- Modeselektor's brand of mutant hip-hop is a pretty lip-smacking proposition at any time, especially when you add rappers that are highly regarded in their own area of the world, but relatively unknown elsewhere. Especially when it's only their second single under that name since 2007's Happy Birthday. Consequently, on first listen you might be forgiven for directing your attention towards the backing track—but unlike the vocal tracks on Birthday, that's just what it is: a backing track. This is more familiar as hip-hop, rather than Modeselektor with guesting vocalists. Front stage is given to Abbas and Nazizi's heavily accented ragga style, their smooth, slightly drawling vocals going well with the nutty Germans' trademark serrated squelch.
Nazizi is sultry and attitude-tinged, and Abbas' voice swings with rhythmic inflection. Nevertheless, as a departure from Modeselektor's norm it seems like a polite move on their part, as if they didn't want to steal the vocalists' thunder. It was done impromptu in a single hotel room session, and maybe that has something to do with its elemental constitution as well. The same two bass notes take turns, one bar at a time, over the course of the track, and the slow drum skank is floppy rather than punchy. The kind of awesome, melancholy baroque towers that were built up in "2000007" won't be found here, though, and it's a shame that they're not punching their weight. Boys Noize goes for a choppy blog house reinterpretation, which again is pretty standard, not seething with his usual energy, but meandering noncommittally. Again, not massively shabby, but it's a "could do better" all round.
Tracklist A1 Monkey Flip feat. Abbas and Nazizi
B1 Monkey Flip feat. Abbas and Nazizi (Boys Noize remix)