DOWNLOAD: Pocket featuring Steve Kilbey - "Hear in Noiseville"

Last year, Pocket (aka Richard Jankovich) started releasing a series of singles where he collaborated with a "dream list" of vocalists on the A-Side and introduced a breaking artist on the B-Side. Each of these singles also featured three remixes from a variety of electronic music producers. Pocket has compiled the A-Sides from the first five singles along with five of the remixes and three of the B-Sides and has released this compilation through iTunes as "5 Single EPs".

The disc kicks off with the track "Surround Him With Love" which features Robyn Hitchcock. Hitchcock steps away from his recent acoustic material and intones the chant "Surround Him With Love" over a slithering and oozing dance floor beat that leaves the song sounding like Shriekback at its prime. The second track, "Sampo", is a dream pop song where Asobi Seksu's Yuki Chikudate sings in Japanese while Pocket plays New Order style electro-pop instrumentals.

There are official videos (below) for Pocket's collaborations with Steve Kilbey and Dave Smalley. While the Steve Kilbey cut isn't that far removed from what The Church was doing in the 80's, the track with Dave Smalley is a pleasantly surprising industrial dance track that is closer to work by Ministry and/or Nitzer Ebb than Dag Nasty or Down by Law.





The last of the A-Side singles, "Someone to Run Away From" features Craig Wedren. This is a quirky pop tune that fits well alongside Shudder to Think's back-catalog. As an interesting aside, the Dave Smalley & Craig Wedren songs were originally released as each other's B-Sides.

While this disc includes a remix of each of the five A-Sides, these tracks aren't essential listening as they don't break any new ground. The three B-Sides are very strong though and introduced me to some artists that I wasn't previously familiar with - Shonali Bhowmilk (Tiger and Monkeys), Loraine Lelis (Moahogany/Somnambulants), Kimi Recor (Lilofee). Loriane Lelis' track is the strongest of the three and it comes across like a Camera Obscura/St. Etienne lost pop gem.

Pocket has continued to keep the singles coming and has recently collaborated with Tanya Donelly, Mark Burgess and Menomena's Danny Seim.

Links:
Pocket