I heard Wolfgang Von Vanderghast’s ‘Oh What A Carry On’ on this week’s BBC Introducing Mixtape hosted by 6Music DJ Tom Robinson and thought it was too good not to share with the discerning readers of Joyzine. Wolfgang Von Vanderghast is the alter ego of Cardiff born producer Dale Lewis and features a rap by London’s Farma G (who also works with his brother Chester P in the hip-hop group Task Force).
‘Oh What A Carry On’ has a playful bounce to it and is stuffed with saucy allusions that draw from the naughty-but-nice world of the Carry On films. There can’t be many songs that can claim rhyming scuba suit, hula hoop and thigh boot in the opening line: “It was my first time sleeping in a scuba suit, with a groupie in a hula hoop, knee deep in a thigh boot” and sports a chorus of “Call me Sid James, be my Hattie Jacques, you can sing my song, Oh What a Carry On”. The whole vibe is playful-joyful and Lewis/Vanderghast’s production surrounds the rap in an infectious tickle of sounds that never get in the way of words and features ooh-err ‘boing’s throughout as well as a repeated keyboard line that sounds like it should be heralding the latest offer at your local supermarket.
‘Oh What A Carry On’ is on Bandcamp, and you can name your price, so this should put a smile on the face of anyone who has found Seasonal Affective Disorder snuck up on them. So, if someone asks you for a double-entendre this Autumn you can buy this track and then you’ll be able to give them one.
Review by Paul F Cook