Review
Genre and Mood
Belleruche open their second album with Anything You Want - Not That, a song their own Bandcamp tags under blues, electronic and soul and that this page also files under trip-hop, as it does their later Reach for the Bottle. Its label, Tru Thoughts, described it as smoky velvet vocals over a tougher-edged beat; sultry and groovy are this page’s reading of those words.
Song Summary
Anything You Want (Not That) is the first of eleven tracks on The Express, which Tru Thoughts released in October 2008, and it runs 3:22. It came out first as a single on 15 September 2008, backed with Don’t Let Them Push You Around. The three members share the writing credit: DJ Modest and Ricky Fabulous as composers, Kathrin deBoer as composer and lyricist. No source describes the lyric beyond its title, which offers anything, then takes one thing back.
Musical Breakdown
No review describes the song section by section, so this page draws no map of it and claims no tempo or key. The label’s notes give its parts: deBoer’s voice in front, a beat tough enough for clubs, Ricky Fabulous’s guitar and DJ Modest’s turntables. Listen for how the four divide three minutes and twenty seconds, and for where the turntables come forward and where they only colour the groove.
Concepts in Focus
turntablism treats the record player as an instrument, cutting, scratching and shaping sound by hand. In Belleruche it is one of three equal parts of the band. Tru Thoughts wrote that on The Express the trio used their turntable trickery more subtly, leaving more space for melodies and ideas; compare their later Belleruche – Reach for the Bottle.
The music video is the label’s official video, posted on 10 September 2008, five days before the single came out. It runs about fifteen seconds longer than the album track.
A remix set followed on The Liberty EP in 2010, which MusicBrainz lists with versions by Hint, Aldo Vanucci Presents the Cinnamon Kings and Scott Whyte.
Artistic Context
Belleruche formed in North London in 2005 and released three limited seven-inch records on their own Hippoflex label before signing to the Brighton label Tru Thoughts in 2007. Their debut that year, Turntable Soul Music, became the fastest-selling debut in the label’s history. The Express, the label wrote, kept that formula, DJ Modest on turntables, Ricky Fabulous on guitar and deBoer’s voice, and gave it a more raw, bluesy edge.
Impact and Reception
Wikipedia says the single was iTunes’s Single of the Week, and the label reported heavy play on BBC Radio 2, BBC 6Music and NME Radio and wrote that the band had been playlisted on France’s Radio Nova and FIP. The song went on to lounge compilations such as Hed Kandi’s Kandi Lounge. Play it loud enough to hear the beat under the velvet.
