Shields - Pharoahs

Here is a new song from Geordie band Shields. Actually, it’s not in fact a Shields song at all but a cover of the SBTRKT track from his eponymous debut album. In tribute to the easy to google beat-man the band sport similar masks to him in a video which you can watch here. So it’s like having 5 SBTRKT’s on your viewing device rather than one. Which must be quite exciting if rather normal looking men in masks is your thing.

Pharoahs is the bonus track on the iTunes extended download and physical CD of the bands Kaleidoscope E.P due on the 19th of this month. We’re not quite sure what a bonus track is these days. Is it what would have been known in the days of vinyl only as a B-Side? Or is it a free give away? Which it can’t really be if it’s on a CD because you’re paying for the CD anyway. In our desperation to fully understand exactly what a bonus track is we googled the term, which of course led us to Wikipedia, which told us more than we could possibly ever want to know about bonus tracks. Essentially it’s a promotional term or device and the Japanese have to take the blame for it. Read more here if you must.

So Pharoahs is one of those stuttering choppy indie-dance-pop things that manages to sound smooth and spikey at the same time, like for example a piece of soap with some cocktail sticks stuck in it. Or rather in a musical sense like Miike Snow with more guitars or Friendly Fires with slightly less crazy hip shaking. Whatever, we're going to stop writing bollocks and let the music do the talking.

Shields - Pharoahs