Jape - I Was A Man

TRACKLISTING:    A. I was a Man  B. Gimme some more   - LIMITED TO 500

OVERVIEW: Talked about in haloed terms in his native Dublin, Jape is a new fiercely modernist song writing hero rising from the musical firmament in the Emerald Isle. ‘I Was A Man’ mixes the one man and his ADAT machine wonkiness of Metronomy with a melody that sounds like a 1000 year-old folk song with 20th century lyrics.
‘I popped my cherry to November Rain, I think she liked it but don’t think she came, I was a man’
confesses Richie Egan AKA Jape. Referencing iconic juicy pop songs maybe one side of what Jape
does but like the Purple One himself there is always a deep thinking intelligence moving behind the
confection. The opening blue pentatonic guitar phrase is treated with effects until the instrument sounds like a Uilleann pipe and the opening couplet neatly manages to be metaphysical and funny at the same time: ‘Got myself born and I got raised up, some would say lucky, others ‘fucked’’. Meanwhile the stuttering outro builds and drops like Dave ‘Switch’ Taylor has taken over the controls for a moment. You may have first heard of Jape last year when he released his debut single ‘Floating’.
Brendan Benson heard it by chance in a Dublin bar and was so knocked back by it The Raconteurs covered it every night of their tour in 2007. Naturally, the world’s highest profile rock star playing your song nightly caused a spike in interest in Jape with ‘Floating’ becoming an anthem of Hot Chip’s ‘Over & Over’ proportions in Ireland. Jape represents the next stop on the road traveled by Thin Lizzy, The
Pogues, Van Morrison - an Irish sensibility fused with alien cultures. In this case globalised blogged-
about electronic music as well as rock n’ roll (Richie spent his youth in the hardcore punk scene making
‘Fugazi-type underground stuff’). WIth his debut UK album ‘Ritual’ filled with melodies and thoughts
as ablaze  as ‘I Was A Man’ we’re witnessing the international birth of Ireland’s most brilliant new son.

Exclusive track on B side & 7” limited to 500 copies

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