- Observer Music Monthly, Sunday 15 October 2006
1. The Hours
Ali in the Jungle (Polydor)
OK, I admit it: I know this lot. In fact, I first met singer Ant Genn when he was 13 years old, so making this a Hot Tune stinks of nepotism, right? Wrong. You know what? It's hard to admit you're blown away by something somebody you know has done; it makes you feel awkward when you meet them. But there's no getting away from it: this is fantastic. Not only does it hit you like a punch from Ali himself, but anyone who mentions Helen Keller, Ludwig von Beethoven, Tony Adams and Cassius Clay in the space of a chorus has got to be on to something. We hate it when our friends become successful? I'm just going to have to get used to it, I guess.
Jarvis Cocker
2. Ali Love
Camera on a Pole EP (I Love Records)
South Londoner Ali Love's summer smash 'K Hole' not only referenced ketamine, the drug that makes people lurch like slow-motion apes, but it also namechecked the Old Blue Last, the Shoreditch pub for people who clearly never watched Chris Morris's Nathan Barley. Happily, it was also brilliant: a speaker-busting shower of trammelling bass guitar and freaked-out bleeps. The 25-year-old's new EP kicks off with a glam-rocking anthem about CCTV cameras and moves on to soulful punk-funk, a wistful acoustic yodel titled 'Post Modern Blues' and a cracking remix of 'K Hole' by the king of indie-rave, Erol Alkan.
Emma Warren
3. Fedde Le Grand
Put Your Hands Up For Detroit (Data/Universal)
Put your hands up and surrender to the summer's biggest dance tune, finally getting an official UK release. Dutch DJ/producer Le Grand's two-and-a-half-minute anthem is one of those tunes that will either have you immediately pogoing and doing those crisscross hand movements, or have you covering your ears and protesting against its militant repetitiveness, moaning, 'But it's not music!' And maybe it isn't, being one crushing disco beat, one idiot bassline and a bloke occasionally shouting, 'Put your hands up for Detroit! I love this city!' in an odd, indefinable, accent. If dance music's dead, then the funeral's a big, loud, dirty laugh-fest.
Garry Mulholland
4. The Good, The Bad And The Queen
Herculean (Parlophone/Honest Jon's)
Having proved himself the master of two dimensions with Gorillaz, Damon Albarn's next fantasia in the key of side-project fleshes out his bandmates into actual human beings. And anyone who doubted his capacity to get Afrobeat rhythm king Tony Allen, the Clash's Paul Simonon and the Verve's Simon Tong reading from the same page in his hymn book will find their fears swiftly allayed by this elegant conflation of Lowry-esque melancholy and Morricone-esque whistling. 'Standing on the dark canal, by the gas-works,' intones Albarn, lulling his detractors into a false sense of security with this oddly low-key first single.
Ben Thompson
5. Babyshambles and Friends
Janie Jones (B-Unique)
This high-spirited romp through the Clash's 'Janie Jones' is being feted as a reunion of sorts between Carl Barat and his erstwhile Libertine bandmate Pete Doherty. Inevitably, it isn't quite the intimate tête-à-tête that fans would hope for. Like all esteemed charity records - this one is for Strummerville, the Joe Strummer new music foundation - their friends have pitched in: 21 all-star indie scruffs including the Kooks, Rakes, Larrikin Love and Jamie T. Brilliantly - because most group charity tunes are nothing short of an ordeal - this still sounds like a four-piece garage act fired up with pugilistic intent.
Sarah Boden
