And That

Jumping on the bandwagon with the current trend of regrouping and mixing things up, Rob Harvey of alternative rock band The Music and Mike Skinner of hip-hop outfit The Streets have joined forces to create The D.O.T., a new, electronic-style endeavour.

After meeting at Big Day Out in Australia back in 2005, the British duo’s first pitch is the album And That.

The most catchy tracks on the record come in the form of “You Never Asked”, a collaboration with the promising new Brit songstress Clare Maguire and American hip-hop artist Danny Brown, and “Like You Used To”, a slower tune in which Harvey nostalgically croons ‘Fuck me like you used to/ Love me like only you do’.

Apart from strong opener “And a Hero”, almost everything leaves you feeling like you’ve heard it somewhere before, especially the more upbeat “Colours That Don’t Exist”, and the heavier “Right Side of Madness”.

The D.O.T. takes a hit at a more acoustic ballad in the closing track “Where Did I Go”, but it sounds nothing like the rest of the electronica-style songs on the album, so it seems to end on a twisted note.

The confident, well recorded debut album And That unfortunately falls short of the mark.

Despite the musical backgrounds of Harvey and Skinner, these two still seem like novices in the wide world of electronic music.

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