Far East Movement Feat. Cover Drive – Turn Up The Love
As their name suggests, Far East Movement are an entirely Asian band, albeit one that hails from Los Angeles. While their background is fairly unusual, it is far from the most striking thing about them. We’re talking about their style, which is heavily indebted to the more flamboyant end of old-school hip-hop. Bursting with primary colours and draped in medallions that even Flavor Flav would probably consider a little OTT, they are the exact opposite of understated.
Outlandish as they are, Far East Movement’s sartorial choices are a perfect reflection of their music. It’s big and shiny, studded with flashing lights and only concerned with making audiences grin and bounce around as if their legs have been replaced with industrial strength springs. Previously responsible for the inescapable hit ‘Like A G6’, Far East Movement clearly know a thing or two about infectiously bone-headed musical escapism.
That said, with ‘Turn Up The Love’ the band are slightly hedging their bets. By collaborating with Bahamian group Cover Drive they’ve injected a little tenderness into music normally only concerned with getting booties bouncing. That is not to say that this track doesn’t stick to the band’s dumb/fun ethos. Following the unusually heartfelt opening lines from Cover Drive singer Karen Riefer, it wastes little time dropping in an enjoyably ludicrous bass line and setting the dial to ‘party’.
“Turn Up The Love’ comes from the band’s recent album, the appropriately titled ‘Dirty Bass’. Featuring collaborations with everyone from LMFAO to Justin Bieber, the record was a conscious effort to come up with something a little different.
“Right after ‘G6’ we kept staying on the road and we’d see the crowds and thought, ‘This is crazy.’ But we went into the studio, we didn’t want to think about how we did off the last album, and let’s totally reinvent,” the band’s Kev Nish told HitFix. “That’s what the Beastie Boys would do. We played around with our visuals. When we were touring with Rihanna or Lil Wayne, we’d duck right back off stage or on the bus or the backstage and take that energy from the crowd and work it into new ideas.”
Far East Movement are fighting for their right to party. It looks like they’re winning.
