flint of The Prodigy on Clever Brains Fryin’. Their debut album puts all that in the shade though, so we tracked down the boys to quiz them about its unique sound…
Tell us a bit about Everyone's Entitled To Our Opinion.
It’s a bit of an experiment in what we could do with the breaks sounds we’ve been playing over the years. It’s an eclectic album, but it still has that Slyde sound to it, and we wanted to make sure the vocals were just as well thought out as the beats.
Have people been surprised by the variety of sounds on there?
Yeah, that was to be expected, but fortunately the response has been great. We think people need to understand that for breaks to survive it has to progress and be open to new ideas and influences. This year should be an interesting one as some quality breaks artists are dropping albums.
It's probably going to be labelled as a breaks album, but given there are so many other sounds on there, does that bother you?
Not really. Breaks is where we came from and we’re not hiding or jumping ship to electro house. Our album stands up alongside any genre, but people love to classify, we’ll just carry on doing what we do best – making music – and let others judge and pick the pigeonholes.
What was the thinking behind having so many different sounds on there?
It’s natural because we’ve grown up with early electro, rap, acid house, indie… Our singles haven’t just been DJ tools, so it’s an album of bass-influenced music, with lyrics that add to the flavour or that make you think.
How hard was it introducing vocals into an album like this? Not many breaks producers make the most of vocals.
We were lucky having some great people doing vocals for us and that made it easier. There are so many dodgy lyrics flying around on dance albums, so we tried to make the lyrics count and show we are not lazy and are willing to push things.
And proper songs aren’t something you hear on a lot of Finger Lickin' releases…
The label were really behind the idea of taking what we do into a different territory – it was never the idea to make a dance comp style album. We respect Finger Lickin’ so much for giving us that artistic freedom.
How did the Ian Dury cover come about?
We’re both Ian Dury fans and wanted to put a bit of cheekiness back into breaks – and the x-rated video shows this most tastefully… To get the okay from the Blockheads was a great moment. We want breaks to reach a wider audience, otherwise there just won’t be any nights to go to. Support from Zane Lowe, Annie Nightingale and Eddie Temple Morris has surely got to be good for the scene.
What have you got planned for your live shows?
There’s Lady Posh, Kattie Heath and Chaz G on vocals, there’s live drums, guitar, a scratch DJ – and mayhem. We want to take breaks into a live arena and keep the phatness of our sound. It’s early days, but we’re having a go at taking it beyond DJing, and we’ll develop the show further as we go.
Anything else going on you want to tell us about?
Yeah, heard the one about every breaks DJ pretending they like electro house? Oh, you have, okay…
Everyone's Entitled To Our Opinion is out now on Finger Lickin’. Visit www.myspace.com/fingerlickinslyde and www.fingerlickin.co.uk
