Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips have been around since the early ’80s, receiving more or less constant critical acclaim, if relatively modest commercial success. An early hit for the band, ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’, brought them into the spotlight, but it wasn’t until the late ’90s that they made their artistic breakthrough.
Broadcast and the Focus Group...
Broadcast have been at the centre of Birmingham’s quirky, quietly innovative music scene for a good few years, so it comes as shock to discover they’ve upped sticks and relocated to Hungerford, this mini-album marking their arrival among the Berkshire poppies.
Maps
As my wife so often reassures me, issues with length are of no great concern and I’m guessing that Mrs James Chapman has told her hubby the same thing, though in Chapman’s case his problems arise due to an excess in length. The lucky beggar.
The Xx
‘Islands’ is a brilliant choice of single for The Xx. Most of the tracks on their eponymous debut do not make much sense on their own, but ‘Islands’ makes its breakthrough brilliantly, the girl-boy vocals of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim provide a superb introduction to what the band is all about.
Boredoms
Calling this an EP is stretching things somewhat. In reality it’s one song, with four added remixes of varying quality and usefulness. It’s probably only defined as an EP as it’s far too long to count as a single.
The Xx
There’s a lot of hype currently encircling The XX, and quite justifiably so. In May they released their debut single, ‘Crystalised’. It was dark, mysterious and various other adjectives that connote “atmospheric”. It was an ultimately brilliant track that whetted the appetites of moody young trendoids everywhere.
Fuck Buttons
If you like your music highly annoying, with eardrum-destroying piercing treble and far too many samples at one time, then you might actually be capable of liking the latest single from Fuck Buttons.
Polly and the Billets Doux
Polly and the Billets Doux hardly make the sort of music that you’d expect from a Bristol-based four piece. You couldn’t really imagine most of Fiction, Half-Truths and Downright Lies sounding out of place in a blue-collar bar somewhere in the heart of the American Midwest.
The Alexandria Quartet
Intriguingly-named, after the masterpiece by Britain’s-answer-to-Proust (that’s Lawrence Durrell, BTW), Norway’s Alexandria Quartet may not be as stately, literary, or narrative-focused as you’d hope, but with their squalling guitars and mellifluous strings behind hammered piano-keys, they leave similar fare by British acts in the dust.
Ungdomskulen
There are a number of superficial factors one could mediate on when discussing the wonderful Ungdomskulen, possibly the best band to ever come out of Norway.
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