Benedict Sinister channels Blondie’s iconic frontwoman and Robert Palmer in his new single and video Spitting Rhymes From Debbie Harry — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The musical provocateur’s latest release — the followup to his Billboard dance-charting homage to Brian Ferry — mashes up quotes from Harry’s hits with a powerful revelation from her autobiography Face It: “When I was dealing with depression / There was nothing better than heroin.”
The video clip for the song starts with reference to the classic cover of Blondie’s Parallel Lines, with Sinister dressed in white, surrounded by an all-female band clad in black. But the cool pose degenerates into a shambles of jostling, spitting, grimaces and syringes — like a punkie version of Palmer’s Addicted to Love video, but with the models’ bodies covered with awesome slogans like “So passé” and “Spahn Ranch.”
Sinister’s face is covered throughout with metallic masks, due to his insistence on remaining ‘anonymous’ to draw more attention to the artists he celebrates. Sinister says: “The mask plays havoc with my perm, but I got some great tips on how to maintain the body and shine, in my members-only “manufacturing dissent” Clubhouse chatroom with Joe Talbot, Jason Williamson and Slowthai. Cheers lads!”
Spitting Rhymes From Debbie Harry is the sequel to Sinister’s single 16 Lines From Bryan Ferry, which used lines from 16 songs by septuagenarian art-rock fixture Ferry arranged into rhyming verses. Los Angeles DJs Miss Beltran and Christian B released lounge and club remixes — the latter making No. 5 Breakout on the Billboard Dance Club chart. The subject of 16 Lines From Bryan Ferry? “What all real men strive for in life – the love of a bad woman.”
Check out Spitting Rhymes From Debbie Harry above, watch 16 Lines From Bryan Ferry and hear more from Benedict Sinister below, and see more of him on his website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
