Creepin' me.

I'm perplexed. I was looking through one of today's tabloids earlier and happened across this week's Top 40 Singles Charts. Now, I realise that the charts are a curious beast these days, ever since the ruling that any official digital download can now enter the charts, regardless of how long ago the song was actually released (case in point is this week's chart being peppered with Elvis songs to tie in with the 30th anniversary of his death). What really caught my eye though was the placing at number 21 of Freaks' electrohouse bomb, 'The Creeps'. Originally released on International Deejay Gigolos back in 2003, it was a favourite of mine and a pretty huge underground hit, finding its way into all the right DJs record boxes. It was the squelchy, jackin', insidious brainchild of Music For Freaks label bosses, Luke Solomon and Justin Harris.

A cursory Google search later and it appears that the tune has been re-released and given a Galaxy-friendly chart-house makeover, complete with shitty new vocal. Of all the people to sell their soul to the god of unit-shifting, Luke Solomon has to be one of the least likely. Still releasing under-the-radar twelves on small labels like Crosstown Rebels, Rekids and Cajual, Solomon seemed to me to be above this sort of shameless shilling. It seems I was wrong and just a little bit more of my innocence and naivete has been chipped away. So cheers, Luke. In six months time I will have the world-weary, cynical air of a much older music fan thanks to people like you.

Download, listen to and cherish the far superior original, taken from the excellent 2004 album, The Man Who Lived Underground...

Freaks - The Creeps (mp3)