Roger - Kids And Thieves
[Mate Recordings]

Festively sparkling, shouty like Talking Heads, camp like Pet Shop Boys, and utterly brilliant, Roger manages to mix the warm, slightly damp feel of an ill-lit nightclub with the sense of wide open spaces and fast driving on a starry night.

Kids And Thieves is the current single from Helsinki-born Teemu Metsala. The radio edit is a punchy rendition of the full-length version (here as track2). If only New Order would realise that it’s not 1989 anymore, they might sound a bit more like Roger. Except they’d have to invest in a bit of the Phil Oakey brand of confident Sheffield cool to pull it off.

There are three remixes on this 12”-only release. The A.N.I.M.A.L. version goes for a p-funk approach, full of slap-bass, synthesised cowbell and the obligatory grunts behind the vocal. Upping the darkness quota of the original, this gives Shaun Ryder’s recent Gorrillaz collaboration a run for its money.

The Sly Wink remix is more of an electro-disco groove and sacrifices the filth for clinical sterility. Cardiff’s The Sigils completes the set of remixes, with a slab of krautishly mesmerising pop-rock.