City Kay, the London based band around vocalist Jay Pharaoh, already gave us a preview of this new album in November of last year with the release of the 'Mad Men' EP. The 4 tracks from that EP ('Mad Men', 'Man Cultivation Struggle', 'Run For Your Soul' and the duet with Johnny Osbourne 'Throw Away Your Guns'), also feature in the track list of 'Strange Things'. We already determined the four songs on the EP sounded a lot more eclectic than the tracks on predecessor 'Daystar', and the band seems to have baptized that sound, a mix of ambient, electro, pop, hip-hop and new roots, as "abstract roots". The melody line of the title track of the album is based on 'Gnossienne', a nineteenth-century composition by French composer Eric Satie, and in the rootsy 'No Politicians Fool You', a raised middle finger at the political class, excerpts from an old speech by Indian thinker and philosopher Krishnamurti can be heard. In the majority of the songs on 'Strange Things' Jay Pharaoh takes care of lead vocals, but the track list contains a few exceptions: for the infectious 'Mind Under Control', one of our favorites on 'Strange Things', guitarist Yoam Minkoff sing lead, and in 'We Got To Be Together', an excellent modern rendition of the Wailing Souls classic, you'll hear the voice of keyboardist Loeiz. Wayward but very successful contemporary reggae production!