KELIS"Young, Fresh and New" Record label: Virgin (UK) Format: 12" Release date: 30 October 2001 No doubt that soul oddity Kelis and spaced-out beat makers The Neptunes are a match made on Mars, but “Young, Fresh and New” ain’t no ways revolutionary. Brothers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo have made more interesting beats than this. What does give the song merit are these crunchy, abrasive keyboard stabs and intergalactic rotating tones - sounds that aren’t usually found in R&B, but are part of the everyday in techno. The end result: another rhythmic mongrel that urban radio programmers may or may not give airtime to. This particular crossbreed lends itself to some sweet remix possibilities. Timo Maas brings it home with a spit-shined progressive groover (and considering how formulaic most so-called “progressive” tracks sound these days, that’s something to write home about). The cool thing is that he really doesn’t have to mess around with the original too much; he incorporates enough of it to give it a new body and finish. Further proof that today’s R&B shares more of a relation to electronic dance music that it’s given credit for. If this type of thing keeps happening, urban radio just might be forced to cross over to us. And in some minor and subtle ways, they already have. NOW, THAT’S REVOLUTIONARY. {chloe knuckles}
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