If the sudden success of Clean Bandit's "Rather Be" in the UK is anything to go by, then "Touch", the mindblowingly catchy new single by previously musically ambiguous producer Shift K3Y, could well be the next step in a full on garage takeover in 2014. The garage revival has been gradually working its way through the dance underground's deep house obsession of 2013, but most of it has been afraid to place a toe firmly in the late 90s/early 00s nostalgia pool, the majority opting to follow in Disclosure's footsteps and offer flavours of garage without recalling too much of this shamelessly cheesy period in music.
Why "Touch" works is that it brings back everything that was good about garage in the first place, including the features that Disclosure et al have been too credible to - the sugary sweet male vocal, gloriously sung by the producer himself (a fact which makes me very happy indeed), a 130+ bpm, and a set of simplistic, hollow yet instantly memorable lyrics, which accompany a melody so catchy that their vacuousness can be forgiven, celebrated even.
If Clean Bandit turned back the clock to the sunkissed post-garage/chilled-house days of 2002/3, Shift K3y has bravely turned the hands even further back to 1999, channelling the spirit of Artful Dodger. Need another reason why this is so great? This was a time when unknown producers and acts would top the charts out of the blue, purely because of a shamelessly catchy tune, so please let's see "Touch" become the second breakthrough #1 of the year and let's see some hard work pay off.
FOR FANS OF: Artful Dodger, Kove, DEVolution
- Joe Copplestone, 3.2.14
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