After their first album 33-45-78 they were joined by the drummer Owen Rossiter (aka Owen If) and the singer Cath Coffey. By the time they released Connected, their third album, they had abandoned the hip-hop staple of sampled beats in favour of live instruments. They were the ultimate cross-over band, embraced by clubbers yet greatly respected as a rap act. "Step It Up" and "Ground Level" were instant hits while the album's title track was re-invented as a jingle on a mobile phone ad, a smart if irritating arrangement that has kept the Stereos in baggy trousers ever since.The intervening years since Connected haven't all been apathy and angst, though. Birch and Hallam have passed the time DJing in clubs, attending to their label and re-mixing other people's tracks, including Madonna's "Frozen".The musical landscape has shifted dramatically since the last time Hallam and Birch were making their way up the charts. Do they feel left behind?"Well if you're talking about boy-bands, then thankfully yes," chuckles Hallam.
"But, if anything, we feel out of sync with the industry, not the music. There's a totally different vibe at Island now, like there is at most record companies. It's very corporate and there's this feeling that everyone is in fear of their job."Were they ever in fear of theirs? "Not ever. It's not like we owed them any money they had done well out of Connected," says Hallam. "In our contract there was no time limit on producing albums. If we didn't put a record out for another 20 years after this one we would still theoretically be signed to Island."In the end Deep Down and Dirty only took nine months to record. As the title suggests, the album is rougher round the edges than its predecessor and more eclectic, if that's possible.
The bass hook of "Traffic" punches home Birch's words "I'm beyond reason, I'm beyond doubt" with gut-wrenching ferocity. In contrast, "Graffiti Part I" and "Graffiti Part 2" are firmly lodged in late Seventies funk with their joyously upbeat choruses and disco vibe. When I ask what finally galvanised them, they look questioningly at one another."Difficult to say," ponders Hallam "Except that we stopped trying so hard. When you over-complicate things, it's a way of covering up the fact that you haven't got a strong idea."Birch looks up from rolling his cigarette and says, "Sometimes a simple sound is the hardest thing to achieve. But now I think we've managed it."'Deep Down and Dirty' is out on Universal/Island. There's nothing like jazz music nothing so brimful of joy and sorrow, so intellectually appealing, so emotionally profound. This is a central message in Jazz, the epic 12-part documentary to be screened on BBC2 next month.
