SONNY J DEBUT ALBUM DISASTRO TO BE RELEASED ON AUGUST 19, 2008 ON ASTRALWERKS

“Joining the ranks of The Go! Team and Gnarls Barkley, two artist making music completely out of time with immense success, turntablist Sonny J takes the '70s fixation to the farthest reaches of funk, without ever becoming kitsch. So while the video for the single "Can't Stop Moving" borrows amply from the Jackson 5's vintage cartoon, Sonny J is too good to be mentioned in the same breath as the Brady Bunch, although he'd almost certainly defend the show to his death”. - Urb

As soon as you press play on Sonny J’s debut album Disastro, you’ll know his cult favorite single “Can’t Stop Moving” that found its way from his MySpace page to daytime play on the UK’s Radio 1 (available now online in the US) was no fluke. The elusive Liverpool turntablist, and second-hand vinyl shopping specialist, now living in a beach hut, has thrown together album of influences as disparate as Saturday morning cartoons, crank phone calls, lounge lizard repartee, big wobbly bass lines, euphoric strings and giddy breakdowns all splattered with soul, rock, R&B, and funk. His hyperactive, DMC-goes-crate-digging-in-Salvation Army garage sale rock ventures where others fear to tread, crafting a spinning array of sounds and textures into an even dozen songs of 21rst-century, psychedelic, junk shop future pop. It’s a record where the highs are higher and the lows are gently, softly, lower.

The opening track, “Enfant Terrible,” confirms this. It’s a bizarre Eurovision mosh pit melody powered by guitars that could have been pulled from a Sex Pistol’s 7”, off with sassy-sweet French schoolchildren vocals baked into an explosive sonic pastry that could make Yelle yell. The forthcoming single “Handsfree (If You Hold My Hand)” is a heart-thumping soul meets Nashville collage that could be the opening title a spaghetti western that could have starred the Fifth Dimension. There’s album’s title track, “Disastro” a kaleidoscopic drive through ‘70s era car chase music, cog-whirring guitar riffs and hip-hop-adelic madness that’s the aural equivalent of The Rock Steady Crew riding shotgun with Popeye Doyle. And in-between it all there are surprising gems like “Sorrow” a ballad that seems to capture the mood of a golden summer’s day.

But mostly it’s hyperkinetic, neon-tinged inter-galactic pop where listeners are as likely to be swept off into the middle of an imagined lost-in-music dancefloor as transported to the castanet-shaking interplanetary tango. And right at the end, on “Sonnrise,” Sonny takes a Johnny Cash meets Nashville Skyline country weeper and places it squarely over celestial West Coast harmonies and his trademark cut ‘n’ paste sonic obscurities.

So what else can we tell you about Mr. Sonny J? He claims his real name is Sonnington James III. He loves Japanese weather reports, customizing British soccer uniforms (his latest is a red & yellow version of the 1981 Flamengo Adidas classic - a replica of the one worn by ‘80s-era Brazilian soccer superstar Zico!) and singing for his supper in the most unpromising seaside second-hand shops. His DJ sets sound like Doris Day kidnapped by Motorhead, all washed down with generous helpings of cut up future funk, nasty 80's power rock, spaced out b-boy nuggets and general dirty electronique madness….kind of like Disastro.

Tracklisting:

Enfant Terrible
I’m So Heavy
Handsfree (If You Hold My Hand)
Cabaret Short Circuit
Belly Bongo
Sorrow
Can’t Stop Moving
Strange Things
Doing The Tango
No-fi
Disastro
Sonnrise

Sonny J’s infectious and ambidextrous single ‘Handsfree (If You Hold My hand)’ is released digitally on July 15, the album Disastro follows on August 19.