To be or kinobe

If current mutterings in all the right places are to be believed, Kinobe might just be the next big thing. Or to be more precise, they're the band most likely to do a Moby. In more ways than one. Y'see, apart from making gloriously chilled music laden with samples from a different era, Kinobe recently signed up their biggest hit to date, the swoonsome 'Slip Into Something More Comfortable' to be in an advert. For a fancy brand of beer. Explain, please!

"Well, I don't think we're quite 'doing a Moby' after one advert," reasons one half of the duo. He's obviously heard this one before. "Y'know, a lot of people that work in that business now are our age, and they listen to this kind of music. And they said to us that they wanted to have it in it as it was the piece of music they actually filmed the ad to. Plus it's not a bad advert, there's a lot worse out there. We knew it was going to be used in an ad or a film, so it's better this than any other. I'm mean, as a group starting out, it's one of the best things that's ever happened to us."

The prosecution rests. "Us" is in fact Julius Walters and Mark Blackburn, two twenty-somethings that have been friends since they were nippers. And after a Julius spent a large part of his teens living Down Under, the pair decided to meet up and make beautiful music together on New Year's Day in 1998.

The pair the sent a demo to the vaguely trendy Pepper records containing a rough edit of 'Slip Into…' plus 10 other tracks and - hey presto! - a record deal quicker than you can say, erm, Moby. Two eps followed, Planet Soup and Good Migrations, before the debut elpee, Soundphiles. That's all well and good, but we wanna know about the big single! C'mon! Why did you sample that most swarthy of ladies men, Englebert Humperdink?

"That was just a record I found under the bed, a kind of odd Englebert record that we just took the sample from. It only actually appears at the start of the record but there you go."

Seeing as it's a bit of a theme on the album, why the fascination with this epic, stringy sound? "I just suppose it's something we grew up with, the whole Frank Sinatra thing," reckons Julius. "The strings and records from the time have such a warm, romantic sound that a joy to listen to, and a joy to grab it!

"Interestingly, it's actually Frank Sinatra's estate that owns the rights to Englebert's back catalogue, so we had to deal with them to clear things. They thought we were a little bit funny at first, but they came round eventually."

As 'the single' gears up for its second release (or is it third?) release, have Kinobe been sitting back and counting the advertising revenue? Have they hell!

"We've got a 'live band' thing together that we'll be taking out on the road, a six or seven piece thing, with drummers, keys, bass, decks, the whole shebang, so we'll be doing a few festivals and a tour over the next year.

"And we're we're working on a new LP at the moment, actually. It's no really big change in direction, but this one is aimed at the erogenous zone - it's going to be a sexy record." Ooo-er. As we speak, Julius is still deciding what vocals to use on the album. There's already a rapper or two confirmed and there may be a guest appearance from a funky-in-a-not-funky-sort-of-way pop/soul singer. I'm sworn to secrecy, so you'll have to keep guessing. All night long. Hint hint.

'Slip Into Something' on Jive Records is available now