Stand by for far-out as left-field rap act Pan Amsterdam hooks up with ‘godfather of punk’ and Radio 6 tastemaker Iggy Pop for new single Mobile. Turns out all parties involved met-up to record Mobile in Texas – currently headquarters of ExxonMobil. Is there a link? Are Pan Am and Iggy standing up to the planet-killing might of the petrochemical industry? Perhaps the track will provide clues! Opening with just that thumping kick-drum certainly suggests they mean business. Sorry what’s that Iggy? ‘Two scratches, beef-jerky and a powerball.’ Come again? Oh wait – here’s Pan-Am – maybe he can help shed some light on things – ‘I paint self-hate portraits in acrylic/ since paedophiles think I’m not photogenic’ Yes – not quite the clarity I was looking for – but if you want things given to you on a plate, you’ve come to the wrong place. Don’t expect things to be any more clearcut on second track 15 Seconds either – opening bars: ‘Yo, A1 sauce when you keep makin’ mistakes/ With an audacity to keep goals, better than Gordon Banks’. This one is produced by Malik Ameer of Madison Washington and features Pan Am rapper Leron Thomas on both the mic and (in a nod to his other life as a jazz trumpeter) the trumpet. It does have a distinctly psychedelic things playing backwards vibe though so perhaps everything is revealed in a hidden message.
(Out now on Def Presse)