Plastiscines – Barcelona

Plasticines

If you’re not familiar with the Parisian rock chicks that are Plastiscines then strap yourselves in and prepare to go on an exciting musical journey.….

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Beat The Radar – 18,19,20,21,22

Beat The Radar

When a lot of indie bands seem to be going out of their way to add as many irritating sound effects their songs in the interests of being ‘individual’ or even worse ‘experimenal’ it’s nice to hear a band who understand the importance of injecting a bit of pop into the formula, and Beat The Radar do just that.

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The Longcut – Repeated

The Longcut

Don’t you just love seriously repetitive music with irritating vocals and uninteresting instrumentation? Me neither, but it seems as though The Longcut must, otherwise they’d have never recorded this track, let alone released it as a single and filmed a video.

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Johnny Flynn – Sweet William EP

Johnny Flynn - Sweet William EP

Another brethren of the insanely prolific London anti-folk scene, Johnny Flynn has always seems more mature than his counterparts, always vying towards medieval majesty rather than twee strumming – in short, far more likely to stay up all night studying Shakespeare than crying over a breakup.

His debut album A Larum was all Appalachian, old-soul weariness, punctuated by his lucid lyrical flights of fancy. His style can be compared to US freak-folkie Joanna Newsom’s, however, while Joanna is happy to witter on about Sawdust & Diamonds, Johnny Flynn is far happier dwelling on rubbish dumps and vagrancy. If Joanna Newsom is the archetypical medieval princess, then Johnny Flynn is the impish, impoverished court minstrel.

His achingly wholesome, plaid-clad and golden-haired good looks only add to this idealistic image; it’s easy to image him as the straight-A, golden boy of his school – perhaps the head boy and captain of the rugby team. He’s a new strain of folkie – rather than emulating the slightly grotty, bearded, Will Oldham-ish unkemptness of US folkies, Johnny Flynn is clean-shaven and squeaky-clean – he’s the kind of boy your mother would love. … Continue Reading

Uffie – Pop The Glock

Uffie - Pop The Glock

Initial thoughts on this record: rubbish.  Uffie is clearly trying to be ’80s Madonna/Lady Gaga.

After a few more goes at it though, ‘Pop The Glock’ grows on you.  Which is annoying.  After the first 20 seconds of the song, I really wanted to hate this.

The single itself is quite bland; Uffie basically just (sort of) raps over an electro/crunk drum beat – more annoyingly she uses one of those irritating voice things that Imogen Heap uses on all of her records (don’t get me wrong, I quite like Imogen Heap, but after listening to this track continuously for about ten minutes it starts to grate…)

Still, after a bit of research, I found out that Uffie was once the star of MySpace and everyone thought she was the next big thing.  Listening to some of her other tracks from her MySpace, I can kind of see what the attraction is.  They’re certainly more interesting than this single.  But, I’m here to review this single, so that’s what I’ll do… … Continue Reading

Wolf Gang – The King And All Of His Men

Wolf Gang - The King And All Of His Men

Everything about this Wolf Gang track screams opportunistic bollocks. There’s absolutely nothing original and the song gives an unnerving feeling that you’ve heard each hook before in a different, yet identical, song. It sounds like Scouting For Girls. It has an “oooooooooooooh wooooooooah” bit solely included to tick a box on a record label clipboard. I should hate it. Everyone should hate it.

But… I keep going back to it. It’s so catchy I can’t help having repeated listens. And whenever it’s on I get this stupidly massive, shit-eating grin all over my moronic face. The melody is firmly embedded in my brain and doesn’t seem to want to come out. I can’t chase it away. I’m sure it was even in my dream last night. … Continue Reading

Little Boots – Earthquake

Little Boots - Earthquake

Attempting to catapult up the charts is the latest prime cut from Victoria Hesketh’s debut record as Little Boots, Hands. It’s not quite up to the highs set by the brilliance of the dancefloor-slaying ‘Remedy’ but it’s getting there, a tremendous break down before the final chorus making it perfect for daytime radio.

In truth, it’s not that different from her previous singles, but why change a winning formula? ‘Earthquake’ seems set to secure Little Boots as 2009’s premier electo-pop poppet, pipping La Roux on the line. Success may have been as slow to build for Hesketh as it was comparatively immediate for Elly Jackson, but as they say, slowly slowly, catchee monkey. … Continue Reading

Snow Patrol – Just Say Yes

Snow Patrol

Are you sitting down for this? Do you have some water nearby? Are you prepared for a shock? I hope so, because Snow Patrol have made and released a song that isn’t complete garbage.

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Lord Auch – To The Shithouse EP

Lord Auch

A few years ago those in the infamous Leeds music “scene” were all buzzing about one band in particular. Their dark, post-punk sound and energetic yet unruly gigs meant their name was on just about everyone’s lips. One fellow Leeds band even wrote a song documenting one of those infamous nights, indeed, riots were predicted. Their name? Black Wire. Sadly, Black Wire disbanded in 2007, but fear not, from their ashes rise a whole new beast. Former members Si McCabe and Danny Prescott moved on to form Lord Auch. Alongside Liam Wade, Stelios Kurunis and Nicholas Jones they release the delightfully titled ‘To The Shithouse EP’.

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tUnE-yArDs – Hatari

tUnE-yArDs

This is the only track capable of stopping your heart this year. The recording of ‘Hatari‘ is all cheap and tinny, the creaks and spikes cutting in to sound more manic than my reaction.

‘Hatari‘ is a show, quite frankly. It opens with an almost-canon of melismatic chanting, quickly succumbing to the next movement – a psychotic ukulele loop and tribal drumming. The beats are huge, the syncopation in a fight, but the temperance remains steady. I feel like Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs’ real name – it’s almost even better, right?) is singing at my face.

Someone [Ed - you mean you] once described tUnE-yArDs as “’40s dancehall though the eyes of a Ritalin-prescribed toddler”, and while it takes a listen to the album (BiRd-BrAiNs) to merit status-labelling, the muddle of ‘Hatari‘ and the frankly barbaric playing of that ukulele with passion and quirk, and… hell, here’s something obvious: Why Aren’t There Legions Of Kids Queuing Up Outside Merrill’s Front Door Wanting To Marry Her?

Anyway. It’s all rough-sounding, and crazy. Crazy as in actually crazed, like a desperate call for survival in a jungle. Sometimes there’s just one vocal line, and then occasionally there’s a chorus of howling, savage animals (actually just Garbus‘ multi-tracked vocals, again). One of the song’s catharses includes a siren-resembling vocal part so far away from human that it sounds like a a tiger cutting up their own insides. A baby tiger, perhaps.

Am I amazed in fear or awe? Currently not sure, but what the bejesus are YOU doing with your life? And did I mention that this is a lap in front of my other Track Of The Year?