The Cagedbaby Thread

gimme

who's his boss, dr rubberfunk?

One Norman Cook of Brighton Beach Esq.

Right, so does Gmail not go above 5MB attachments, then?

Argh! There are smaples on the website, so go there. Meanwhile, I got dibs on whacking Google.

Steve, did you receive it in the end?

Bidness is about to pick up.

Cagedbaby releases his first single on Monday. With '16 Lovers' Cagedbaby (Tom) gives us an irresistible slab of funky-as-fuck electro-pop that harks back to the eighties glories of The Human League, Prince and the likes. Half dance act/half New Romantic then, despite borrowing a lot, the man melds it all together perfectly. Sprinkle on top some hilarious cross-gendered lyrics 'I know you love it when I'm dressed in drag', and you're on to a guaranteed winner. Available in the shops is the DJ fav Radio Slave remix and the George Issakidis remix, as well as 'Golden Triangle'. Available digitally is the clubbers fav mix by Lottie and Serge Santiago.

I know we have been going on about this but Cagedbaby rocks live, there are loads of opportunities to check him out over the summer we are tempted to say he may well be one of dance music's best live acts in the making but we are a bit too shy to be so bold! We can help some of you with guest lists and competitions, feel free to email info@southernfriedrecords.com,

here's where he is at

28th May Homelands Dex n Efx
4th June Cargo London
11th June Bournemouth Uni Ball
25th June Glastonbury (we can't help with this one though!
29th July Fuji Rock Japan
5th August Fabric Live London
12th Aug Sunrise Festival, Portugal
27th August Creamfields live stage Liverpool
28th August Get loaded in the Park Southern Fried arena London
9th September Bestival Isle of Wight

If you happen to buy the single next week feel free to pen a review for us and send it in to info@southernfriedrecords.com we'll post them on the site

LOL from Tom "Cagedbaby" and Southern Fried xx

There's also a 7" picture disc at Rough Trade with LP tracks 'Hello There' (also on a Ministry chillout comp), which is all swirling synthesizers, nice steady drumming, and scared little introvert vocals; and 'Amplified Heart', which is a synthetic ballad that's a little like Prince gone New Romantic (to borrow a press quote). This now means that I've heard/own half the album and it has "BETTER THAN BLOODY MYLO AND ROYKSOPP PUT TOGETHER" imprinted in every pore.

Last night, '16 Lovers' damn near blew my head off. To take stock, this album is gonna fucking rule. This is what it looks like for the other tracks:

'Golden Triangle': Like INXS fucking the Pet Shop Boys while trying desperately to maintain their heterosexuality (a mammoth stadium rock guitar solo absolutely kills the middle-8). Tom rocks it in his in-between-Prince-and-Neil-Tennant-vocals.

'Berlin': Funk-bustin' break goodness with sweet keyboard lines, melodic flourishes and distortions and Tom begging you to set him on fire and break him. Like a gentle acid rerub of a debut album Bentley Rhythm Ace track.

'Marmalade': Tom Keeps It Unreal with a Mr Scruffed-up beatless jazz piano-looping calmer with Lemon Jelly-esque samples of desire and demands for marmalade. Totally soothing mantra antics for babies both caged and free.

'Disco Biscuit' (going up on Gmail thread later): A poppy Metro Area affair with Tom's vocals trying to force their way in via transmissions from another room. Also slots perfectly in between M.A.N.D.Y. and DJ T - at times, Tom is Chelonis-esque, easily fitting his vocals and pop sensibilities over the minimal disco trends of our times.

'Worm': old-school house that recalls both Bizarre Inc and The Ratpure's 'I Need Your Love'. Perfectly produced retro.

'Baby John': Tom's affection for The Beloved and A Man Called Adam comes to the fore on this 6am comedown Balearic soother. The lady vocals are a treat.

'Never See More': Still in the same place (the early 90s), but now with squiggly, swampy sonics and keys. May indicate filler.

'Star': The dancer that Fatboy would obviously have killed to perfect (seeing as he's his label boss and all). It is absolutely fantastic party funk that just builds and builds on its thrill-ride keys, swirls and samples. It is to love. And I LOVE IT.

'16 Lovers': I'm throwing it down right here: this is to electro house what 'Cish Cash' is to electroclash. It has this two-note mammoth electro riff pulsating and crushing all in its path the whole way through, while Prince guitar and synths play subtly in the background, though the whole thing also resembles the fantasy creation of the Purple Shop Boys. Imagine Freeform Five jamming with Get Physical and the Jaxx with the intent of crossbreeding 'Together' with '1999' and having Rex The Dog mix it and you get this simply brilliant, bruising, sexy, funny love song that you can sing along to. It even quotes '10 Green Bottles'(!) and if I can't live in a world where people will sing "I know you love it when I'm dressed in drag" to each other, then I don't want to live anywhere, and if the bobbins among you don't devote any of your time to this at all, you're cheating yourselves (insert jaded responses here ---->).
Darktime schaffel fans may also like the Issakidis mix.

To prove I'm not entirely BSing, Tom really does look like Chris Lowe dipped in a vat of pubic hair:

http://www.cagedbaby.com/tableimages/CB5sm.jpg

See? Pet Shop Prince arise.

It's the breaks side of things in the few remixes I've heard that makes me suspicious, and the jokes and fun elements. I really hate conscious fun or even funk in dance music, at least at the moment. like, dance music is lots of fun, for me, but mainly when it is serious. when things feel jokey or fun I often assume the act is not 100 percent confident in their ability.

that probably sounds very dour, it's not really, just why you might have felt insert jaded comment here. I'm not jaded I just have a really major personal bugbear about music that comes with a lop sided grin and wacky titles! or like "good humoured" music. I don't know if this is a larger issue of irony vs comedy or camp vs twee, maybe a potentially interesting discussion, maybe not.

But regardless I will certainly try and check out an album, whenever it comes out, I'm sure we'll have it in the shop.

Ronan, I accept you for who you are, so I have to admit I suspected you'd have qualms, especially as to the stances CB occasionally takes. Which remixes are you referring to? 'Bucci Bag'? 'No Matter What You Do'? To be fair, the guy is eclectic, he's like the JC Chasez of the UK dance scene (with all the 80s cheese and black rhythms that go with it). And I don't necessarily find him wacky, plus he quite obviously synthesises influences like Get Physical and Metro Area into his music but without camping them up (the campest he's come was covering 'Strawberry Letter 22', which is I suppose par for being all Hall and Oates over the backing of 'The Message'). His production is one are you can definitely say he's confident in. The album has taken 2 years, and he's sounding even more fully formed than he was when knocking out his initial remixes (though 'Star' is one of the more technically impressive UK debuts I've heard this decade). Also, I love fun in music (natch), and, 'Marmalade' aside, I haven't found the gags in the rest of it (yeah, he's called "Cagedbaby", but it's no more or less silly than, say "Rex The Dog").

I reckon the dub of '16 Lovers' that's supposed to turn up might suit you more, or maybe the Radio Slave or Issakidis (from The Micronauts!) version. I hope you at least got the single in the shop - HMV Trocadero seemed to be in small supply last night, which makes me happy if it indicates good trade rather than low orders.

Just realised that this is out in 2 or so weeks and Rough Trade and Piccadilly have advance copies. The album is still working a treat for me and the reviews I've seen reflect my own positivity. Plus, he's co-mixed DJ Mag's covermount CD and the 3 CB-related tracks are killers.

I really want to see the band live. I heard good things about their Glasto set.

The album front cover artwork must be the strangest of the year so far

Barms, can you hit me up g-mail style with a little something?

Yeah, it slays me. Bet the Roman Catholic Church are outraged ;-).

OK, it's out next Monday, and he's playing Fabric on Friday - but is that enough for me to overcome my dislike of the venue?

'Disco Biscuit' seems a decent choice of next single, but I'd've definitely preferred 'Against The Wall', which is sparkling cross-genre pop (and would require a massive edit). The dub of the latter's the next b-side in any case, and I hope Ewan and Al will provide a remix!

EO, I'll send you '16 Lovers' and the Benassi remix in a couple hours.

Sent.

There's a live performance of 'Disco Biscuit' linked on the front page of the website. And it's actually really good! In a year or less, I could probably see him approaching Jaxx-levels of live dancing excitement.

Hmmm. I caught his set at StompaPhunk when he played before Ewan Pearson. I wasn't convinced. Just seemd one-dimension, chugging looping bars and one trick - cutting out the bass and then putting it back in again... Haven't heard the records but won't say any more until I have.

I see the Guardian gave it a good review

I like a nicely-written John Burgess review, so I do.

And like I said, I've seen a brace of positive reviews for the record and it belongs in my top 3.

Nice try B, but I think I'll stick with Prince playing Prince guitars and synths. Sounds a bit too Mylo for my liking.

Mylo doesn't really sing though - but this is likely a good thing. But seriously, there are a) good pop songs on this, which Mylo has difficulty with and b) great electro-pop ballads, which Mylo has...

terrible cover, though, like wisden's almanac 1978.

Mylo has difficulty with good pop songs?? erm.......

For "difficulty with pop" read "Barima only likes 'Drop The Pressure' for catchy tuneness".

Though I thought you'd only keep up with the thread once you'd heard the album...

I dunno, to me Mylo's greatest strength is his ear for pop and hooks, he's certainly not a good producer or a big innovator, but his pop smarts are what sold that record, in my opinion anyway.

I have heard the sampler but I didn't like it to be honest, it's too song based for me.

Alright, let me put it another way: if Cagedbaby is indeed just another Mylo, he's a Mylo who channels his pop smarts in a song-based direction and sounds all the better for it. Though he certainly goes over better on my headphones than most Mylo tunes do re: production.

Mylo is no Daft Punk when it comes to pop-dance (I'm using DP as a wildly successful barometer of hook-based dance, not to compare their albums directly with Mylo's), so the relative simplicity of his ear for pop hooks is mostly found wanting - ie, they don't stick in my head because they're not really all that. 'Drop The Pressure' is possibly the only tune of his in this vein that doesn't only rely on a "clever" or recognisable hook (eg 'Destroy...', 'In My Arms') to carry it - it has musical muscle as well. He is better at straight house stuff like the 'Wolves of Miami'/'Musclecars' single than CB, but the Van Helden and A Man Called Adam remixes aside, CB doesn't really do this right now - he got it out of his system going by the demos I have.

Unlike Cagedbaby, though, Mylo's greater strength lies in remixing - I'd've taken an album with more tracks like the remakes of Amy Winehouse, Aloud, Master H or even the Annie and Kylie ones, frankly. But these mixes exist, so it's hardly a bummer if I don't like the non-previously released portions of DRNR.

Cagedbaby is more comparable to Royksopp or even Cut Copy than Mylo, regardless.

I think the Mylo remix thing is partly because he got more money for better toys. Certainly his remix of The Glass's "Hear The Music" and some of the later ones sound alot more expensive than his album.

I think he felt more free doing the mixes too - the Aloud and Amy mixes are poles apart from each other, let alone from parts of the album, yet they're interesting and enjoyable both muscially and as (remade) pop tracks. They honestly remind me of what CB does too.