Round Up 1

This post marks the return of the round up, something that I used to do for singles on my old website. Due to an overwhelming amount of music being sent me, and time constraints in my personal life, some things will get full reviews, the rest covered in the round ups. It’s not necessarily any reflection on quality, merely what I think I can impart to the reader on each release. At least this way stuff that would have otherwise been discarded gets a few words in passing.

Maths and Physics Club have a new LP, I Shouldn’t Look As Good As I Do out on Matinee. Which, when you see them geekily crammed into an old Beetle on the cover, is as ironic as you like. It’s also virtually the perfect pop album. Ten tracks in length, sumptuous melodies abound, an effervescent atmosphere and a general cheery vibe. Those indie fans downbeat after the Lucksmiths split last year, and looking for a replacement could do much worse than Maths and Physics Club.

Also new on Matinee is Cats On Fire’s collection of old stuff called Dealing In Antiques. After kicking off with a cover of Your Woman that sounds like a cross between Kele from Bloc Party and Robert Smith fronting a crisp indie pop tune, the album features lots of lovely indie pop, beautifully sung. Although at times this can be a bit weedy and samey, when they do get it right it sounds great. Such instances are Don’t Say It Could Be Worse which reminds me of Ballboy, and They Produced A Girl which a more ballsy Drums.

Those who were The Wookies, are now Golden Hours. The first single under their new moniker isn’t a patch on their previous efforts. Pioneering is reasonably interesting, like a subdued and less frenetic Futureheads. Wash The Night Eyes is merely alt-80s ok-ness.

The second EP in a trilogy from Breton, Sharing Notes, is also out soon. It’s an interesting piece of work with lead track The Well falling somewhere between Gorillaz, Bloc Party and Scroobius Pip. The title track is pretty good dirty trip hop, while Episodes is like first album Foals, jittery and knowingly fashionable. Finally 15X is an annoying post-Rapture groove. Intriguing stuff, some good, some not so.

Finally Harper Simon releases Wishes And Stars off his debut album. It’s rather good, but a tad too much like his dad Paul for my liking.

The Cats On Fire and Maths And Physics Club albums are out now on Matinee Recordings

The Golden Hours single is out now on Broken Tail Records

The Breton EP is released by Breton Labs on 5th July

The Harper Simon single is out now on [PIAS] Recordings

Tender Trap – Dansette Dansette

Tender Trap return with their third album, keeping up the four year gap between them. As befits a new, expanded line up which now includes Allo Darlin’s Elizabeth Morris, the album sounds much more rounded, with a fuller impressive sound. While the subjects are still very much teenage it sits very well with Amelia’s voice, especially on current single and top notch tune Do You Want A Boyfriend? Lead track Dansette Dansette is rather appropriately a slice of delicious sixties girl pop, while Suddenly is much more adult sounding luscious pop. It has confessional whispered and half spoken vocals and some lush backing vocals. Girls With Guns carries the most non threatening threat. It’s a rumble of almost rockabilly guitars and chiming percussion. These are the highlights of what is easily the best Tender Trap album yet, the majority of the songs being highly melodic gems.

Dansette Dansette is out now on Fortuna Pop!

Tender Trap myspace is here

The Lodger – Flashbacks

The Lodger are back with their third album, dealing out well crafted melodies with ease. If you like indie pop you’ll love this, especially if you’re one who looks back to the late eighties/early nineties with much fondness. They can be Going Blank Again era Ride (Back Of My Mind), The Brilliant Corners (Have A Little Faith In People) or a less idiosyncratic Orange Juice (Time To Wait). The End Of The Affair slots into some sort of middle ground, so fares best as it grabs your attention instead of making you wonder whom it sounds like. What can you say about the rest of the album? It’s thoroughly pleasant indie pop that I’d happily listen to again and enjoy. But is it something I’d dig out deliberately to play? Probably not. Nothing against it, it just doesn’t have that certain something that grabs your lapels and shakes you down. Which is weird as it’s also probably a cut above a lot of current indie pop around. This probably means it’s a grower, one worth persevering with to reap the rewards.

The Lodger's website is here

Flashbacks is out now on Slumberland Records

Various – Fast Forward: An Indie Music Companion To World Cup 2010

Indiecater Records have taken about the mammoth task of putting together a World Cup compilation, featuring bands representing in the form of song the 32 teams in this years World Cup. Thankfully most of them haven’t taken this too literally and have put forward a loose interpretation. Let’s see if we can get through them all. Cop On The Edge commence proceedings, representing South Africa with a fun cheesy tune, which sways a bit like Hammond led garage pop and reels off a list of notable South African sportspeople. According to the chorus they’re ‘gonna win the cup for Charlize Theron’. Mad claim undoubtedly, but a fun sunny pop tune anyway. Standard Fare give their song a Mexican tilt, but it’s not a patch on the top quality pop of their recent debut. It’s still good but a bit twee. Showstar provide a rabble rousing Uruguay, while The Very Most have playfully called the French tune Irlande, and it’s another one of their sumptuous summery pop tunes. The Dirty 9s’ Ballad Of El Diego is suitably grandiose and a tad operatic in its celebration of Argentina, with a little of The Divine Comedy at their most knowingly overblown. Grand Pocket Orchestra’s Nigeria is fantastically like a drunk version of something from The Lion King. The South Korean song is Pearse McGloughlin’s quite beautiful rolling piano ballad Jongmyo Shrine, while At Last An Atlas do a pondering electro buzz tribute to Greece, a bit like The Research being quietly electro shocked. Detox Cute’s England song is suitably twee and toothless and Boca Chica do a lovely French sung Algerian song that combines flute and a walk by the Seine. It’s very bohemian and delightful. Lightholler do Slovenia in a misty eyed European movie way, Betty and the Cavalero do Meet Me At The Red Light for Germany as a gentle squeeze like Duke Special and Sleep Good’s Australia is an instrumental bouncy Saint Etienne. Hunter Gatherer’s Serbia buzzes with the intent of a darkest Europe industrial electro thing, but never really carries through its threat. The Invisible Clock Factory do Ghana, in a similarly minimal but unexciting way. Their way is repetition why is cool, but nondescript. Burning Codes present Holland as a half hearted spiritual, Cleemann’s Princes Of Denmark is a wonderful soaring alternative eighties pomp tune and Goatboy give us a squelching romp for Japan. Spirit Spine’s Cameroon song continues the instrumental theme, a rousing glitch fest bringing it home. Le Man Avec Les Lunettes do a gorgeous summery twirling Sufjan Stevens style thing for Italy, while Harry Bird does Paraguay as a baby Bob Dylan. Adam and Darcie do some swoonsome girl pop for New Zealand and Escape Act’s Slovakia evokes a trip to the host nation in an updated by Paul Simon kind of way. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin do Brazil in their alt folk way, but it sounds tossed off at a minute and half of little in the way of ideas. Francis Bacon’s Ghost do a suitably dark and sinister reeperbahn slow trudge in the form of Kim Jung II for North Korea, Storkboy Choons provide Ivory Coast with a rattling lights housey instrumental and Tap Tap represent Portugal with strained vocals and a brittle tune, but a lovely happy melody and some squirming guitar lines. The Yellow Melodies Spain song is like power pop early Beatles, while Candy Claws ethereal Swiss tune, is a bit too featherlight to carry anything off. My Brother Woody do Honduras in the style of Athlete and a band that have never heard of football before and got their thoughts about it off the internet. Finally Manwomanchild provide an excellent climax in the style of a europop Denim as a tribute to Chile. What seemed an expansive and ambitious project has reaped dividends in a big way.

Fast Forward: An Indie Music Companion To World Cup 2010 is out now on Indiecater Records and can be bought from their website

Stornoway – Beachcomber’s Windowsill

Every now and again a band arrives on the scene and immediately makes you want to eagerly devour everything they do. For me Fountains Of Wayne, eels, The Divine Comedy and Luke Haines in his many guises are such acts. To that list I’ve added Stornoway. It was apparent as soon as I received their self released Early Adventures EP that this was a rather special band. There’s another thing, where the usual revisionist record company historians have deemed March’s I Saw You Blink as their debut single, discounting the self released three EPs and single. I guess it makes for a better story when a band suddenly appears fully formed. No matter, as many of those songs make up this debut album. After leading off with the bands best known tunes, Zorbing and I Saw You Blink we arrive at Fuel Up which shows another side to the band with a keen ear for a crafted folk pop melody. Fuel Up and the following The Coldharbour Road are gorgeous tender ballads, the former of which comes close to making you cry. We Are The Battery Human is close to a reel, whirling gently around harmonising singing making for a joyous song of hope. Here Comes The Blackout is an optimistic and reflective request for people to love not fight, not some hippy sentiment, rather a lovely gesture. Watching Birds is splendid, motoring along then exploding into a psychedelic out of control carousel chorus, all powered by a hyperactive youth orchestra. Then there is more melancholic beauty in On The Rocks, then The End Of The Movie, Brian’s voice quivering with emotion as the song swells to a sumptuous chorus, all gorgeous strings and harmonies. If you’re one of the people who have joined the massed infatuation for Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling, please check out this album, it surpasses them and then some. Album of the year so far, and I honestly can’t see anything catching it.

Beachcomber’s Windowsill is released by 4AD on 24th May

Stornoway myspace is here

The Drums – The Drums

For a band much talked up and about, it will come as a surprise to many to find out that the Drums are more than a tad twee. It’s kinda cute but a bit one dimensional by nature. This renders the last few tracks a bit of a slog, the twee genre being far better suited to the shorter format of mini albums or EPs. Still, there are some decent songs on here. Current single Best Friend manages to be upbeat and melancholic, brittle and fragile sounding, just like the emotional lyrics. Me And The Moon follows in a similar vein, but with a slightly more chugging, motorik rhythm. There’s also rather less substance. Let’s Go Surfing, is echo skiffle, twee rockabilly if you like, while Book Of Stories is rather eighties minimalistic percussion wise and a big widescreen melody. Forthcoming single Forever And Ever Amen is lovely and incandescent, but also rather hollow. Down By The Water is choirboy fresh slacked out Jesus and Mary Chain, and the last thing of note before the descent into similarity.

The Drums website is here and the album is released by Moshi Moshi on June 7th

Boy Mandeville – Christina

From Cambridge to North London, a small journey for this four piece. Now they release their debut single on Voga Parochia. A-side Christina combines the in vogue Vampire Weekend sound with the middle of the road quirk of the Mystery Jets second album. There are twiddly guitars and chirpy vocals a plenty, and its rather fine melodic indie pop. Raisin Snake has chirpy afro beat guitars and an awesome bit where it stretches out in the sumptuous way that Grandaddy used to. There’s not much to choose between the tracks, both are good and a pleasant way to spend a few minutes.

Voga Parochia release Christina on June 7th

Boy Mandeville myspace is here

Echo Boomer – EP

A new EP from Oxford’s Echo Boomer and a drift in sound is apparent. The Circle is like Fyfe Dangerfield solo, with a particularly bouncy eighties beat. It’s studied and terribly over commercial, but there’s something rather cool about it. It’s also pretty retro, but still stands out from other retro stuff. Learning To Lie is odd. It’s very much eighties big music, all windswept and tortured, with a wailing guitar solo in the middle too. You Are is gorgeous widescreen turbulence, and something definitely influenced by Guillemots second album, in that the tracks that moved to more middle of the road, but with a quirky identity. It springs along, in a Bladerunner landscape, with an airy, ominous vocal. Finally Broken Bird is a slightly too sappy, a true middle of the road piece. It has its own charm however, its languid gait making you smile despite yourself.

The EP is self released and available from the band's myspace

Godzilla Black – Godzilla Black

After a bunch of EPs here is the first album from Godzilla Black. Opener Fear Of A Flat Planet has a juddering bass line pulsing through it, and funks like Funkadelic on an African holiday. It has mini breaks of respite while a heartbeat thuds and percussion tinkles, and then it tribally kicks back in with some voodoo sounds. Immense. The Bad Place is deranged and highly charged electro industrial funk. From Here To Clare is frenetic like a psychotic early B-52s, while Insect Day is some jittery fun, but not too noticeable. Burning Wires gets more experimental, being jabbering electro gabba, First Bite In is a neat Link Wray style instrumental and The Drought is a crazed metal, with added sax funked up near instrumental. The vocals that there are don’t add much. Sadly Imaresident is dull sludgecore and Amazing is just weird, mysterious rambling. Finally Enjoy Yourself is a ridiculous mess, the kind of thing that happens with too many bad drugs and some spare tape left in the studio.

Godzilla Black is available for streaming and as a free download here

David G Cox – David G Cox

David G Cox has a voice somewhere between Tom Waits and Stephen Meritt. The Serpent’s Tale is a dusky jazz odyssey told down a back alley, between the dumpsters. The choir of the dark side help out with some spiritual backing vocals. She Moves Through The Blue is even better, a kind off lounge lizard act, David’s slippery but gruff voice meanders through the music. Duet has a Greek slow quickstep beat, and a sultry duet vocal wise. Merry Go Round sounds like Cathal Coughlan on a slow boat to nowhere, which is rather good if you were wondering. Song 7 is Spider and the Fly spookiness, double bass and brushed drums, spooky hemmed in rockabilly. Forever And A Day is a twiddly folk thing with intertwining female vocals, coupled together so close and so warm. Please Don’t Cry could be the best thing here, a bare piano melody and a cracked voice, Mercury Rev type sadness. The Ballad Of the Yellow Moon is a sweet m/f tender folk ballad, while Bogart and Bacall is like Tim Burgess doing a Nick Cave murder ballad with seaside organ. When The Blue Sky Turned Red is an affecting little duet, more of David singing with ebbing and flowing female backing vocals, it twists and turns gently. House Of Cards is another jazzy, sleazed up thing, that turns all freestyle and a bit Ghost Town to complete the album.

The album is out now on Dreamtrak. David's myspace is here

The Blanche Hudson Weekend – The Rats In The Cellar EP

And neatly we move on from the last Manhattan Suicides final release, to the first from The Blanche Hudson Weekend, featuring Caroline and Darren from said band. It leads off with Grip Of Fear, a female vocalled and oh so cool song, all black leather trousers and pouting. It’s reminiscent of Some Candy Talking, mainly in attitude, but once or twice musically also. But that’s no bad thing as the band evidently have enough style and musical skill, not to mention enough of their own identity to pull it off. Sharks follows that and is rather slouchy, with it’s just got out of bed hair and demeanour, so achingly cool, but lovely too. Final track Only Snow takes the Sharks blueprint and improves on it somewhat. A fine EP for fans of the fuzz pop melodies.

The Rats In The Cellar EP is out now on Oddbox Records

The Blanche Hudson Weekend myspace is here

The Manhattan Love Suicides – Dandelion Session

The Manhattan Love Suicides ceased to be last summer, and their final recordings as part of a session for Dandelion Radio are now released on Odd Box. Everything is in place on amazing opener Misery City, which is a combination of high speed thrills channelling Mary Chain, Birdland and sixties Nuggets too. It’s derivative but highly authentic and heartfelt too. Even if it wasn’t, this is rock n roll at its best. An acoustic version of Veronica is like a spruced up and fresh faced version of the Velvets with Nico, while Never Far From You is a fuzz laden Talulah Gosh. Time Enough At Last slouches and fuzzes elegantly and an acoustic Things You’ve Never Done has a tender quality and the best singing on the album beautifully brought to the fore. I’m Not A Young Man Anymore reminds me of the primal beat of Altered Images Dead Pop Stars, done over by an even dark side. It drones on for a wonderful seven minutes. To complete this release there are also mono versions of all the tracks for those of you who prefer their sound that way.

Dandelion Session is out now on Oddbox Records

The Manhattan Love Suicides myspace is here

Various – Home

Home is another compilation of new, unsigned bands and it’s available as a free download. There’s some interesting stuff contained within. The Big I Am’s track is rather lovely in a heartfelt and bucolic Del Amitri sounding way. Fair warms the cockles of the heart. Big Hands Big Hearts deliver a piece of bouncy twee electro fun, while My Little Pony’s Skipping Down the Street is as twee as it sounds, but its infectiously melodic and with a backbone. It‘s all very Welsh and loveable. Head Of Light Entertainment’s Lady Godiva’s Horse is playful and joyous, Snippet’s Man Without Mobile is offbeat quirk, a bit like the Voluntary Butler Scheme and If I Grow Old by Dan Whitehouse is like one of Just Jack’s more recent tunes, only less oddball. Beachy Head Music Club provide a sombre version of Carter USM, all sardonic vocals and English home truths. Sleep by Stealing Sheep is a sweet shoop shoop of a song that reminds me of Blue Roses. Bobby Wotnot is like Johnny Cash being channelled by a mellowed out Beck, while Wim Oudijk delivers something between Beefheart and an easy listening jazz odyssey. Richard O’Flynn falls somewhere between Damien Rice and Marc Bolan’s hippy folk days, so it’s difficult to decide whether I like this one. Overall though, there is some fine stuff and it’s certainly worth a listen.

Home is released by Rash Records and is available as a free download from their website

The Consulate General – Person Number

The Consulate General is one Alexander Chen, living in Gothenburg, but of Taiwanese-American extraction. Along with various musical guests they do indie pop with an electronic tinge, a genre which on the basis of the opening salvo is sweet enough, but doesn’t amount to a great deal. The tinkling ping pong ball instrumental that is Patricia Soriano manages to be much more special in only 45 seconds. 65 Or Older squeezes and hugs your soul and is based around a cheap keyboard demo mode and some eerie and childlike music. Liesa Lietke is a squelching squirming instrumental, while Lonesome Sunday is very good, sweet and spiritual, like a fine mellow Boo Radleys thing. We bypass a lot of ok tunes until Sweet Solano, which is understated loveliness. It’s like Flying Pickets updated with African drums and gentle strings. As so often these days, there’s a very good EP here, made into a mixed bag album.

Person Number is out now on Circle Into Square

The Consulate General website is here

iHat

Here is the first product review on the site. The iHat, despite its name, is not an official Apple product and in fact retails for £13. It's ideal stocking filler material for when that time comes around. Basically it's a kind of skull cap looking affair, with headphones built inside, so your ears and head keep warm and you have an unsightly lead trailing from the back of your head, like you are some kind of robot. Being external rather than in ear headphones there is a lot of external noise coming through, which spoils your listening somewhat. Overall, it's a pretty nifty idea poorly executed. Someone could pick up this and run with it, producing something decent, but for now we have the iHat which is fun, cheap and not to be taken seriously.

Buy the iHat from Mobile Fun here