Reviews – Singles
June 2006
Single of the Month
Diastole
Escalade EP (Diastole)
Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, UK, is one of those sleepy rural towns where nothing ever happens and where anyone who tries to make anything happen is rather frowned upon. Diastole grew up there and have known each other since childhood, and their music is rung through with the taut urgency of bored youth. They have an extraordinarily pretentious web-site, but never mind that, check out their vital music. If their set is as full of alt.guitar anthems as this EP, they shouldn’t be stuck in Bury St Edmunds long. Singer Ellie Langley is as comfortable roaring as she is delivering gentle Bjork-like vocal swoops. In fact, there are hints of Bjork’s old outfit, The Sugarcubes, throughout, but Diastole are more raucous. Brand new talent ahoy!
www.diastole.net
Serena-Maneesh
Drain Cosmetics (Playlouder)
It appears there’s a whole host of Scandanavian psychedelic rock bands suddenly surfacing and Norway’s Serena-Maneesh are leading the charge (see also Dungen). Whispered smacky vocals ride out of the speakers on a wave of fuzz guitar and drone-rock rhythms, but with just the right amount of harmony for the whole to be riveting rather than a mess. Proof that they’re at the midst of a new psychedelic vanguard lies in the cracked, fried, cello-tastic remix from cLOUDEAD’s Odd Nosdam.
www.serena-maneesh.com
Senor Coconut and his Orchestra
Behind The Mask (New State)
Uwe Schmidt is something of a leftfield electronic prodigy. He has recorded under multiple pseudonyms (Lassigue Bendthaus, Atom, Pop Artificielle, etc) but in recent years, his most successful venture has been the Latino antics of Senor Coconut. His album of Kraftwerk covers, ‘El Baile Aleman’, is a post-modern classic and also loads of fun, and since then there have been salsa assaults on everything from Deep Purple to Michael Jackson, and some very presentable self-penned material. With his new album ‘Yellow Fever’ Senor Coconut pays merengue tribute to the Yellow Magic Orchestra. This works out OK, but it’s all starting to look a little worn at the edges (as well as the unfamiliarity for most of Yellow Magic Orchestra’s tunes). This single is a jolly highlight, replete with remixes, including one from Ricardo Villalobos, but now perhaps it’s time to give the delightful Senor a rest for a year or two.
www.senor-coconut.com
Box Codax
Nakes Smile (Thin Man)
Playing through the latest cyber-platters this stood out as an enjoyably unhinged sliver of deadpan electro-poetry but, checking the press release, it appears to be the work of Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy, which comes as a surprise. He and Box Codax associate Alexander Ragnew muster a jerk-funk oddity that recalls the ‘80s robot dance antics of the Flying Lizards of Devo, as well as the eccentric antics of Rephlex act Cylob. A Metronomy remix shaves off the hard edges and makes it into a warmer cuddlier creature, but it’s unlikely to be bothering the Top 10 anytime soon.
www.boxcodax.com
Christiansilva
Break From The Past (Something In Construction)
Christiansilva, as has been mentioned before in these pages, are the possible result of a genetic fusion of Queen and Radiohead. Such an experiment could have gone badly wrong, like so many of the recent wannabe prog outfits (Mew, Pure Reason Revolution, etc) that the majors have been hurling at us. For some reason their preposterous songwriting, which jumps from glam beats to fret-wanking to operatics, all without warning, is thoroughly endearing. Perhaps its because their lyrics about “maggots in the kitchen” are hitched to appealing pop melodies. With five fresh tracks on offer, this is as much a mini-album as a single, some of it straightforward acoustic loveliness. Well worth snapping up.
www.myspace.com/christiansilva
Radar
Lunacy (EMI)
Their press release manages to get away without mentioning the word ‘ska’ once, but that’s what this is, a totally 21st century take on ska. ‘Lunacy’ is a loping skank laced with the Camden Town melancholy of Madness’s ‘Grey Day’, then topped of with echoing dubtronic effects and a brief passage of those distorted ice cream van chimes. The other song, ‘One Million’, dives even deeper into Madness territory. Why not, though? Radar do their thing wittily and with tuneful panache.
Rubicks
Midas (Sharp Attack)
Suddenly, about two thirds of the way through, from out of the crashing 4AD guitars and Vanessa Redd’s electro-Cocteau Twins vocals on the gigantic chorus, a small choir of children’s voices appears. The unbelievable thing is that this clichéd conceit works and sweeps the song to greater heights. Rubicks are a duo with a drummer but make tight crunchy pop that sounds much bigger. Keep an eye on them…
Boards Of Canada
Trans Canada Highway (Warp)
Such beauty. Boards Of Canada attract a fanatical sort of electronica geek, the type of people who mortgage their house to get hold of obscure limited edition 7” singles. This can be off-putting but shouldn’t detract from the group’s extraordinary music. It’s hazy electronica wafting about over crawling beats but some indefinable essence of wide-eyed otherness sets them apart. This is pure space music that captures not only the gorgeousness of being far, far out but also the isolated loneliness. The EP is really a mini-album too, which starts with ‘Dayvan Cowboy’ from last year’s ‘The Campfire Headphase’ album, then stumbles, dazed, through four new pieces, before crawling into Odd Nosdam’s second appearance on this page, a burnt out remix of ‘Dayvan Cowboy’. Hard to say what makes it all so very essential. But it is.
www.boardsofcanada.com
M3 Project
A Better Man (Darkroom Dubs)
Drum & bass duo Silent Witness (AKA Sebastien Barrymore and Dan Braine) pop up in disguise on Soma sub-label Darkroom Dubs and they’re in a Moroder/Vangelis kind of mood. This is pure dancefloor 4/4 but spray-painted with robo-sparkles of tune; techno-disco that wants to make sure the girls are up for it alongside the boys. It’s the sound of Gary Numan having it out with Daft Punk at the Berlin Love Parade which surely sounds like a bundle of laughs.
www.m3project.co.uk
India Arie
I Am Not My Hair (Motown/Island)
A contender for bizarre song title of the year. For some reason it conjures up images of the first lady of acoustic soul attempting control an unruly afro the size of a beach ball. Such an image is not drastically far from the song’s theme which is about hos African-American women should not feel obliged to kowtow to any hair-endorsed stereotype. Fortunately such philosophising is attached to tight melodic modern soul production, with just enough percussive 21st century R&B punch to ride the point home.
www.indiaarie.com
Various
Boutique Chic: Chez Le Coffeur (Stereofiction)
Straight out of Paris wearing a wry grin but keen to have us all dancing comes the debut release from Thomas Deligny’s Stereofiction label. Guru of dancefloor kitsch Chris Joss leads the charge with ‘Brilliantine A Gogo’ and from there on in a bunch of Deligny’s mates recreate easy-listening vibes to a cheerful breakbeaty template. Yes, it’s all a bit Big Beat, but their party still sounds like the place to quaff cherry punch whilst watching ladies in 1950s bikinis dance round fake palm trees.
www.boutique-chic.com
Players
No Big Deal (Sanctuary)
The Style Council always aimed to take their cue from 1960s soul and then give it a thoroughly 1980s twist. They sometime succeeded and were a great band, often relegated to the shadows of Paul Weller’s later and earlier ventures. While Weller has gradually fossilised into a Clapton-esque figure, his erstwhile cappuccino buddies Mick Talbot (keys) and Steve White (drums) have been mostly out of the public eye. It’s a pleasant surprise, then, to find that this retro-soul-funk single is their handiwork. Not bothering to update the original ‘60s formula one iota the pair, alongside Ocean Colour Scene’s Damon Minchella and guest vocalists, whip up an Otis-tastic retro boogaloo fired with earthy authenticity.
www.theplayerslounge.com
Singles for review should be sent to…
Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 9FG, UK
