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AltSounds > Features | That FF...FFF...Friday Feeling: Scroobius Pip and Polarbear // Issue 20

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That FF...FFF...Friday Feeling: Scroobius Pip and Polarbear // Issue 20

That FF...FFF...Friday Feeling: Scroobius Pip and Polarbear // Issue 20 Spread the Social Love:

That FF...FFF...Friday Feeling: Scroobius Pip and Polarbear // Issue 20

Spoken Word as it ought to be heard!

by , and has been Read 957 times.
Last Edited by: Ffion Davies October 12th, 2012.

After The Beatles nostalgia fest that this week has been –they cancelled The Thick Of It for them—and the rest of the year will be I think it’s safe to say I don’t want to hear them for a while. I mean yeah they’re great (no One Direction obvs) but I’m a Rolling Stones gal myself.

Regardless of all of that it’s been a good week for tour announcements, unless you’re the editor of Kerrang! who’s been getting some flack on Twitter for that tour announcement. The tour I’m most excited to find out about though is Scroobius Pip’s latest outing. The man is a legend, but his latest gambit takes it to a whole new level. He’s going on a spoken word tour with poets Polarbear and Kate Tempest. That’s a fucking slamming slam poetry line-up and exactly the way spoken word tours should be. It’s always been crazy to me that more stuff like this doesn’t happen, these guys are artists pure and simple and what they do is far more complex and interesting than most rappers.

So, this fine Friday I thought I’d bring you a remix by Polarbear of the Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip classic ‘Letter From God To Man’ or ‘The Polarbear P.S’ as it’s officially called.

The first few minutes of the song are the same, lyrically, its god talking setting some things straight: “Religion became a tool for the weak to control the strong with all these new morals and ethics survival of the fittest was gone...back at the start when I created this the foundations seemed so strong.” The way Pip spits his lyrics with more bile as the song goes on is still there, it still shows signs of both a loving and malevolent God and it’s still gnarly. The beats though have been relaxed, it’s a space age remix with the lovely sound of popping bubbles flitting over the drum machine and keys, it aptly sounds like the creation of life and isn’t unlike something you might hear on a record by The Knife.

WATCH // 'Letter from God to man'


Ah Polarbear with his lovely little voice, nice and childlike, you can imagine him chilling with Mike Skinner playing Fifa. His post script is more of the same idyll observational banter and offers some cracking insights into the mind of deity: “A little secret that I’m willing to give to you kids, to mess up Darwin it was me, I nicked the missing link and hid him under my kitchen sink.” It’s all about showing the funny side of God and he does it with the perfect concoction of skewed fact, smarmy demeanour and cultural reference. Plus it has the best closing line to any song, poem, or other spoken medium ever: “So just remember I made you, body and mind, in my whole image and if you still don’t think I’m funny check out the Platypus, it’s wicked.” Anyone would think he’s a poet.

The Story

‘Letter From God To Man’ was first released on Christmas Eve 2007 as a free download while the band were still unsigned. After Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip released their debut album Angles in 2008 on Sunday Best the song was re-released and reached number eight in the UK charts. This remix appeared on that single as a B-side along with two other versions of the track and has since appeared on numerous compilation records.

You can catch the guys on tour together along with fellow poet and Sound Of Rum singer Kate Tempest throughout the UK in December.

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