One Track Mind

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Collaborations–especially cross-genre ones like Theo Martins‘ hip-hop take on this cut from Wakey!Wakey!‘s upcoming debut full-length–are potentially dangerous ventures, their landscapes dotted with a thousand aural IEDs. However, the Paul Cantor remix of “Twenty-Two” makes the most of its two parties’ involvement, grafting together Martins’ rubberized verses and Wakey!Wakey!’s quirky, off-kilter backing track.

Wakey!Wakey! is essentially the work of Mike Grubbs, the son of a choir director and piano teacher who grew up with access to a mini orchestra of instruments including French horn, clarinet, violin, and autoharp. The New York City songwriter has been generating buzz for his project over the past few years, which will reach a new crescendo when his premiere LP, Almost Everything I Wish I’d Said The Last Time I Saw You…, drops March 16th on Family Records. The album’s third track, “Twenty-Two,” is a syncopated number with a jittery yet pleasing flow. Like Peter Bjorn and John and Andrew Bird before him, Grubbs makes excellent use of a nonchalant whistle, playing it off the more restrained musicality of the verses. Vocally, Grubbs has a sonorous yet gravelly growl that makes him a dead ringer for Jakob Nyström of the shamefully overlooked Isolation Years.

For his part, Theo Martins adds some playful rhymes to the mix–even when he’s rapping about a ladyfriend tossing her cookies on his clothes, his lines somehow remain jovial and charming. His sense of wordplay and the way he makes his contributions “fit” with the original are both outstanding. Martins is a Rhode Island native whose reputation proceeds him not just as a talented emcee, but also as a respected DJ. His new single, “Cloud9,” will be available via imeem.com on May 26th.