SWS003 | I Wanna Be Your Dog

Touching on punk territory as early as 1969, The Stooges’ ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ captured the beginnings of the transformation from the optimistic sixties to the disaffected seventies and laid the foundations for the next generation’s sound. Raw and simplistic, yet extremely powerful – it’s incredible to think that this song has been around for forty-six years.

The idea to bring the proto-punk classic into the now with a dance version – aimed at festival audiences as well as the clubs – was one of those crazy notions that somehow works out perfectly, given the right ingredients that is. Kermit was initially sceptical of the idea but once he heard the framework of the reimagined version, he quickly signed up to the idiosyncratic vision and took on the Iggy Pop role with aplomb.

This is the first solo release by Kermit Leveridge of Blind Arcade, one of Manchester’s true groove innovators; helping give the city – and the country for that matter – one of it’s first breakdancing crews, Broken Glass before becoming a member of one the UK’s most influential hip hop acts, the Ruthless Rap Assassins, then eventually hooking up with Happy Monday Shaun Ryder to form the chart topping Black Grape, who’ve recently reformed for an anniversary tour.

Kermit’s heroin addiction may have taken him to the brink of self- destruction but during recent years he’s been a redeemed man on an artistic mission. This newfound outlook helped yield last year’s mixtape ‘Blind Arcade Meets Super Weird Substance In The Morphogenetic Field’, regenerating his association with Greg Wilson, who had previously managed Broken Glass and the Rap Assassins, who he also produced.

On the back of a whole series of quality reworks, including Blind Arcade’s ‘The Construct’, Wolverhampton based DJ and musician Peza was brought into the mix and has done a great job with programming / keyboards, whilst Greg’s son, Ché Wilson plays a mean guitar, summoning the raw energy of punk’s past in a furious solo courtesy of a Cort X-6 guitar given to Kermit by Joe Strummer – and, by adding their deadpan backing vocals to the fray, The Reynolds and Tracey Carmen tie the track together perfectly.

‘Love the Iggy cover, ‘She Can’t Love You’ also rocks my boat.’
~ Jon Sa Trinxa (Ibiza)