The Singles Jukebox

The film this soundtracks came out last year, but this has only just become a hit in, er, Holland, so, umm… ta-da…

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[5.75]

Hillary Brown: Some kind of nouveau elevator music?
[2]

Alex Macpherson: “Sky & Sand” soundtracks Berlin Calling, a film about that city’s legendary club culture, and definitely feels like the score to a pivotal scene rather than a particularly strong track in its own right. Paul Kalkbrenner’s production is simpler and more conventional than on his club cuts, but his knack for a melody serves him well; the vague yearning sloshing around “Sky & Sand” is too unfocused to cut deep, but you feel that in the right context it could all click quite spectacularly.
[7]

Erick Bieritz: “Sky & Sand” begins with an odd little percussive rattle, but the broken beat and stilted vocals don’t obscure a skillful soul-house denouement.
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: I took a look at the title and feared it would recapitulate that lame old MTV ad: “Sun fits sky so wear it…” Instead it sounds like a pop version of the recent tete-a-tete between minimal techno and deep house. So I look around a bit: this is out on Bpitch Control. Aha! No wonder I like it. Thanks for catching me out, Singles Jukebox. The record is lovely: the vocalist, whomever it is, appears in clipped form (the singing cuts off between every syllable), but it’s got a churchy quality that works off the serene electronics–even though the organ tone that dominates is pretty churchlike itself.
[8]

Tom Ewing: Enormous credit to the Kalkbrenners for making possibly the least summery beach record of all time: the magnificently dour sound of a wet February in Rostock. Sub-aqua bass pulses, clipped vocal barks and a trailing melody vaguely reminiscent of Tindersticks give the lie to the hippie cobblers the lyrics are pushing, and a good thing too.
[7]

Martin Skidmore: I quite like the subdued minimal techno music, and might easily find it rather gripping, even, if it weren’t for the tuneless and lifeless vocal – replace it with a ghostly higher voice and this could be fascinating and captivating, but as it is that voice loses the atmosphere the music provides.
[4]

Dave Moore: Not sure whether I’m relieved or disappointed that the angelic boy’s choir missed their bus on the way to the recording session… no, definitely disappointed.
[4]

Ian Mathers: It’s the kind of thing that’ll either be dull as dishwater or come across as possessing a stately reserve. Partly because of its brief running time, “Sky and Sand” tends towards the latter.
[7]