Dani Siciliano "Why Can't I Make You High?"

As evidenced on this year's Scale, Matthew Herbert seldom encounters a sound or noise he doesn't like and can't use, and like Timbaland is to Missy, so Herbert's footprints are everywhere on "Why Can't I Make You High?" (file removed), the first single from Dani Siciliano's forthcoming Slappers. He stands behind the tattered curtain, creating an intricate pastiche backdrop for Siciliano's sneering twang, and together they fashion a multi-part Vaudeville operetta as much with her lyrical frustrations as his musical innovations. Drums and a plucky upright bass provide Siciliano's entrance music, and a strummed guitar duels with some sort of repeated, clipped backmask for control of the song's implacable tone. But once the bridge hits with its silent movie-era drama and turn of the century streetcorner instrumentation, it becomes clear that this song is no straightforward tell-off but the score to a well-rehearsed, impeccably staged and lit shoebox theatre routine between Siciliano and a stumbling, cagey marionette that refuses to take control of its own body, despite repeated pleas. And Herbert, despite his lack of physical presence, makes himself clearly known on the song's refrain, providing an impish, drowning trumpet echo of Siciliano's exhausted conundrum.

!k7 Records will release Slappers in September. Buy the single from Soul Seduction here.