Coldcut "Man in a Garage"

The second full single release from the upcoming "Sound Mirrors" album finds Coldcut hooking up with John Matthias for a beautiful, understated piece of folk&b which demonstrates one of the many strengths to be found on the album it's taken from - the combination of great, catchy song writing with contemporary production smarts. The result is an aching, melancholy glitch-blues.

Matthias is perhaps best known for "Small Town Shining," the album he released on Matthew Herbert's Accidental Records. In Coldcut he has found perhaps the perfect foil. This is the sort of tune that sidles up on you quietly and then burrows deep into your head until you find yourself singing the hook in the shower, in the supermarket, on the bus, yes, even in your garage. Already being hammered on daytime radio in France, it's hard to put your finger on its charm, but nevetheless it is charming.

Mixes and version here achieve the Coldcut ideal of cutting and pasting the original into weird and wonderful new shapes. Snap Ant - championed by Ladytron - actually re-record the track as an off-kilter and unholy combination of Bowie, swamp blues and punk funk. Bonobo takes the tempo up and gives it a little bit of latino shuffle. Daedelus swirls the thing into a backward, psychedelic bleep fest. Finally, Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly stretches the tune out into an epic, string-soaked cry from the heart.

With "Sound Mirrors" already winning plaudits and critical acclaim, "Man In A Garage" is a further reminder, if one were needed, that the Godfathers are well and truly back, making the best music of a long and illustrious career.