The Singles Jukebox

DJ Fresh is joined by a triforce of collaborators, but he’s left one piece blank…

[Video][Website]
[6.31]

Thomas Inskeep: A couple of d’n’b DJs make a perfect 1993 house track, with Dizzee Rascal doing his best Turbo B impression. And I fucking love it. 
[8]

Cassy Gress: Add this one to the list of “songs that made me grin the first time I heard them.” Pretty straightforward ’90s house, down to the “Shoot Your Shot” squeal sample, chunky piano, and an uncredited Clare Maguire doing her best Martha Wash (she doesn’t really sound like Martha Wash, but it’s close enough that I got the point). Dizzee doesn’t sound ’90s, and neither do the bubbly sound effects, but it fits so perfectly anyway.
[8]

Micha Cavaseno: Its taken me some time to determine if the excessively retro-fitted pop ‘ardkore for “How Love Begins” is suitable or not. Certainly the crispness of the breaks and the post-Terry stabby chorus do their best to compensate for the Brit-Soul of those organs in the intro. Dizzee playing hip-house MC is particularly dire though, and lacks any sort of real positive effect on the track. The sudden arrival of the bubble & squeak bassline before the next chorus also detracts. But the beatswitch gives it a lot of extra life with those Beltram-style buzzsaw synths, unfortunately robbed from us all too soon.
[4]

Iain Mew: It’s amazing how fresh Dizzee on any kind of form still sounds. He briefly enlivens this routine pop house much better than the House of Pain squeals or weak drum n bass touches.
[5]

Patrick St. Michel: A decent enough period piece with no interest in illuminating anything about now, unless “hey here’s Dizzee Rascal” counts as current events.
[5]

Will Adams: This would have made a pretty good theme song for I Love the 90s.
[4]

Anthony Easton: This is a formalist gem, tight and contained, raising with the ruthless efficiency of a late market Toronto condo block. It doesn’t collapse like the market either — though the shatter at the end might be a metaphor. 
[9]

Cédric Le Merrer: I know the reference points are supposed to be a bit older than that but the way this moves from one to the other makes me think of Basement Jaxx above all. They would have credited their vocalist though.
[7]

Brad Shoup: Our editor had to be patient: nearly three years and three minutes later, we get a little bit of that Snap! To be fair, it was hiding throughout the song. (Kind of like Dizzee, outshined by the uncredited belter Black Box-ing it up.)
[7]

Jonathan Bogart: Credit Clare Maguire for her vocal, you knobs.
[7]

Madeleine Lee: This is basically a historical reenactment of the early ’90s plus Dizzee Rascal, but that accuracy ends up working in its favour rather than against it. I don’t understand why Clare Maguire gets reduced to the billing of a sample here when the entire song is built around her singing her ass off.
[7]

Crystal Leww: DJ Fresh really is the Diplo of the UK, huh? Dude is always there to grab collaborators to hop on the latest trend by the kids. In this case, “How Love Begins” hops on the Use An Anonymous Diva (Clare Maguire) to Make Catchy Pop House song. Like Diplo, his best trend-aggregating days are over. 
[4]

Scott Mildenhall: There was something quite sad about Dizzee Rascal’s clifftop drop from his imperial phase. Barely a moment from being the hitmaker nonpareil, he became this confused old man, tilting at Radio 1 windmills for perceived slights against him. DJ Fresh seems to have been hanging on that cliff for a while now – and although this missed the top 40, his collaboration with Sigala suggests a way forward – but it’s obviously Clare Maguire who’s been given shortest shrift. She never got her due when planned, and now she doesn’t even get a credit for being the power behind this track. There’s a moral in here somewhere, but “Charly” samples recontextualised as the engine noises of a house diva certainly deserved more.
[7]