AlunaGeorge - Your Drums, Your Love - Body Music

As you can probably guess, AlunaGeorge is made up of a girl named Aluna and a boy called George. Ms. Francis and Mr. Reid met over MySpace in roughly 2009 after he remixed Aluna's band My Toys Like Me's track "Sweetheart".

This song is the first song they ever released together, and, oddly, the one I heard most recently of theirs. I was skimming through their Spotify profile and thought, hmm, haven't heard that one before. I must have missed it when I listened to "Attracting Flies" [their most recently released track] and "You Know You Like It", which have great remixes by Bauuer and Bondax respectively.

I first heard of them after listening to their collaboration with Rustie on "After Light", and then obviously on the massive banger with Disclosure, "White Noise", which will go down in history as an absolutely phenomenal track. What I really like about AlunaGeorge is that their music can get me pumped up when I'm about to go out or when I am out, but also when I'm chillin in my slobby clothes the next day. It's good music for most occasions. Probably not a funeral though.

Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nrk-p3/9194427575/

It's mainly electronic effects and things before things kick off. That part is in a different key to the rest of the song, which I like because it does lead up to the song nicely, but also keeps a sense of mystery - you're not dropped straight in it. When the song does start properly, there are distorted vocals singing "your drums/we're drumming/your drums" over and over, it sounds as though the vocal track has been slowed down. It's got a fantastic beat and the bass is gooood.

I recently wrote a blog about London Grammar's "Metal and Dust" in which I referred to Aluna's vocals, but just to recap: they're very unlike most vocalists at the moment. It's child-like and sweet, and her accent comes through in a refreshing, colloquial kinda way, but underneath that there's a steeliness, a kind of "don't fuck with me" kind of thing, which I really like about her:

"You can't say that I'm going nowhere 

'Cause you don't know where I'm coming from 

And you can't say that I'm going nowhere
When I have been trying to reach you for so long"

There's then another line of "your drums/we're drumming/your drums" before the next verse:

"Friends say I've got something wrong,
'Cause I've been trying to reach you for so long
For so long, I've tried
To reach you baby, don't you know that"

Ahh, the age-old turmoil - someone is obsessed with someone else, and their friends are convinced it'll never happen/isn't a good idea/won't work out. Who hasn't been there?

The harmonies just sound so perfect and natural, like she's playing with them there and then on the day of recording, rather than doing what most recording artists do and work them out beforehand. Well, most recording "artists" get someone else to write them, but that's a different argument. This builds up to the chorus:

"I've been treading water for your love,
Whether I sink or swim, it's you I'm thinking of
I've been treading water for your love,
As my light grows dim maybe I'm not strong enough boy"

For me, this chorus absolutely makes this song. I can't get it out of my head. It's just SO GOOD. It's beautifully written, everything complements each other (yes, there are two spellings and meanings to the word "compliments") and I can't get over it. I think it'll be stuck there for a while. It really brings out how graceful Aluna's vocals really are.

But let's not forget the lesser-spotted George! His production is just so slick, I think it's what made "White Noise" so successful to be honest, none of Disclosure's other tracks have got the edge that the one has. It's as though he's been a professional for 50 years and has a wealth of experience doing work for loads of artists. Maybe I'm predicting the future here...

There's then a couple more lines of "your drums/we're drumming/your drums" before the next verse and a half:

"I can't say where I'm going, nowhere
This feeling goes on and on
I can't say that I'm going somewhere
When I've been failing to reach you for so long

For so long, I've tried
To reach you baby, don't you know that"

We're then back to the lovely chorus. I just think it's such a fantastic way to describe what's going on in this song: "I've been treading water for your love/Whether I sink or swim, it's you I'm thinking of". It's just perfect, and it gets better every time I hear it.

The middle 8 of the song is a nice way to break things up:

"Maybe all along (all along)

I've been holding on (holding on)
To the promise that you need some time

Making everything into a story
Making sure I never get to feel happy
Taking everything you do my own way
Thinking that you're begging me please"

Then the chorus again before the start plays us out. Great song!