Shit And Shine’s music might sound like a pain-inducing endurance test put out by a group that clearly isn’t shy of a little shocktatic publicity. But that doesn’t stop it being both engrossingly addictive and, rather surprisingly, the leading candidate in the contest for the music that most perceptively captures the zeitgeist of today’s Britain.

Because Shit And Shine’s aggressive, repetitive, warped and distorted riffs and beats do not even hint at any suggestion of narrative or story-telling and make no attempt whatsoever to engage with the listener intellectually.

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Back to the post modern black art of the remix again. Possibly the most game-changing development of the last 20 or so years, the cutting up, re-using, re-mixing and general mashing up of samples or even whole tracks is everywhere.  

So evolved is the art these days that we’ve reached a stage where the different remix artists have developed styles and sounds that are as recognisably distinctive as say the individual styles and sounds of different singers or guitarists in the ’70′s or ’80′s. And recognisably distinctive whatever the original source material.

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Just what you’ve been waiting for - a comedy song.

The brilliant comedy song is not an easy trick to pull off. As demonstrated by the fact that there are a million more failures than there are successes. I can only think of three acts that have achieved this rare feat consistently. Spike Jones in the 1940′s, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in the 1960′s and 1970′s and over the last 5 or so years New Zealand’s Flight Of The Conchords. And no I haven’t forgotten about Monty Python.

It’s tricky because not only have the words got to be funny over and over again to bear repeated listening but the music has got to be as brilliant as you’d expect from a non comedy record - even when it’s pastiche or parody. No surprise then that Spike Jones, the Bonzos and Flight Of The Conchords were or still are blessed with the ability to write and play brilliant music as well as write very funny words.

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Sigur Ros are from Iceland. I’ve no evidence to support this but I like to think that Sigur Ros might just have been influenced by The Fall when in 1982 our heroes from Manchester became the first band I know  to tour Iceland. No idea what the population of Iceland made of The Fall but maybe the fledgling Sigur were inspired by Mark E Smith’s majestic but very skewed take on the English language to create their own version of Icelandic. Because, Sigur sing in Hopelandic – a version of Icelandic but one they invented themselves.

Might be a surprise to all those who believe lyrics are more important than music but to my English ears the noises Sigur Ros make communicate more profoundly than the lyrics of practically anyone else currently singing in English. Even though I couldn’t translate one word of it for you. Except perversely on this track which is the only one they’ve ever recorded in English. So hauntingly beautiful is it though that: 1. I had to choose it and 2. it always makes me cry. Which is why I’ve chosen it for ABON while I’m not here to listen.

Released 2008.

Available on the CD ‘Me Su í Eyrum Vi Spilum Endalaust’ which translates as ’With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly’: Amazon.

Of course if you know someone really really special you might want to buy the Deluxe Edition which contains amongst other things a numbered unique piece of genuine 35mm film from the video of the making of the album. In which case you need: SigurRos

The art of the sampler and remixer perfected. Although credited to Tony Matterhorn (the Singer) this is all the work of Diplo (the Producer).

Based on a sample of…wait for it…ultra Punk group The Dead Kennedys’  ’California Uber Alles’, heavy duty vocals are provided by Tony Matterhorn, a dancehall DJ from Jamaica. And in this unlikely marriage Diplo concocts one of the most arresting and original new pieces of music of the last few years.    

Released 2008.

Available on the Diplo produced CD ‘Top Ranking – A Diplo Dub’; Amazon