Out on 10″ vinyl on 30th January, the double A-side ‘Crash And Burn’ featuring Natalie Storm / ‘Aliens Enter’ feat. T-Fly is the first single from Hint’s upcoming third album which sees the respected producer working with hand-picked vocal talent from around the World, mashing up dancehall, hip hop, UK house and bass music influences to create a scintillating album for dancefloors and headphone moments alike.
This limited edition 10″ single is a tasty upfront treat for the vinyl junkies, preceding the digital single release by four weeks; the AA-side ‘Aliens Enter’ featuring T-Fly is exclusive to the vinyl version, and will not be made available digitally at all until the album drops on 19th March. Watch the video for the single ‘Aliens Enter’ below.
‘Aliens Enter’ feat. T-Fly grew from a killer beat that Hint had made but could not pinpoint the right vocalist to do it justice; that is, until Tru Thoughts A&R Robert Luis came back from SXSW raving about a young female MC he’d seen performing there in a showcase for the Austin Hip Hop Cipher, a charitable community project that helps young performers explore and express their musical talents. As soon as T-Fly started rapping at that show, the buzz was so intense that everyone whipped out their phones and cameras to film this extraordinary talent, and Luis – knowing that Hint was looking for someone to perfect this track – felt that frisson more than most. Hint says of the teenaged MC: ‘T-Fly really picked up on the more ‘far out’ elements of the beat. It’s off-key and peculiar. She has a very natural free-flowing style and the lyrics are kind of stream-of-consciousness; they move between talk of aliens to more down-to-Earth stuff about school and life in Austin. You feel that she
gets really caught up in performing and I think that’s what the track is about – music as something supernatural.’
The new album sees Hint consciously moving away from the more downtempo elements of his two previous long-players (Ninja Tune’s ‘Portakabin Fever’ and Tru Thoughts’ ‘Driven From Distraction’) to reconnect with his love of party music, from jungle to dancehall to house and contemporary hip hop. Doing a number of remixes for the likes of Lanu, Stac and Maddslinky – as well as a rework of MJ Cole and Wiley that was played by Annie Mac (BBC R1) – has helped him to hone his style. With radio support across the Rinse FM network and elsewhere; DJ bookings galore; plus an exciting new Ableton Live set; the foundations are laid for Hint to break through in 2012.
