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It’s more a matters of slightly different strokes than anything else, for the first solo adventure by Albert Hammond Jr. The slightly psychedelic guitars, prominent bass and bluesy vocals with a slight echo, easily fit in with the slightly sombre mood projected on The Strokes’ 3rd and latest album ‘First Impressions Of Earth’. It’s a passable attempt at meandering rock and the debut album (released 09/10/06), looks set to be a moody and tuneful release. David Adair
The Glastonbury regulars and young indie starlets of Blackbud decide to unleash their tender side upon us. A colourfully vibrant instrumental intro, the sort of which you’d expect from The Coral, completes the ground work for vocalist Joe Taylor to set a longing vocal vice on a pleading plight. Calmingly instilled inclusion of several “aaahhh-aaahhhhsss”, cushions a serious side that is helped by funky and slightly soulful guitars and patting percussion, as though to tell you “it’ll be OK”. And, with offerings like this it probably will be for Blackbud. David Adair. www.blackbud.co.uk
The defiance and insight of The Clash is given a modern indie coating in the title track that spews out honesty and grit, projected by the commanding, determined and flighty vocals of Ali Kavali. The integrity in Black Jackson’s sound is maintained by the fact that they have managed to achieve their aim of capturing their focused live zap on a demo. The lurid The Wildhearts and underpinning of The Undertones number ‘Malcontent’, displays a popular ability to write about stuff that happens to you without sounding patronising or egotistical. A slower and Americana/alt folk intro to ‘Living In Aceidema’ builds up to crunching release of frustration in the catchy chorus. It also features reflective interludes to promote Black Jackson’s ability to toy with emotions. This Bury quartet is the sort of band that you want to be your own little secret, so that you can continue to watch them in compact settings that struggle to with-hold their cohesive passion. David Adair. www.blackjackson.co.uk
‘The Dogs Home’ Harpsichord-trickled, psyche-art goth march music. Dark, malodorous, ghostly, septic but kinda beautiful. ‘Lie Detector’ is blistered torch-song/punk-attack on the Jeremy Kyles of this world. ‘Under The Skin’ the blackened, morning cigarette ballad to finish. Skif. www.theblacktulips.com
Typically warm, emotive stuff from Will Oldham, ‘Cursed Sleep’ rides in on an orchestral sweep before paring down to the harmonious country-twanged post-folk for which he is renowned. It is stealthy, rich and blanketing. ‘The Signifying Wolf’ chugs on a chain gang rhythm, the guitars low beneath the general cacophony of competing voices. ‘Gods Small Song’ has a prairie shoegaze slide to blow us through the dusk. ‘Cursed Sleep’ is taken from the new LP ‘The Letting Go’. Skif
‘Out Of The Past’ is a pretty gentle beast, a Velvets-like cut of minimal, cyclical rock n’ roll. Far from ugly drug music though, a soft-psyche hallucinogens underpinning the sweet haze. ‘No Body’ is broken, lo-fi slide-blues while ‘Romeo’ trips and gallops round Beefheartian bends. Skif
The Broken Family have upped their schisms of late, and this is a perfect example of what kind of damage alt.country can do to a set of eager dancin’ feet. This is like a succession of bullets in the direction of the toes, crash-through-walls-to-git-ta-yew kinda country. Brisk, and brilliant. Skif
With violin sweeping strongly throughout, Buswell pull together a very pleasing harmonic, symphonic kind of mature folk-tinged music for ‘Don’t Go Wasting Time’, and all 3 b-sides are equally adept and impressive, and even exploring post-rock and electronicish territories. The David Gray meets Pro-Tools twitch of Ben One’s remix of ‘More’ is a highlight. Skif
Brash, upstarty, like Elvis Costello reaching into a bag of a trebly, New York rock n’ roll; ‘Say No Say Yeah’ is happy-clappy in a socially climbin’ lo-filin’ sense. ‘Question Mark Shaped Heart’ is another self-confident new-wavish offering, with Coral-like piratisms housed within some early 80’s guitars. Skif. www.myspace.com/circuitsband
Raggedy, and with a Britpop-era-crashing-into-Strokes-debut-era guitar crispness. Certainly the swirl of the cymbals, and the wail of the guitar work on a psychedelic level as well as a Weddoes-like jangle angle. ‘Ashamed’ is of a gentler persuasion, while ‘Lee’ charges at the floor like a furr-ball from a feline throat. Skif
Swooning, earnest pop that binds together the feel of Bjork, Sinnead O’Connor and Donna Lewis comes at you via this organ and synths marrying offering taken from Tidewell’s debut album, ‘Don’t Let The Stars Keep Us Tangled Up’. A foraging backdrop adds to the wondering feel of this dedication to following your dreams. An acoustic version of ‘Oslo’ bears out belief and depth in a fashion similar to Kathryn Williams. The smooth production adds a homely feel that is necessary to give a song of this nature its true value. Courtney’s personal nature is what most likely to make her friends as she makes the first steps in her musical journey. David Adair
Deeply atmospheric and dynamic stuff that makes the most of its opening choppy riffage in the U2/Snow Patrol mould to kickstart some muscular pop-rock action. There’s a nice atmospheric build to sharp guitar crescendo on b-side ‘Still I Think What I Think’ too. Skif. www.deadworldleaders.com
With a tinny, argumentative, irritant of a beat and an idle-surfers guitar chang, Department of Eagles’ ‘Romo Goth’ has lo-fi r n’ r gripped by the short hairs. ‘Sailing By Night’ meanwhile is a dowdy cardigan of soft-beat folk that gradually peels off to reveal a silver foil jumpsuit. Tuung’s remix of the latter, as you might expect, plays up the rustic by throwing in some banjo. It is like a boat trip, the lost oars causing it to meander and drift downstream. Daedelus eventually intercepts the boat with his version, a drum and bass assault, of sorts. Skif
Spindling guitars and Didz Hammond’s dawdling bass lines provide an echoing 70s backing element, helping Carl Barat jump into his mod boots to set a more pondering mood than fans of this outfit maybe used to. An old fashioned romanticised topic shows a tender heart beats behind the mask of driving riffs that has become the bands signature. Dirty Pretty Things seek to capitalise on the success of debut album ‘Waterloo To Anywhere’, as this third single projects a swaggering, almost dialogue approach that is popular at the moment after The Arctic Monkey’s recent Mercury Prize success. The above-mentioned Sheffield outfit undoubtedly owes a debt to Carl’s old band, The Libertines for paving the way for them. It’s all full circle back-slapping at the moment isn’t it? David Adair
Remember that soul stroking climax of Coldcut’s career so far; ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’? Well, its aching heart and blues/lounge streaming backdrop obviously still strikes a chord with DJ Shadow. This single shows that heart is being brought back into this part of the profession. The Californian key man, Josh Davis is undoubtedly turning into a much sought after, alternative turntable talisman. David Adair
How much fun is this? ‘A Trip To Venice’ kicks off with the perkiest electro-pop beat, and a weary, lackadaisical Julian Fox-like vocal, and it sweeps joyfully and melancholically in the same movement. ‘Barcelona 2002 (All I Wanted Was A Postcard)’ calls in Emelie from fellow Swedes Evergreen Days for a gorgeous synth-pop two-hander. ‘Soft Paws, Hard Pavement’ purloins a Smiths line showing that the indie jangle is just as important to their music as a pacey Erasure-esque beat. Skif
Cool, college rock, with a downbeat refrain capturing their midweek ennui. Skif. www.myspace.com/donderdag
Somewhere between the Smiths, the Wedding Present and the Housemartins, Education occupy a pop plane that clings on tight as a vivacious jangle barrels down a hill. So it is with ‘Cool As You’. ‘Charles’, on the other hand, is a more considered effort, serenading Prince Charlie with a lackadaisical snarl. I didn’t still think people made records like this. I’m very glad that they do. Skif. www.areyoueducated.com
Sweet piano pop that captures that little bit of melancholy in joyousness. Got a lend of Pipas’ lo-fi cardigan it seems. ‘Dear Dead Days’ drifts on a plaintive pluck on the guitar. Skif. www.myspace.com/hbirdhq
Lounge grooving chill-out beats helps the tempo-building impresario Henrik Schwarz provides a slickly programmed snippet of his current mood. It has been written solely to appear on the German’s forthcoming mix album ‘DJ Kicks’, parading the influences that have shaped his musical direction since the spellbinding release of the mood mixing, debut EP ‘Supravision’ in 2002. The ‘Mix 1 Part & Part B’ sets an initially hollow backdrop, before twisting synths that harks back to Schwarz’s House leaning ways and a spirited soul voice jumps out, sporadically lifting up the life in the number. ‘Imagination Limitation (Mix 3)’ instils a light techno with a jungle stomp to make it the mix that will most likely be aired in clubs around the country, in order to evoke some graceful packing of boxes from dance floor connoisseurs. David Adair. www.myspace.com/henrikschwarz
So it’s racing garage/techno indie with a growl that is the getting press and trendy musos’ motors running at the moment, is it? Stalking vocals and lyrics to boot leap out from a rugged base to create a vacuum of gnarly tension. It’s the sort of stuff you’d listen to on repeat whilst trying to run a marathon dressed up as a Klingon from Star Trek, to keep your energy for the obscure circulating. ‘Night Of The Long Knives’, sounds like a The Libertines demo filmed in Pete’s garage after his stash has just been stolen by the paperboy. It possesses a mainstream base, but features enough asides and intonations to keep them different. Skif
The new wave, new wave craze is marching to the UK and the potential leaders of it, America’s The Human Value capture a buzzing sound and shake it like it’s a poor man’s money box, to produce Blondie-eqsue provocation and XTC style eccentric frivolity. The crawling vocal approach of Turu that has a mechanical effect turns the wheels of this satiating grinder of an A side. The hollow percussive build up to B-side ‘Nashville #5’, helps to set a nostalgic feel that throws matters into a reflective vortex at which throbbing instrumentals are the centrepiece. David Adair. www.thehumanvalue.com
The warrior like rocker, Juliette Lewis fires another fiery bow of rock n roll in the spirit of PJ Harvey, Queen Adreena and AC/DC, into the air. The actress and feisty rocker uses all of her theatrical prowess to pull off a fuzzy tale of greed and backstabbing, extracted from her recent bold and bountiful ‘Four On The Floor’ album. Sizzling 70s rock riffs provide the thrust and Juliette Lewis provides the punch and the grind. Who says the two and a half minute rock song formula is now stale? David Adair
End of the pier fuzz beat pantheon to the undignified scramble to get ones 15 minutes (well, seconds) as a quickly by-passed public spectacle, with what appears to be a slight Wurzels homage on the chorus. Bent, fucked-up but spot on. How else to top that? Perhaps Kelly Marie’s ‘byoo-byoo’ classic, with a vocal contribution from Mungo Jerry’s Ray Dorset, the original pen-man behind it? How else? Skif. www.kingshavelongarms.co.uk
Ever wondered what music would be played on a space buggy ride between the picturesque planets of Jupiter & Saturn? It would probably be the hovering electro and atmospheric rushing ‘Magick’. Jamie Reynolds’ vocals hover in a groovy fashion occupying the galaxy betwixt the sounds of Chicane and Joseph K, to keep up the thrust of the expansive crescendo producing back-drop. ‘Hall Of Records’ builds up from a slower groove and the vocals leak in a drop of soul, whilst the accompaniment represents more of a consistent climb to slot them closer into the mainstream, not that there is really where they are heading, one thinks. David Adair
The stark vocals of Kate Jackson, combine the free spiritedness of Chrissie Hyndes with the rough n’ ready pitch of Blondie, to extol the virtues of maturity over youth. A mish-mash of roving bass and creaky guitars provides a rough edge to the track and it smacks of rock sureness. This is something that will help yet another Sheffield outfit win over the mainstream press and music lovers out there. David Adair.
‘All My Journeys’ is soft, sweet and melancholic; trip-hop gone twee, if you like. Stina Nordenstam reinterpreted by Dubstar, maybe. ‘Escape To’ is even more minimal. Shy instrumental space-funk as heard drifting through a vent. Skif. www.myspace.com/noonakai
With a tiny ghost in their machine, Ooze have a tricksy little tumbler in this single. The double-bass casts us back to the glory days of Red Snapper, while TishK’s vocals spin to a similar era, having an echo of the trip-punk spirit of Ruby, only with a little more jazz drifting through her soul. Of the 3 mixes, Jesse Sorolay’s is probably the most vivid and enveloping. Skif.
So, what would you expect an E.P. to sound like from a man who has produced Dido, has a classically trained musical background, and has now decided to turn his hand to recording his own electronica? Maybe I am too deeply rooted in the ‘judging a book by its cover’ brigade but I did not expect this! Some very odd vocal recordings/samples – a female soprano; a wailing banshee – combine with strange rhythms, distorted synths and melodic washes. It shouldn’t hang together but somehow it does. ‘Linearsophie’ is a standout, sounding like a leftover sketch from Chris Morris’ ‘Jam’ series. A very original 25 minutes of sound. Leon Michael Tricker
After the wired night, slouching New York Strokesy post-post-punk trying to suppress the inner choirboy, but failing on the cherubic, angelic chorus. ‘Song For Tom’ manges to put a bit of a blanket over it, for a shoegazey hymn. Skif
Bubble gum indie concealing a sinister touch dances around to introduce a character we all know; ‘Judy’. The Pippettes follow up on the top 40 success of salacious ‘Pull Shapes’ with a freewheeling expose of modern life and one of its trying characters. The trailing and steamy vocal trail of Gwenno Saunders leads the colourfully tunefully parade containing whistling guitars and also tag along lingering memories of summer. The Pipettes attempts playfully seduce you into their way of veiling life’s troubles. Can they avoid the ever lingering pitfall of momentary attention and can the attention of the ever wandering modern audience? They’ve given it a bash. David Adair. www.thepipettes.co.uk
Rich, ambitious pop music that appears housed in the brash, yuppied 80’s, as well as giving off a Fortuna Pop style indie-ethic. Easy to see why they share a label with Luxembourg, as they approach their craft with the same sophistication and need to reach out to an empathic audience. Skif. www.myspace.com/piranha
A little on the twee, a few tiny teardrops on the slacker jeans constantly in need of hitching up. Brittle it be, and beguiling with it, like Daniel Johnston holing up in the attic with J. Mascis for Christmiss. Skif
‘Hi’s percussive bent, carries along with it a spirit of robotic fiesta. Inside Psapp’s world, a parlour pluck and Latino chop peek from between the rapid waltz steps of their toolbox pop. For ‘Apple Black’, they swing and croon on a salad-bed of a little glitch, a distant pneumatic tap and a wiggle of ringtone electronics. Skif. www.psapp.net
Big on the surrealist concept of ‘automatic writing’, Quad Throw Salchow consider how their own formation on ‘The Unwelcome Guest’. There’s a Talking Heads with Eno thing about the beats and the guitars, while O de Lanzac’s vocals rival those a damp and isolated wasp. On ‘Speed’, the bass takes control, overpowering it’s hypnotics a touch too much. Skif. www.quadthrowsalchow.com
First of a triumvirate of EPs to be released in the next year. ‘Carry The Light’ clangs and sashays all at once with a Morrissey coquette/marionette spin. ‘Don’t Take My Love Away’ has the heavy Cocker-esque croon and subtle sonic approach of the Chemistry Experiment, while ‘In A Cage, Under The Ground’ gently sways. Skif. www.thereverse.co.uk
Bursting out of North West Kent College, ‘Suburban Kings’ nods towards Piper-era Floyd, The Kinks’ jauntier items and the more dapperly clad amongst the mod gang. On this and b-side ‘…for he’s blue,’ they get a grind going within the jangle and, particularly in the latter, an enthusiastic psyche-bobble amongst the bass. Skif
Chippy, cockney pop types that throw angles at a rattling Others/Paddingtons brand of polished indie-pop sounds. ‘Piss In The Disco’ is a cheeky little bleeder on the ‘B. Electro-pulses poking the pits and the zones and generally being at once an irritant and an exhilarant. Skif. www.rotatingleslie.co.uk
Typically impetuous stuff from West Yorkshire’s finest harmonic prog-punk pop group. Pompous in the very best sense, and with a handy organ shuffle to harry along a bright and bubbly hook-ridden slab of cheeky rock action. With a tongue in their demi-operatic cheek, the Six continue to warrant a dropped jaw, a heaving mosh and a thankyou cuddle. Skif.
You know when a sound makes you feel a band’s sartorial elegance before anything else. Shuffle have some of that, with their cheeky art-funk. ‘My Friend’s Girlfriend’ whirls its cartoon jazz around a youth club disco. ‘An Old Uprising’ achieves similar things, playing tag amongst little bleeps, burpy brass and excitable guitars. Skif. www.myspace.com/shuffleshuffle
French; metallic, well, silvery; a cooled haze of blissed psyche courtesy an antique synth cascade. Like Eno, like a dark tunnel, like grave-trodden shiver from nowhere. On the flip is a more direct, crashing burst of acid-punk spilling in a colour swirl. Skif. www.myspace.com/steepleremove
A gruff, hungover grumble drawls over an understanded, but arch, grunge-echoing pump-rock. Always the threat of a burst, but keeps a reign in on itself. ‘Killed By Kindness’ is more straightforward, by comparison. Stoneleaf are at their best when they keep themselves cloaked by menace. The album ‘mygonewhere’ is released 30 October 2006. Skif. www.myspace.com/stoneleaf
Tahiti 80. They so brittle.Yet, within that, they so strong. Got a Mercury Rev timid grace thing going on, but with more of a college rock/West Coast open-top ride way of expressing it. Fugu is quite similar in that way, but his is more a Polyphonic falsetto Elvis Costello kinda take. Skif. www.myspace.com/fugumusic + www.myspace.com/tahiti80
Known as Telex prior to, the band now known as Talk occupy a leftish prog avenue, a monkish chant drooling across all three tracks. It is down-paced, hypnotic and not a little arch, like an evil conjuror. When the modem static appears, dragging with it drawling vocoder, contemporary Radiohead becomes a close conceptual ally. Skif
A crisp acoustic propelled folk backdrop aid the Lennon-esque vocals of this nostalgic and life tackling collective. Tunng’s second album ‘Comments Of The Inner Chorus’ from which this song is taken, has propelled their reputation to such an extent that they were blessed with the task of remixing Bloc Party’s ‘Pioneers’ and, they did a darn good job at making it sound less derivative. Subtlety permeates the musical aspect of the song and its release will help you cling onto the last bit of summer, as the dark prospect of winter draws near. David Adair. www.tunng.co.uk
Nice and loud this. And that’s important. Reminds me of the emotive power of Puressence thanks to the crunch in the production, despite the tunes aren’t quite so dynamic. This EP showcases some very effective indie-rock that rises out of the mid-90’s, not Britpop though, more at the Strangelove end of the affair. Skif. www.myspace.com/underdoguk
This one got lost in the post it would seem. Sent February 2005. Just received. Sorry to the Upwelling then. From Brooklyn, they self-recorded this 5 track EP, and it flows together like a mini prog-opera. They can do the emotive AOR thing, but its poked and prodded by little pins of electronica and samples that prevent it being too easy a blend, keeping up the alertness. Stabs of combat-short punk, a sustained acoustic bed-rock and a thirst for histrionics and experimentation are vivid parts of a handsome storyboard tapestry. Skif. www.theupwelling.com