When we learned last year that Mike Skinner's THE STREETS would be calling it a day, we all cried one massive collective tear. A career that had spanned almost 2 decades, 5 albums and spawned tracks like 'Has It Come To This?', 'Dont Mug Yourself', 'Weak Become Heroes', 'Blinded by the Lights' and of course 'Fit But You Know It' had reached an end.
After farewell-ing us at Parklife in 2011, what the future would hold for Skinner remained unclear.
That was then and this is now, and all you Skinner fanatics can smile again because your/our man is BACK! With Rob Harvey (formerly THE MUSIC) riding shot-gun, Birmingham's finest has returned with a new project The D.O.T.! And the news only gets better with our exclusive album stream of the groups debut 'And That'!!!
THE D.O.T. is a far cry from Skinner's early work, and this was a conscious decision. Skinner takes a back seat for much of the album, leaving vocal duties to Harvey while polishing up his own production abilities in the process. The two collaborated in a similar fashion on THE STREETS' final record Computers and Blues, with Harvey providing vocals on tracks like 'Soldiers', 'We Can Never Be Friends' and 'Going Through Hell'.
There are certainly trademark Skinner elements on 'And That'. The lyrical content is typically 'in-your-face', yet still very personal and honest, case in point 'Right Side of Madness'. The group traverse a range of genres in the process, with pop-disco on 'And A Hero', rap on 'You Never', electronica on 'Goes Off', drum n bass tempos 'What You Living For?' and dancehall/dub on 'Strong Skunk'.
A little less geezer, but it's a pleasure to have him back.
Check out what MIKE SKINNER himself had to say about his new project when we interviewed him earlier in the week HERE.
Purchase 'And That', the new record from THE D.O.T on iTUNES now
Words by Dominic Sciberras
