Dizzee Rascal – Bonkers (feat. Armand Van Helden)

After years of being critically acclaimed but ignored by the mainstream (a situation similar to that described by The Roots in Act Too with the line “when we perform it’s just coffee shop chicks & white dudes”) Dizzee rascal has obviously decided that he likes the kind of success and attention that came with his cross-over smash Dance Wiv Me. Because his new singleis another stomping slice of techno & house, this time provided by dance God Armand Van Helden, with the grime element stripped down to Dizzee’s rhymes.

If the YouTube Cannes Lion competition made me want to be 27, this track makes me wish I was 19 again: able to go out all night without worrying about a hangover and with no thought of going home early so that I can get up early the next day to mow the lawn. With its screaming acid squelch, military drumming on the build-up, wicked scratching and viscious break-down Dizzee’s new track is absolutely storming.

Which is why it’s so annoying that the name is so shit. Bonkers? Really? Is the next single going to be called Plonker, or Wally? Oh well, nevermind.

And, as it’s Armand Van Helden that Dizzee’s chosen to collaborate with, and because Dizzee’s early sound can be traced directly from the speed garage scene of the 90s, let me leave you with Van Helden’s amazing Tori Amos remix that defined that scene for millions of people. It’s gotta be big!

Rave lights by Delfi’s World [In Focus] on flickr

One comment

  1. Spooky, someone on last.fm sent me a link to the D.R video. Obviously I gave it a fair chance. And maybe when I was 19 I would’ve liked it, hugely into dance music way back when…but now? It’s amazing how much your own musical tastes can change. I wonder if it’s a chemical thing?

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