Lina - Profile

by Jamie Rowland

published: 23 / 3 / 2007

Listen with Sarah, the project of experimental musician Sarah Nelson, has both a double A sided single, 'My Little Hula Girl'/'Animal Boum', and a 6 track EP, 'The World of Listen With Sarah' out on Cherryade Records. Jamie Rowland looks at both of her new releases

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Listen with Sarah, the project of experimental musician Sarah Nelson, has been operating since 2002. Her 2004 track ‘Animal Hop’ was a favourite with late DJ John Peel, and her popularity has since spread to many other DJs, student radio stations and music listeners everywhere. This year, Cherryade Records have released a double whammy of Listen with Sarah treats in the form of a double A sided single, ‘My Little Hula Girl’/‘Animal Boum’, and the 6 track EP, ‘The World Of Listen With Sarah’. ‘My Little Hula Girl (WWW Remix)’ is a collection of samples of people saying “www” (and other internet related spiel) over a wonderful piece of hula genius. At a minute and 50 seconds, it’s a short, sharp, sweet piece of music. ‘Animal Boum’ is like the Star Trek: The Next Generation of Listen with Sarah tunes, being the new version of 'Animal Hop', a track which is now unavailable due to legal reasons. It is a collection of animal sounds mashed together with Charles Trenet’s ‘Boum!’ – a finer sounding mix you are unlikely to find! I think I actually prefer this version to the original. The B side of the single is ‘Drum N Berceuse’ - a rhythm-heavy track meets with a lovely plinky piano part, and this is all topped off with the familiar Listen With Mother catchphrase “Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.” A very fun track indeed, and pretty danceable to boot! 'The World of Listen With Sarah' begins with the brilliant ‘Ramblin’ Andy’, a collection of samples of Andy Kershaw naming different place names over a pumping polka backing track - it all makes from a very enjoyable piece of music indeed. Second track ‘Tempus Trumpus’ is a collection of samples based around the theme of time, and there are a lot of very entertaining quotes plucked from all over this place which make the song quite fantastic. From the dramatic, 1950's motion picture opening, to the laid-back hula beauty of the rest of the track, this is one of my favourites from the EP, as it moves from one style to another within its five minute length, sounding like several different songs rolled into one (think I heard something very Trumpton in there at one point – can’t go wrong!) ‘Bored of Techno/Can’t Speak Now’ features a sample of Radio 1 DJs repeating “mess, mess, mix” while other vocals come in saying “bored” and “techno, techno, techno”. The vocals are mostly overlaid, but this is very, very entertaining. ‘World Wide Hula’ is almost like a sequel to ‘My Little Hula Girl’, featuring DJ’s responses to the original “www” orientated track on which they also featured. ‘Real Jungle High’ features, for the third time on this EP, the wonderful Andy Kershaw, this time sampled saying all kinds of things, ranging from sandwiches, to hippopotamuses, to drugs, and beyond, all over the top of various beats, track samples, and pig squeals. Fun, funky, funny – it doesn’t get much better than this. If you want to soundtrack your summer with some upbeat, up-tempo, humorous and entertaining music, the only way to go is to buy yourself all the Listen with Sarah you can and hula away in the sunshine.