Summer Camp – Ghost Train

Summer Camp

So Summer Camp are not Swedish, but in fact Jeremy Warmsley (interviewed here) and Platform Editor Elizabeth Sankey.

We also now know there’s this single which is really rather good, and painfully few songs on their MySpace that hint at a band who are great in creating the kind of hazy music that you can quite happily get lost amongst this summer. ‘Ghost Train’ is such a song.

As with Summer Camp’s other tracks ‘Ghost Train’ begins with a line from another ’80s movie classic. This time Cameron Crowe’s, Say Anything…. “I’m sorry, it’s just you’re a really nice guy, and we don’t wanna see you get hurt” before the response, “I wanna get hurt!”. While ‘Ghost Train’ isn’t homage to the film, it does share themes of interactions and potentially putting distance between them.

It has that traversing landscapes aura about it. Coupled with overtones of adolescent long distance relationships, struggling to exist via poor connections and cross-country trains amid changing seasons. It’s a sweet and airy chug along with an O Superman-esque “Dear, dear, dear, dear, dear/I, I, I, I, I/You, you, you, you, you” over an awkward, infectious and darling synth line. The vocals are subtle and light yet bloom on the chorus.  … Continue Reading

Fionn Regan – The Shadow Of An Empire

Fionn Regan - The Shadow Of An Empire

It’s been almost four years since Fionn Regan released his debut album, The End Of History. Any questions about what he’s been up to in that time are answered with a single listen to its successor: he’s been growing some balls.

The End Of History was generally well received by the music press, but its whimsical, plinkety plunkety folk always felt a bit like a facsimile of a great album rather than the real thing. Regan’s soft, string-backed harmonies created moments of wonder, but the acoustic cleverness began to wear thin after a while. … Continue Reading

Cate Le Bon – Me Oh My

Cate le Bon - Me Oh My

With her vampish bowl-haircut and blackened eyelids, Welsh chanteuse Cate Le Bon could pass as the third member of Telepathe. Only sonically, she’s opted to eschew layers of stroke-of-midnight hypnotics for simple, stark compositions, taking the listener to intimate places and keeping firm hold of those achingly hipster credentials.

And who knew things were getting so morbid over the border these days? Me Oh My, Le Bon’s witching (half) hour, was recorded for mentor and Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys’ Irony Bored label after she appeared on his Neon Neon side-project album, Stainless Style. But whereas the sleazy electro glide of the track in question, ‘I Lust U’, didn’t allow for the eccentricities of her Nico-imbued vocal or her urge to write about death and darkness, the fact she initially wanted to call this debut ‘Pet Deaths’ speaks volumes about what fascinates her most. … Continue Reading

New Young Pony Club – The Optimist

New Young Pony Club - The Optimist

I remember seeing New Young Pony Club whilst I was at university a few years ago when they were touring with the NME on the same bill as CSS and the Klaxons.  I was swept up on the nu-rave bandwagon and really liked their original, edgy sound. But then they sort of disappeared.

With only a hazy memory of their previous work (mainly ‘Ice Cream’), I was expecting more of the same; plinky-plonky ’80s electro, nu-rave pop – and their new album The Optimist delivers, but on a larger scale. … Continue Reading

Islet, London Lexington

Islet - image from thisislet.com (the unofficial fansite)

March 5, 2010

I could prepare for writing this review by trawling endlessly, needlessly for track names, photos, and an overview of what the selected few hacks who’ve written about Islet have to say. I did, in fact, and it turns out that more’s been written about their decision – be it because of a lack of recorded material or otherwise – to shun the internet. They have no MySpace, sure, but the fact is that an image-search reveals their appearance, a look at their Last.fm or Songkick page (subject to gig promoters’ efficiency) tells of their upcoming tour-dates and press, just like this, is still filtering through. They’re proof that hometown-phenomena still happen. … Continue Reading

Screaming Maldini – Kookaburra Sings

Screaming Maldini - Kookaburra Sings

Imagine Scouting For Girls built a time machine that took them back to around 1984.  Once there, they stole The Smiths’ youthful spirits and creativity, then returned via 1992, where they had a tutorial in time signatures from Dream Theater and a magic lesson from Paul Daniels.  Are you still with me?  If so, then you have a good idea of what to expect from Screaming Maldini’s ‘Kookaburra Sings’. … Continue Reading

Trouble Books – Gathered Tones

Trouble Books - Gathered Tones

There is undoubtedly something magical about a great lost album. Even when you discount the dirty pleasure of indie snobbery, there is still something warming about a really special piece of music which you share with a small number of similarly enlightened souls. Ohio band Trouble Books’ last effort, The United Colors of Trouble Books was a thing of almost impossible beauty which fell squarely into that category, missed as it was by many. Given the delicate, unhurried nature of their sound, it is perhaps fitting that the acclaim for the band is starting to swell ever so gradually, including a recent spot in The Guardian’s New Band of the Day column, meaning their fanbase is starting very slowly to expand. … Continue Reading

Field Music, London Scala

Field Music

March 3, 2010

Field Music are avant-pop doyens. That sure sounds pretentious but it’s shorthand for “Field Music should be selling out the Royal Festival Hall but audiences’ attention-spans just aren’t big enough to let that happen”. They sell out the Scala no sweat, which marks the well-deserved success of their comeback record Field Music (Measure), but tonight – while a great platform for their instrument-swapping skills, astounding musicianship and general loveliness – lacks magic. … Continue Reading

These Are Powers – Candyman

These Are Powers - Candyman

Having been the bearer of ill tidings – that Liars’ Sisterworld isn’t the spectacular return to form we’ve long hoped for – it’s gratifying to know that there is a sisterworld out there, in which the long-departed rhythm section continue to excite, titillate and horrify. These Are Powers may not fill the Liars-shaped hole, exactly, but they aim to fill other ones you didn’t know you had. (Apologies for any lewdness… the press release has just informed me that the artwork is based on a fetishistic practice known as “sploshing”.) … Continue Reading

Archie Bronson Outfit, London Roxy

February 22, 2010

The casual gentleman, taking an evening on stroll along London’s Borough High Street, would be forgiven for noting the Roxy and passing on by, suspecting it to be both expensive and designed to appeal to those Londoners, whoever they might be, who don’t like pubs.  In fact this is London’s best-concealed cinema where fine films are exhibited to those who can put up with the drink prices.  On a Tuesday evening in late February the screening room is playing host to a high proportion of men in full beards and faded baseball caps, tell-tale signs of something afoot. The Archie Bronson Outfit are back in town equipped, if the rumours could be believed, with an album even better than the particularly tight and rocking Derdang Derdang. … Continue Reading