Pop Levi, solo musician, bassist on Ladytron's Witching Hour album/tour and co-founder of on-again off-again UK psych band Supernumeri, is a man possessed by pop sensibility with a supernatural output capacity and an uncanny ability to withstand bright, flashing colors. Just take a gander at his YouTube page if you don't believe me. This summer, he is extending his tenure on Ninjatune imprint Counter Records by releasing Never Never Love, the follow-up to his 2007 debut The Return to Form Black Magic Party.
“Dita Dimoné”, heretofore available to enthusiasts as a track on the Ninjatune Collection You Don't Know, is being released June 24 as the second single from Never Never Love. The eponymous tune “Never Never Love” was the first single back in April of this year. Listening to the loud, slinking, synth-bassline-driven funk of “Dita Dimoné” prompts one to imagine Pop Levi as a musical Lord Tetsuo from the final scenes of Akira. To the listener's incredulousness, he's absorbing a whole universe of musical influences and forms and reembodying them in mind-blowing new configurations.
Yes, this is bright pop in a song about a dude, a girl and a car. And, yes, this is shimmying soul with synth waves whose peaks and valleys land with deep, pleasing thuds on your synapses. And, yes, yes, it's also touched with atmospheric psych weirdness. How is he doing this? Precise, poppy, powerfully complex and pleasing listened to loud — we never had any reason to doubt that Prince and T. Rex could use their powers of musical omnipotence to transgress time, geography, and all reason to combine and form what quantum physicists and music journalists alike call a cosmic rock super-enigma, but did we ever expect them to do it?
Pop Levi, “Dita Dimoné”
[Download]
Pop Levi, “Dita Dimoné” (Mumdance & High Rankin Remix)
[Download]
Single Track Listing
01 Dita Dimoné
02 Dita Dimoné (Xrabit And Dmg$ Remix)
03 Dita Dimoné (Pink Enemy Remix)
04 Semi-Babe (Astral Version)
05 Dita Dimoné (Dirt Lab Remix)
06 Dita Dimoné (Mumdance & High Rankin Remix)
