Reviews – Singles
September 2007
SINGLE OF THE MONTH
Rodion
Fisico/Love (Gomma)
Cosmic disco a-go-go. Most of the Norwegian dudes creating the new spaced out disco business draw from ‘80s Italo-disco. Who better to get to the root of things, then, than a Roman, which is about all we know of Rodion. It’s also clear that ‘Fisico’ is one of the years essential dance tracks, a sassy combination of electro and funk with enough synth silliness for the boys and enough ass-wigglin’ sex-groove for the girls. The pace is surprisingly slow but, for some reason, it just doesn’t matter. Get dancin’, no excuses.
www.gomma.de
Left With Pictures
Bows & Arrows (Asyet)
We’ve lost all the paperwork on this in an office move so once again don’t have any information. Suffice to say, it’s quite literally chamber pop, as in there are no guitars anywhere but plenty of woodwind, violin, folky percussion and madrigal harmonies. The key, though, are the vocals that have a po-faced English melancholy which brings to mind fey Oxford/Cambridge loft poets but also vaguely recalls The Soft Machine. So very far from rock music as to be intriguing.
www.leftwithpictures.com
My Toys Like Me
Barnaby EP (Mytoyslikeme)
A London duo making edgy electro-pop. One of them – Lazlo Legezer – creates primitive sounds on a synthesizer, robot rave noises or glitch-funk, whilst his female associate – Frances Noon – warbles in a childlike high-pitched voice that recalls the extraordinary post-rave talent Nicolette. The pair have 21469 friends on MySpace which strikes us as quite a few, but with oddball pop such as this they deserve a few more.
www.myspace.com/mytoyslikeme
Metal On Metal
No Front Teeth (Skint)
Skint, after some years when they appeared to have lost their way slightly, are back. Midfield General, Goose, Alloy Mental, and now this, all touting fresh rave-rock energy. Metal On Metal are three DJs from Vilnius in Lithuania and are already a hot remixing property working on tracks by the likes of New Young Pony Club and Tim Deluxe. Their own single is a chunky acid-fried monster that would be techno if it wasn’t so full of fun and shouting. Relentlessly it hammers home and demands dancefloor attention and, just when you think it can get no fierier they throw in a Nightmoves mix. Rave on.
www.skint.net
IDC
Akai Elvis (Corsair)
More ravey gear, yet again from a Brighton base. This time out it’s hot upcoming DJ IDC whose latest single recalls 1991 gurn-mayhem over a beat the size of Texas. It doesn’t do subtle but what it does do is clout the listener around the head with great big noises that will make them want to throw strange cubic shapes with their hands. Nasty, loud, rude and a tad throwaway, ripe for a messy night out in the very near future.
www.corsair-records.com
Singles for review should be sent to…
Thomas H Green, PO Box 4653 Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK
