Free download from Galactic: “Heart of Steel” (with Irma Thomas)
We were offered the opportunity to share a new song from Galactic’s forthcoming release, Ya-ka-may (due Feb. 2, 2010, on Anti-) and couldn’t pass that one up.
Here’s the MP3: “Heart of Steel”
And here’s what bassist Robert Mercurio had to say about working with Irma Thomas:
“We have been fans of Irma thomas for a long time. Her voice is so classic, that we thought she would work in perfectly with our new album. Stanton had done some recording on her album a couple of years ago, so he just called her up and asked her. We had written the song, ‘Heart of Steel’ with Jim Greer a few years ago. We always loved the song but, until Irma, we could never find the right fit for it. After hearing the demo, she gave us a great compliment–she actually thought it was an old Allen Toussaint song! She came in and layed down the vocals, and we had her do some backgrounds and ad libs. Her vocals were so strong and sexy, we felt like the track needed to breathe more. We stripped it all back and added some dub-style vocals to open it up a little. Our intention was to make a modern New Orleans classic sounding tune. Hope we achieved it!”
Enjoy!