Garage may have taken a backseat in the UK music scene, but whenever the seminal sound emerges it always hits hard. With “West Ten”, emcee AJ Tracey has reunited with singer Mabel to swiftly blend the iconic sound with an irresistible pop melody.
Despite its saccharine sound, Tracey’s charisma and Mabel’s summery vocals reiterate how well these two artists work together. Their 2016 collaboration, the Cadenza Remix of “Thinking Of You”, was one of the UK’s finest of that year; when 2020 is done, “West End” is looking to shoot for the same kind of reputation.
Paying homage to their West London roots, the pair follow up the hitmaking potency of Tracey’s 2019 hit “Ladbroke Grove”, which was the top-selling independent single of the year in the UK having spent 13 weeks in the UK top ten and clocking up 105 million streams. It also follows more recent singles like “Gloss” and Skepta-guesting “Kiss and Tell”, adding a nice notch in AJ’s already strong discography.
The rapper was supposed to tour Australia earlier this year but for obvious reasons has been forced to push the shows back to January 2021. If you want to grab tickets this far in advance you can do so at handsometours.com.
