Day 17: The realm of the essence of Tong.

Here's a fantastic one, not only for the tribal drum effect of the percussion and Nagle's keyboard work but for the lyrics and in particular the end. Smith cracks up while reading out a magazine article on the dance DJ Pete Tong, entitled 'The Essence Of Tong'. Brilliant.



Song: Dr Buck's Letter
Album: The Unutterable
Year: 2000

This will be my last one off The Unutterable for a while, just wanted to delve into its majesty for a few days, think we'll be going with some early Fall tomorrow.

Anyway, back to the task in hand, not only is this song hilarious (towards the end) but also has some crazy lyrics about a letter, who Dr Buck is I have no idea, but it seems Mark and him were friends (if he is indeed real) and have since fallen out, hence the depressing lyrics that make up the majority of the song, delivered in a drunken drawl and with a low tone from Mark. As I said before, it has a tribal rhythm to it, which means it has a strange atmosphere to it, a walking, yet chirpy bass line is at odds with the rest of the track. Mark sounds dejected and almost Johnny Cash-esque at times, astounding how many guises MES takes on, he can be playful, rude, desperate, cool, a geek, anything, one thing that always keeps the band interesting.

The end of the song is fantastic, simply MES reading out a checklist from a magazine of items the DJ Pete Tong cannot leave the house without (for the record they are: sunglasses, palm pilot, music/cds/cassettes, mobile phone and an Amex card) he cracks up while reading out the ridiculous minutiae of the DJ's life and it reminds me of tracks like 'Crew Filth' and '$500 Bottle Of Wine' just plain daft, but an essential all the same.


Above: Pete Tong in his sunglasses.