This is not entirely up to date news, but on the 27th September Mark Ronson releases his new album Record Collection, this time releasing the album under the name Mark Ronson & the Business Intl. Ronson’s all star team of contributors includes Dave McCabe (The Zutons), Kyle Falconer (The View), Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), Ghostface Killah (Wu-Tang Clan) and many more. This list of contributors seems a lot more on the pop/indie side of life than his previous albums, especially 2003 offering Here Comes The Fuzz, which has a decidedly more hip hop feel.
In a brief bit of blurb taken from his website, there is a description as to how he got started with this project:
“In July 2009, Mark Ronson and his musician friends went into Dunham studios in Brooklyn […] Inspired by working with Duran Duran […] he brought with him some of the vintage keyboards he’d found on eBay. And they began playing. He and the other musicians would try their hand at different instruments “to stop anyone getting too comfortable”.
When they had worked like this and created some usable backing tracks, Ronson got hold of some of his friends and together they created melodies and lyrics.
The three tracks I have heard so far all sound very promising. The first single released from the album, Bang Bang Bang (feat. Q-Tip and MNDR), has a catchy electronic beat that bounces along under the two beautifully contrasting vocals that work really well together. The newest single which will be released on 19th September is The Bike Song (feat. Kyle Falconer and Spank Rock). This track also has a nice bouncy retro feel to it with a nice use of the sounds of bike bells and horns. The hook that plays over the verse has a vague reminiscence of The Beatles’ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. In fact, the whole song sounds like The Beatles had a baby with a Commodore 64 game. On the old gaming note, the only other track I’ve heard so far is Circuit Breaker. This track is a glorious bit of chiptune-inspired wonderfullness (sorry that is not a real word but it seemed appropriate). Even the Zelda inspired video brings a nice warm fuzzy feeling of retro gaming to me.
After his unfortunately overlooked Here Comes The Fuzz and his hugely successful second album, Version, Mark Ronson has not been afraid to develop his style once again. I greatly look forward to reviewing the full album for this website. It is available for pre-order in all the usual places digitally, on CD and a 7″ Vinyl box set.
Ronson will be touring the UK on the following dates to promote the new album. Tickets are still available for most dates. For further info and to buy tickets, please see our Gig Rig feature.
September 2010
27th O2 Academy, Bristol
28th HMV Institute, Birmingham
29th Hackney Empire, London
October 2010
1st ABC1, Glasgow
2nd Academy, Manchester
3rd O2 Academy, Leeds
