Peter Fox – Alles Neu vs Wiley – Wearing My Rolex.

No, I am not going to try to attempt to link singer of Seeed (one of Germany’s most famous reggae exports) Fox to grime MC and Dizzee-sound-a-like Wiley. Associating seemingly incongruous tracks is like so last week. I just found Peter Fox’s clip for ‘Alles Neu’ on Kanye’s blog (of all places) and, reminiscing with Jonno about our time in Lake Konstanz (resort town on the border of Switzerland and Germany) decided it was worth a bit of analysis – at least for its outrageous visual aesthetic. Further, Wiley’s track deserves a bit of a run down seeing as it contributed so markedly to my dismal Saturday night. More on that later.

To begin with, Peter Fox’s Alles Neu clip is one of the craziest video clips I, or anyone else (assuming I was able to embody and read the thoughts of every other human – which I can) has seen for a long time. It has, as you will see below, dancing monkeys, African nursemaids, small pianos and eggs and, as with the song itself (contrasting an orchestral riff with Fox’s rollicking rap) these seemingly incompatible elements gel together to create a stunning audio-visual experience. At the outset, you might be a little freaked out on account of the black irises and unexplained monkeys (come to think of it, they’re never really logically explained) but bare with Fox’s rhythmic take on what is widely regarded as the ugliest language on earth and you will be rewarded richly for your gall. Fox’s ‘Alles Neu’ presents a hybrid rap/strings track not unlike Nas’ lesson in moral turpitude and African-American history otherwise known as ‘I Can’. Sure, I have no idea if Fox’s lyrics are loaded with the same kind of cultural meaning as Nas and, going on how much he takes the piss out of himself in his own clip, it would be rash to suppose they do, but it sounds damn funky regardless. If you’ve never had a Deutsche Dance experience (dancing whilst listening to German), I thoroughly recommend it.

Which leads me to my next subject, something I would most definitely not thoroughly recommend: my Saturday night. I went to this dance party. It was hyped up by my mates as something good to look forward to at the end of a long week of uni. It was expensive as hell just for entry. It, if you follow my line of reasoning so far, was a total letdown. Not so much a letdown as a shocking affirmation of my most serious doubts. I thought it would be bad and it, as a night, raised the bar on badness. But that, as us lawyers say, is aside from the fact. The fact of import is that Wiley’s innocuous track about women and watches was the highlight of my night. Up until Wiley hit the airwaves, the DJ (possibly a pre-mixed CD, I never identified a person, per se) had been murdering every semi-respectable song (including one of my favourites, the Dizzee/Calvin/Chrome match-up). I was pissed off. There was no air conditioning and everyone smelt bad. Far worse than that, nobody was dancing well. But then Wiley arrived. I don’t want to make it out like this is the song of the century. Far from it. Rather, it was undoubtedly the song of a dismal, drizzly Saturday night in Sydney – which probably puts it on par with, er.. U2′s ‘Elevation’ or something. It’s easy to listen to, inoffensive enough and, more importantly, danceable. J mentioned that it runs over a beat identical to that of Bodyrox’s Yeah Yeah and to that, I answer, in online form – fuck it. I liked that song. I liked the screaming chick and I like Wiley even if he is a blatant rip-off of Dizzee Rascal and his song was the high point in a very low night.

So there.

Peter Fox – Alles Neu.
[audio:https://1songday.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/Alles-Neu.mp3|titles=Alles Neu]

Wiley – Wearing My Rolex.