Wednesday 3 October 2012

Sneaker Pimps - Spin Spin Sugar (Armand's Dark Garage Mix) (1996)


Sneaker Pimps were a British trip-hop band formed in Hartlepool in 1994, best known for their début 1996 album Becoming X and particularly the singles 6 Underground, Spin Spin Sugar, and Tesko Suicide, all from that same album. Their novel name originates from an article the Beastie Boys published in their Grand Royal magazine about a man they hired to track down classic sneakers. The band's founding members were Liam Howe and Chris Corner, who then recruited the fantastic Kelli Dayton (formerly of Lumieres, now recording under the name Kelli Ali) for vocal duties and long-time friend Ian Pickering to provide lyrics.
After that first album, the band felt that the Corner-voiced demos for the second album better suited his voice, especially in regard to the more raw, personal quality of the lyrics. Following the promotional tour for Becoming X, Kelli was dismissed from the group, and Corner became the lead singer. Incidentally, Corner began working on a side project in 2003 and released three solo albums in 2004, 2006, and 2009 under the moniker IAMX titled Kiss + Swallow, The Alternative, and Kingdom of Welcome Addiction. His latest album was released in March 2011 titled, Volatile Times. He has also sung guest vocals for TNT Jackson, Moonbootica and The Strike Boys, as well as produced material for Robots in Disguise.


Liam Howe has become a successful writer/producer and has written and produced for the likes of Marina and the Diamonds, and Ellie Goulding, he is signed to Columbia records for his solo project which includes collaborations from Alan Vega, Neneh Cherry and Princess Superstar.
Kelli Ali recorded her third solo album, the Max Richter-produced Rocking Horse at the beginning of 2008 and released it through One Little Indian records in late Autumn 2008. She is quoted as saying this is a very different affair from her two previous solo albums, Tigermouth and Psychic Cat. Ian Pickering is a lyricist/songwriter currently writing and recording with the band Polaroid Kiss with Brandun Reed whose debut album 'Weakness of the Beautiful Souls' was released in 2011. He wrote lyrics for a number of tracks on the IAMX albums Kiss + Swallow and The Alternative and released the album All These Lines Make Noises in 2005 as a singer/songwriter/lyricist with the band Transporter.

The version of Spin Spin Sugar here isn't the original one from the album; its a remix by Armand Van Helden, probably best known for his re-workings of Tori Amos's Professional Widow and CJ Bolland's Sugar Is Sweeter. Another track that was a huge club anthem on it's release and still requested by people to this day. That said, the original version still holds it's own, and is a perfect fit for the video that was created for it; The sight of Kelli cavorting in a skin-tight dress in a seedy-looking hotel room paints a picture in my head not easily (or willingly) removed.
I will personally never fathom why she isn't singing with them now; her vocal style was a perfect fit for them, despite their reasoning for their later work.

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