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Blackout Crew: song about phones has video with massive phone in it

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcIommZjMSE

Blackout Crew are brilliant for lots of reasons. Firstly, because of the questions they bring up. It's inter­est­ing to watch how a London-based music media deals with a popular band in whose success they have had no hand. Do they ignore them, like Radio One does, despite the band being at the epicentre of a musical scene far bigger than anything Annie Mac gets excited about*? Do they try to embrace them, even though they don't get the music? Do they find Blackout and the donk scene something funny, to have a laugh at or, altern­at­ively, is it all something one should take incred­ibly seriously, as if you are a self-appointed Dick Hebdonk of this deep 'n' mean­ing­ful pop sub­cul­ture? And how does that latter option sit with the fact that Blackout Crew them­selves have a sense of humour about what they do and are bril­liantly unbothered by what London thinks?

We don't know the answer to any of this and the whole 'what does it all mean' business is already a bit boring to be honest so it's just as well that at the centre of it is this really brilliant band.

1. This is the nearest 2009 gets to a boyband people actually give a fuck about and the way they estab­lished and continue to play on each member's per­son­al­ity is right out of the Spice Girls pop rulebook.

2. The bit at 1'31" where the actual chorus kicks in  — 'Dialed' is a gradually blos­som­ing pop symphony on a level with 'Biology' — is a massive pop hook and if you can't hear that you're deaf.

3. The video's boardroom scene which accom­pan­ies the middle eight (at 1'55") is a massively sig­ni­fic­ant statement from a band signed to the Universal Music-affil­i­ated All Around The World. "Another new track done and dusted, another new track people wanted, another tune you can pass about and tell your mates "it's the new one by Blackout". I'm sure by the end of this rap you'll have it half down­loaded to your mobile, and I'm sure you'll Bluetooth it to a million mobiles and play it out loud. That's how our stuff gets about…"

So that's what we think about that.

* Annie Mac is brilliant but you know what we mean.