Jack Peñate “Tonight’s Today”
A trippy, world-pop excursion through tantalizing Afro-beat and house influences, “Tonight’s Today”, the new single from London singer-songwriter Jack Peñate, makes a helluva leap away from the sprightly, guitar-pop that defined his 2007 debut, Matinée, in turn launching all kinds of excitement for what other strange cookings he and producer Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Sam Sparro, Kate Nash) have planned for his upcoming sophomore set.
It’s dense, yet loose-flowing, groove mastering an exotic beauty, “Tonight’s Today” is one of those records you can easily get lost in, inspiring a need to place it on loop just so you can try to figure out in what loony mind one must have been in to ever think of pasting it’s oddly attractive elements together.
Helpfully, Peñate gathers some meaning out of the mesmerizing arrangement’s mystery, using it as an effective illustration to a man’s post-party, zombie-like traipse through the streets as the night sky slowly gives way to daybreak. “The thought has just started dawning/
That there’s still so much more that I can do,” he explains, either unaware or without care of how much his dead-eyed demeanor is freaking out passersby.
Forewarning: After one spin, you probably won’t be able to get this creepy tune out of your head.
I’m surprised how much I really like it…I’ve been doing a fusion thing with Afro-beat and African music in general for the last few years…I love hearing what other people are up to with the fusion of these genres. I’m streaming a couple of songs that I’ve been working on like that on my myspace, would love to hear feedback. But back to this dude, it’s interesting that he has such an ’80′s style of singing, it’s like Vampire Weekend meets the 80′s New Wave meets house music. Interesting. Hypnotic. A little monotone in terms of the melody, but definitely captivating…