This is not how we imagined we’d be presenting the latest Crazy P album.
As brilliant as we know it is, as you’ll see further downstream, the shadow of loss looms large over this piece of work. When our beloved Danielle died in September, we were all ready to go with the promotion. The album had been finished in early June and she was excited by the end results, by its promise, the way this honest band of house music messengers had become such accomplished songwriters, almost by stealth, and what it promised for the future. “There’s a lot more to come,” she told us, “and I love that. I love that I’ve not tapped into a lot of stuff. I love the fact that I’m growing in confidence.” And now we’ll never see the product of that optimism and what a tragedy that is.
So this album has become something else now. It’s become a celebration of a remarkable woman’s life which also honours her friendship with Chris Todd and Jim Baron, her two compadres in this incredible 25 year adventure. Some people leave this life without ever having made a single footprint in the culture or life of this fragile planet, but Dani left us with an incredible catalogue of songs – which we can now add this to – many hours of incredible times, unforgettable performances and so many laughs and so much love. The outpouring of love for Danielle, when the news came in, shows just how much of an indelible imprint she has left on us all.
Crazy P’s rise has not been exactly meteoric so much as unhurried. But while they took their time to get where they were going, with each album, they displayed a growing confidence in what they did and who they were. Along the way, they became accomplished songwriters who knew a hook when they heard one (just look at their Spotify numbers which, for a band without ever having a mainstream ‘hit’, are astonishing.
This was a band with a secret weapon: they still liked each other, which was arguably the key to their sustained (and growing) success. You could see it on their faces when they played: pure joy (“Are we really doing this for a living?”). And when we say band, we also include stalwart live performers, Tim Davies and Matt Klose, whose journey with the band has been as involved and long as Danielle’s.
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Danielle told us,
“Gig from the Golden Lion in Todmorden said, ‘You’re not necessarily the best DJs or performers in the world. But the amount of love that people feel from you as a collective is the thing.’ I took that as a massive compliment.”
This was a band who looked like they were having the time of their lives (because they were). “We’re not without have our moments,” adds Toddy. “but we always manage to sort it out. We love hanging out, love going on the road. It’s like traveling with your best mates. I never tire of it; it’s a good job too because we do a lot of gigs!”
One of the most satisfying things, as a fan, was to watch them develop and morph into a tight-knit songwriting and performing unit. With each album and each tour, they incrementally improved. Shy and understated off-stage, when Danielle donned her stage gear, she became a completely different person. “It’s like stepping into my alter ego and doing something that I don’t do in everyday life,” she explained. “People have paid money to come and see me and therefore this part of my obligation is the performance. But the costumes recently have made me feel really feminine or really bold or really strong.”
For this album, Any Signs Of Love?, the band secreted themselves away in a remote cottage armed with some instruments and a handy supply of electricity and left a couple of weeks later with the bare bones of the LP. “Some of the songs came together really quickly and were pretty much finished: ‘Any Signs Of Love?’, ‘Not Too Late’ and ‘You Know How It Goes’,” said Danielle. “We had kind of two halves to ‘You Know How It Goes’ and we just needed to bring them together. ‘Mystify’ as well. There were quite a few that were nearly there.’” They made a decision for the first time to bring in buddy and sound guru, Ric Peet, to give it a spring clean. “A big decision that the lads took,” Dani said. “was to hand over the final mixing to Ric. It just meant that Toddy wasn’t listening to a hi-hat for seven hours.” Toddy still does love a hi-hat, though: “I was keen to do it from the start, because it gives someone else that responsibility and relieves a bit of the pressure.”
They’ve done a tremendous job (again). Quietly and without much fuss, they became incredibly accomplished writers. This album, a tad more minimalist than previous efforts, nevertheless contains all the core ingredients of the Crazy P magic: grooves galore, hooks aplenty and Dani’s ability to always strike the right mood for each song, whether that’s the anthemic ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Anything’, the Italo-esque title-track ‘Any Signs Of Love’?, the dark devastating Murk-sounding ‘Mystify’ or the pure psychedelic fruitiness of ‘Not Too Late’.
Thanks to their dynamite live performances (both as a band and sound system), there’s a genuine love for this gang of renegade party people. So we’d rather think of this as an incredible encore from one of the UK’s most beloved live acts and a fitting finale for Danielle Moore, who we loved so much and brought so much joy and love to stages worldwide.
Words by Bill Brewster, November 2024
‘In a world where the powers that be seem hungry to divide the people and communities look for new leaders, we ask are there ANY SIGNS OF LOVE?’ Crazy P
‘Any Signs of Love’ OUT NOW
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