SINGLE OF THE ISSUE

The Brownies
Cougar (NROne)

“Mark me like you mark your territory,” sings Sophie Little of Norwich three girl/two boy outfit, The Brownies, over a jagged indie-punk racket that throbs with energy, attitude and shed-loads of sex. Featuring production that’s engagingly frayed at the edges from The Subways producer Jon Gray, it’s a triple-header full of rough hewn power pop fire. As indie slowly falls into disfavour, with the term ‘landfill’ attached to it, so it’s pleasing to see an outfit who don’t give a damn about that and who are also capable of reinvigorating crude guitar action. All three songs have ballistic yet catchy choruses that faintly recall The Ramones while ‘Violence’ with its fevered line “you’ll have to do to have sex with,” couldn’t be any more carnal. Fans of panting hot rock’n’roll filth should check ‘em out.
www.myspace.com/thebrownies

Marissa Nadler
River Of Dirt EP (Kemado)

It took me a while to dig Marissa Nadler. I have a natural suspicion of female artists who travel the trail of Kate Bush/Bat For Lashes oddball, gathering critical plaudits for delicate whimsy. Nadler’s oeuvre has been called ‘dream folk’ and her latest album, ‘Little Hells’, her fourth, takes a smidgeon of country and works it into something fragile and lovely. This number, lifted from it, is an aching ethereal campfire wisp of a song, and comes backed with a desolate reading of Neil Young’s ‘Cortez The Killer’. Rather late in the day, I’m a convert…
www.myspace.com/songsoftheend

The Heavy
Oh No! Not You Again! (Counter)

The Heavy reappear with a gigantic two minute slab of punky blues-rock that, despite a whiff of Led Zep, remains very much its own beast. The quartet hail from Britain’s west country but also have much clout in London hipville, snagging Kasabian producer Jim Abiss on desk duties and Noisette Shingai Shiniwa on vocals. Home to fab noiseniks The Deathset, amongst others, Counter Records deserve a break-out hit so let’s hope The Heavy’s sweaty Kerrang pop is it.
www.myspace.com/theheavy73

Dizzee Rascal
Bonkers (XL)

Unlike, say, Roots Manuva, who has so far achieved modest commercial gains while gathering critical plaudits at every turn, Dizzee Rascal has given UK hip hop broad mainstream success. Sensibly he long ago ditched the clattering grime backing in favour of exploring a wide range of other options, including collaborating with Calvin Harris on last year’s monster hit ‘Dance Wiv Me’. For ‘Bonkers’, from his forthcoming fourth album ‘Tongue’n’Cheek’, Armand Van Helden provides a patent earthquake-sized bassline while Dizzee explains he’s not bothered about being called mad. Lyrically it’s so-so but as a floor-filler, it’s gold dust.
www.myspace.com/dizzeerascal

The Ettes
Danger Is EP (Take Root)

The recent death of Lux Interior marked the end of the great punk-trash band The Cramps. It’s great, then, to hear an outfit ready to pick up the mantle and run with it. The Ettes are a three-piece from New York who emigrated to LA’s West Coast sunshine where their tight but crude, ballsy sound has been making waves. Produced by White Stripes associate Liam Watson, they achieve a gratifyingly distorted enormous bass rumble smeared with ‘60s garage trash. Female vocalist Coco tops it all off but it’s the raw urgency of their rockabilly spirit that’s most persuasive.
www.myspace.com/theettes

Violet Violet
C-c-c-cat (NROne)

Like our Single Of The Issue, this is more raucous guitar action from Norwich. The NROne roster is a mixed bag, sometimes veering onto the forgettable indie treadmill, but they’re also prodigious leading to a release schedule with plenty of juice in the tank, particularly lately. All girl three-piece Violet Violet offer a taste of their forthcoming second album, ‘The City Is Full Of Beasts’, and it’s jammed with juddering angular guitars and shouting, happily attached to a cast iron alt-rock pop song.
www.myspace.com/violetviolet1

Ultrachorus
Words Kept Talking (SoTM)

Being a vinyl fetishist I enjoy the rare occasions it appears in Beatmag’s PO Box. Unfortunately, it usually disappoints, featuring fiercely Luddite indie, vanity projects, or quirkily marketed major label dross (decent dance music sadly stopped reaching reviewers on 12” years ago). Minneapolis duo Chris Heidman and Jeff Lorentzen, however, sent their little black 7” over the Atlantic – hurrah! – and for those after the missing link between country & western and vocodered synth-pop (not a large fan subdivision, admittedly) here it is. Gentle beats and laid back honkytonk guitar accompany a cheerful outing that shouts, “ONES TO WATCH!”
www.myspace.com/ultrachorus

Fuck Dress
Everything’s Ultra Now (NROne)

In an unheard of coup NROne have three songs in Beatmag Singles this issue. Sadly we didn’t even need a bribe. Fuck Dress appear to be a bunch of middle-aged dudes, usually dressed as priests, which is probably why ‘Everything’s Ultra Now’ bemoans the “Go quicker, go faster, work harder, work faster” pace of life today although, at another level, it’s a dig at consumerism via a crafty Goethe reference. Half spoken, with a hint of Mark E Smith, all four tracks are worth lending an ear, including a reappearance from ‘Suburban Nietzsche Freak’ which we reviewed last year [http://www.beatmag.net/issue19/reviews/singles.php].
www.myspace.com/fuckdress

Worthy & Yankee Zulu
Bad Side (Playtime)
+
Skank Sinatra
Bombs (RMD)

A couple of tasty, if hardly groundbreaking, slivers of club action. Worthy & Yankee Zulu, a San Franciscan and a Belfast boy, invent quease-house. Things start off smoothly enough, with a steady club-friendly beat and a sampled voice threatening, “The bad side,” then this whole other thing kicks off. A series of disorientating siren effects build and sway giving the whole track a giddy twist, like standing up too fast or staggering into daylight from a daytime pub marathon. The overall effect is enjoyably unsettling. The bad side, indeed.
Like prime time Underworld but with a dirty modern rave twist, the Dogmatix mix of Skank Sinatra’s‘Bombs’ rides in on a hammering rhythm, spiced with gnarled techno bass squelches. It’s a far cry from the dub’n’breaks original although lyrics from MC Spaced Arab – one of the odder stage names I’ve come across of late – remain a lazy resigned twist on Faithless’ Maxi Jazz’s peace’n’love Buddhist schtick.
http://www.playtime-records.com + www.myspace/skanksinatraspace

Greg McDonald
Reclaim The Night (Sugartown)

Greg McDonald quietly released one of last year’s best albums, ‘Stranger At The Door’, a collection of indie/acoustic numbers imbued with storytelling wit and a tendency towards melancholy. Thus the arrival of his new single caused great excitement round these parts, but it’s a very different kettle of fish. A big triumphant number, the dreamy lyricism remains but a martial rhythm and stadium-sized chorus predominate, before it closes with a last burst of guitar overdrive. Not his best but great to have him back.
www.myspace.com/gregmcdonalduk

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, PO Box 4653 Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

SINGLE OF THE ISSUE

Nightjar
The Moth Trap EP (Toad)

Attention-grabbing bluegrass folk from Edinburgh-based buddies Andrew McKay (banjo/vocals) and Jack Richold (violin/vocals). At Beatmag we’re no folk experts so the fact one of their bandmates happens to be rated folkie Kris Drever means little to us, nonetheless these numbers welcome casual listeners in. Opener ‘The Hanging Tree’ is boisterous and sounds like a re-jigged traditional piece but is actually original material, as is the rest of the EP. Nightjar songs are mostly narrative, rustic, concerned with love and death, often at the end of a rope, except for ‘Salesman Song’ which mocks consumerism by way of a hoedown. In short, there’s a lot of sheer talent displayed brightly here.
www.songbytoadrecords.com

WhoMadeWho
TV Friend (Gomma)

The highest profile act on the ceaselessly firin’ Gomma label returns with a taster for their second album. The original mix sounds like peak form Heaven 17 but Hot Chip remix it into a spacey keyboard-swathed epic that suddenly blooms into a charged up Front 242 ringer. Danish trio WhoMadeWho are relatively unacknowledged pioneers of the whole cool electro-rock thing, ie Soulwax, LCD Soundsystem, etc. Their drummer Tomas ‘Tomboy’ Barfod is a force to be reckoned with in his own right, as he proves on the percussion-heavy Tomski & Fredboy remix. Judging from ‘TV Friend’, WhoMadeWho, after a couple of years off the scene, are back to remind us what they’re capable of.
www.whomadewho.dk

This Is Radio Freedom
Strike Sparks Anywhere EP (Sidewalk 7)

Big British rock with poppy tunes and the right references. Their name is not Levellers-style arch earnestness but, instead, comes from the intro to the KLF’s ‘3AM Eternal’, and the EP’s title song derives from Hunter S Thompson. The KLF! And Hunter S Thompson! Rubbing those names together I’d be butter in your hands if you sounded like Bryan Adams but happily TIRF don’t, although they may have stadium-sized horizons. Veering far from basic indie – and with a remix from Dan Le Sac – they bulk out with big electronic production, occasionally recalling long lost Manc shoulda-beens The Chamelions. Go on, guys, kick U2’s arse and conquer America, and let’s have a huge Brit band that’s also actually quite good for a change.
www.thisisradiofreedom.org and www.myspace.com/thisisradiofreedom

Chopps Derby
You Don’t Know What Broccoli Is? EP (The Gulls Trunk)

Twisted and occasionally risqué to the point of cringe-worthy, Chopps Derby is an edgy but enjoyable proposition. A five track snidely dark Manc swearathon, the best of it hits a peak somewhere between John Cooper Clarke, Viz comic and Pitman but an urban bleakness bleeds through the filthy surreal humour. Check these lyrics from ‘Down The Dogs’ for a flavour: “The fucking pies make you sick, the chips gives you shits, the fucking beer tastes like mud, the scampi smells like fanny blood, you’re watching dogs run round the track, don’t be a fucking twat, it fucking gets you fucking down, being down the greyhounds.” A promising start from the Droylsden “well hard bumbaseed turned bare sick emcee”. Check the video for ‘Power Lap’ on their website – it’s certainly not PC, but it’s bloody funny.
http://www.thegullstrunkrecords.com/

Silicone Soul
The Pulse (Soma)

Perhaps the most underrated music-making unit of the last decade, Silicone Soul’s last two albums contain some of the finest electronic music made this millennium; accessible but futuristic, clubby but soulful, warm but very, very smart. The duo of Craig Morrison and Graeme Reedie have been quiet awhile, concentrating on their Darkroom Dubs label and Mirror Music side project, but their fourth album arrives next year. The first single bodes well, a low-slung roller influences by techno minimalism but still boasting a subtle jazziness in its ‘Darkroom Dub’ and ‘Hypno House’ incarnations. The Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia mix is, perhaps, most musically interesting, though better still is ‘Call Of The Wild’, hopefully an indicator of where the pair are off to next, a nine minute sci fi train journey into druggy hypnosis.
www.myspace.com/4siliconesoul

Moriarty
Jimmy (Deschamps & Makeieff)

A gentle backwoods ode, apparently to both buffalo and the name Jimmy. Casually opaque but also melancholy, a campfire guitar, a touch of harmonica and a sad-voiced female vocalist lead a country shuffle. So far, so cowboy blues but it’s rather lovely too. They have an album out in February ’09 which, if it’s half as wistfully delicious as this, will be essential (called ‘Gee Whiz But This Is A Lonesome Town’, it’s already been a small success in France). The band is made up of a singer from Ohio and four brothers, all based in Paris, which sounds like the beginning of a good story – let’s hope it is…
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=56877030

Video Nasties
Albatross EP (Dead Again)

The song ‘Albatross is a two minute belter, rampaging garage punk that steams full throttle out of the traps, squawling and shrieking, then stops very suddenly to visit Lynyrd Skynyrd for a highly unlikely guitar’n’organ jam, before remembering it’s a punk number and raging back for a final thrash. The rest of the EP from this young London outfit is less unique, feisty derivative indie, but the title track is excellent, go download it now.
www.videonasties.net and www.myspace.com/videonasties

Brigitte Handley & The Dark Shadows
Stand Off EP

Brigitte Handley is a bequiffed rake-thin punk-goth rockabilly from Sydney, Australia, who wears fishnets on her arms and sings in a bassy sneer. With her female drummer and bassist (the Dark Shadows) she’s proves with her second EP that the previous and cracking ‘Alien Movies’ was no one-off. It’s impossible to avoid a reference to The Cramps, although Handley’s outfit are leaner and less grungey, but their concern with B-movie trashiness is similar. A band with an attitude, an image and no American leisurewear in sight – someone bring them to Europe, please…
www.brigittehandley.com

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan
Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart EP (V2/Cooperative Music)

In the absence of Johnny Cash (particularly his final Rick Rubin work), this collection of songs by ex-Belle And Sebastian cellist-songwriter Isobel Campbell, sung by grouchy ex-Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan, hits the spot. Sparse, strummed, steel guitar-laced, with carefully conceived lyrics, these six lovelies are thoroughly marinated in the best lonesome country traditions, albeit occasionally heard through a Velvet Underground filter. Five of the six songs are not even on the duo’s second album ‘Sunday At Devil Dirt’ and, for the seasonally inclined, ‘Asleep On A Sixpence’ even closes with a piano line that quotes ‘While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks’.
http://www.myspace.com/isobelcampbell

Frank Kusserow
Assimilate Your Soul (White Noise)

Juicy opening shot from DJ Dave Clarke’s new label. Those expecting faceless techno suitable for DJs only will be pleasantly surprised. Sure, it’s a banger, but Clarke’s penchant for punk, electro, and general darkness of mood seem to be shared by his new German protégé Frank Kusserow. ‘Assimilate Your Soul’ throws the title phrase out of the speakers threateningly while a menacing electronic body music pulse punches away and sinister synths join the party halfway through. Techno with attitude and identity.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=97972248

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, PO Box 4653 Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

SINGLE OF THE ISSUE

Monosurround
Cocked, Locked And Ready To Rock (Citizen)

Don’t know much about Monosurround, two German dudes called Ramtin A and Erik S who look like an escapee from ‘Clockwork Orange’ and a hunky fisherman. Never mind what they look like, though, as with this monster for super-smart French label Citizen, they’ve created a total floor-slayer. Steely electro-funk with a pop edge is the name of the game, a shouty chorus and gigantic slabs of synth dropped in like earthquakes. Just when you least expect it a hammering techno 4/4 pulse bursts in. Almost too funky, it’s a re-release and there are poppier new versions but the original burns brightest.
www.myspace.com/monosurround

Telepathe
Devil’s Trident (Merok)

The label that discovered The Klaxons finds another out-there outfit, but where the Mercury-winning dayglo trio reinvented indie rock, Brooklyn’s Telepathe head right off the rails into unknown territory. Over a glitchy electro-scape two female voices interact, one deadpan, one ethereal, mustering a sound that defies definition. Their MySpace implies they’re mates of Diplo which comes as no surprise as these two songs dwell in the zone of spartan beats and abstract basslines. Not one for the unadventurous.
www.myspace.com/telepathy

Luke Smith & The Feelings
I Don’t Want To Go To Parties Anymore (www.lukesmithmusic.com)

While Beatmag’s editorial cannot concur with Luke Smith’s attitude to parties – he’s not at all keen on our beloved repetitive beats – this song has a wonderful English miserablism, like Eeyore fronting The Kinks circa 1972. He embraces a jaunty piano-led music hall stomp that Madness would be proud of and his lyrics are eminently poetic: “These people here aren’t really my friends/When daylight dawns and the music ends/This bloke that calls me mate, he won’t even know me… Must I pretend all this is real/This blur of booze and sex appeal.” A lovely young cousin to Pulp’s classic ‘Sorted For Es And Whizz’. Anyone in the region of Kent, UK, should check out his regular Wednesday night at Canterbury’s Orange Street Music Venue.
www.lukesmithmusic.com

Hedford Vachal
Toys (Tirk)

Portland is generally associated with hairy people making alternative forms of rock. Brad Vachal and Eric Hedford have the requisite beards but there’s nary a guitar in earshot. Instead the duo create deadpan low slung synth-heavy funk. There’s something of Krautrock about it, especially the opening ‘Alan Vs Gary’, while ‘Toys’ could be a DFA release. Bronx Dog/Padded Cell man Richard Sen steps in to up the groove on a ‘Toys’ remix. There’s the kernel of something rather good in here somewhere…
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=254292383

The Voluntary Butler Scheme
Trading Things In EP (The Trifle)

The title track initially reveals Stourbridge 22 year old Rob Jones as another purveyor of chirpy acoustic indie, nice but nothing to write home about. But then comes ‘The Eiffell Tower And The BT Tower’ which shows off inventively brassy production and wonderful lovelorn lyrics (“You said you loved the songs of the Pet Shop Boys but hate the way they sound so I played them all out for you on just guitar and kazoo”), then the EP closes with the forlorn country-tinged campfire ballad ‘Hot Air Balloon Heart’, and suddenly a VBS album seems very desirable.
www.myspace.com/thevoluntarybutlerscheme

Sincere feat. Natty
Once Upon A Time (Young Entrepreneurs)

Lately the tidal wave of utterly crap grime has become rather depressing and one can’t help but ponder whether, given its relentlessly vicious lyrical content, reactionary tabloid scaremongering about grime and knife crime might even have some substance. It’s thoroughly heartening, them to welcome this release from a 24 year old London MC Sincere who delivers well thought out hip hop poetry about his environs and, even better, does so over a wonderful trumpet-powered jazz break instead of tinny metallic clattering. More of this, please.
www.myspace.com/sincererap

The Shortwave Set
Now Til ’69 (Wall Of Sound)

One of 2008’s albums that refuses to leave the stereo is The Shortwave Set’s ‘Replica Sun Machine’. Initially appearing to be a slavish pastiche of ‘60s pop, further listening revealed impeccable songwriting and uniquely inventive modern touches. ‘Now Til ‘69’ is Bowie gone rockin’ doo-wop, perfectly so, and arrives with two lovely newies, ‘Petrol To The Flame’ and ‘Under Endeavour’, also remixes from Mirwais and Aeroplane deliver tight electro-disco and a rolling Balearic epic respectively. A snappy package.
www.shortwaveset.com

Fuck Dress
Suburban Nietzsche Freak (NROne)

“God is dead so I listen to Radiohead,” begins this catchy sliver of lo-fi punkiness. The band appear to be no Spring chickens – they have that lived in Hold Steady look – but sound more like Art Brut, only with lyrics somewhere between ATV and The Fall. If that’s too much judgement by comparison (and it is) then suffice to say that Norwich’s Fuck Dress play discordant art-drone that bleeds throwaway sardonic potency.
www.myspace.com/fuckdress

Quest feat. Odissi
Arms Race (Botchit & Scarper)

Breakbeat continually makes awful forays into rock that expand the genre’s popularity amongst non-dance fans, especially in Australia. On the other hand, occasionally a tune comes along that succeeds in bridging the gap with aplomb. Quest’s latest rides a heavy-thumbed bassline that could come from Jah Wobble-era Public Image Ltd, then loads on sneering synths and a doom-laden lyric. It’s dirty and driven, arriving with drum & bass and, yes, ropey metal guitar remixes.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=78657346

The Simple Carnival
Me And My Arrow EP (Sundrift)

The Simple Carnival is the one man chamber pop project of Pittsburgh-based Jeff Boller, a man who clearly knows his instruments. The EP occasionally wanders frighteningly into Billy Joel-ish MOR territory, but a Beach Boys sweetness and oddball charm usually save the day. ‘Really Really Weird’ and ‘Over Coffee And Tea’ are highlights, gentle songs of persuasive innocence, tinged with ‘60s-flavoured sonic invention, then the EP closes aptly with a version of Harry Nilsson’s ‘Me And My Arrow’. This kind of songwriting would, perhaps, be better suited to a musical or show but, as it is, The Simple Carnival are a curio worth keeping an eye on.
www.sundriftrecords.com

Fool
Real Thing EP (Hum + Haw)

In terms of deconstructed sci-fi hip hop, few have picked up the baton thrown down by cLOUDEAD a few years back. Techno boy Alex Smoke and his mate NON, however, give it a highly impressive whirl. Over a rhythm track that twitches along haunted by smoke alarm tones, the lyrics pitch into Coca Cola and cocaine, and the whole thing is wilfully edgy and odd. There are remixes by Various Productions, Hudson Mohawk and 2Tall but not one of the five tracks is faintly straightforward.
www.myspace.com/humhaw

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, PO Box 4653 Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

SINGLE OF THE ISSUE

The Deathset
MFDS (Counter)

Cheap-sounding sampling, a racing electronic kick-drum, a bloke shouting sneeringly, a blur of punk guitar, bargain bin synthesizers, songs that last between 38 seconds and two minutes. This lot come from Baltimore, USA, and have a reputation for destroying their equipment after performing fifteen minute sets – so far, so good. They also sound like 1977’s trashiest punk meeting Sigue Sigue Sputnik in the lowest fi home studio ever – even better. Can’t wait to hear more of them as this EP is a two-fingered salute to slick contemporary production values and muso bores everywhere. Bring it on.
www.myspace.com/thedeathset

My Toys Like Me
All Over My Face (Dumb Angel)

For the second issue running Beatmag must worship at the altar of My Toys Like Me. Their latest single is a ska-flavoured thing with disco stabs and the dreamy tones of Frances Noon firmly in place. The warm lilting J-Star mix is a move to the left and onwards from the more machine-led outing of the their previous material. The original and Host mixes meanwhile remind that, although Portishead have reappeared to reclaim their corown, there may be a worthy pretender in the wings.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=34757253

Kid Harpoon
The Second EP (Young Turks)

Took a while for us to make up our minds about Kid Harpoon. At his least appealing the raucous indie-folk he musters can be reminiscent of The Levellers’ drab oeuvre. Cherrypick, however, and one quickly finds irresistible tunes and lyrics that demand attention. The unambiguously titled ‘Second EP’ by Tom Hull (from Chatham, Kent, UK) and his band is more like a mini-album, six songs that range from the face-death-with-panache classic ‘Suicide Grandad?’ to the plaintive acoustic break-up song ‘Lay Of The Land’. Ignore the blandly rocking opener ‘Riverside’ and cut to the juicy stuff.
www.kidharpoon.net

The Opiates
Anatomy Of A Plastic Girl EP (Opiates)

A glacial quartet of mournful electro-ballads bathed in a sumptuous spaciousness. The low-slung Marlene Dietrich-pitched vocals are the icing on the cake but the stately bleepy electronics are equally important. It seems a shame to point out that the singer is none other than Billy Ray Martin, from ‘90s should-have-beens Electribe 101 and multiple other underground electronic projects, because this new venture, The Opiates, sounds so fresh, unforced and 2008-friendly. Nonetheless, it is her with pal Robert Solheim on the synthesizers. Check out the doomed lyricism of ‘Oprah’s Book Of The Month (Part 2)’ for impressively ambient bleakness.
www.myspace.com/opiatesmusic

Theoretical Girl
The Hypocrite/Never Good Enough (Salvia)

Theoretical Girl is dark-bobbed London girl Amy Turnnidge (and her feisty all girl band) but her rather 1960s appearance gives no hint at her sharply honed modern songwriting capabilities. This two-header contains ‘The Hypocrite’, a thumping though cleverly worded electro-tinted rocker based on a memorably quirky riff and a line every kid knows – “Do as I say, not as I do.” The second song, the one (young folk, pay attention) that we would once have called the b-side, is a lovely sliver of broken-heartedness where Amy intones that she’s never good enough for her loved one. An album of this calibre will be a wake-up call…
www.myspace.com/iamtheoreticalgirl

Munk
Remixed (Gomma)

More snappy dancefloor originality from Gomma Records. DJ-producers Munk receive the tear-apart-and-rebuild treatment from Gomma’s typically offbeat but club-friendly choice of remixers. ‘Disco Clown’ is turned into tough, convincing disco-rock by Digitalism, Italian electro king Marco Passarani mutates ‘Ce Kul’ into a cranky exercise in off-kilter drums that hit like metallic avalanches, and experimentalist Zongamin makes ‘Mein Schatzi’ a freight train of techno-hip hop chugging. For fans of innovative electronic production as much as DJs.
www.gomma.de

The Kills
Cheap And Cheerful (Domino)

Hipper than hip and battling it out with Crystal Castles as the hottest punk attitude girl-boy duo out there, Londoner Jamie Hince and Florida singer Alison Mosshart take pithy low-fi songs and add spiky electronic percussion. It’s simple and it works. ‘Cheap And Cheerful’ is an apparent ode to a truth about hedonism that contemporary rehab culture finds almost blasphemous- “I want you to be crazy ‘cos you’re boring, baby, when you’re straight,” runs the chorus. It’s catchy, immediate and, although not the pair’s best work, still ahead of the competition.
www.thekills.tv

Flairs
Better Than Prince (roXour)

This is fun. For starters he’s a mate of the Parisian dance elite (Etienne de Crecy, Benjamin Diamond, Alex Gopher, etc) who happens to come from Staines. That makes him a one-off in itself but his song is also the best sort of novelty record, a frothy confection where he tells us all the things he can do better than the mighty purple one. It’s a one trick pony but executed with supreme sass and confidence over a squelchy funk riff that the song’s subject would surely dig. The remixes by Alavi, 25 Hours A Day and Benjamin Theves are OK but it’s the jolly original with its curiously increasing drum pattern that’s the main attraction.
www.myspace.com/roXourmusic

My Federation
Don’t Wanna Die (Eye Industries)

Here’s the sound of the ‘08. Straightfoward indie rock with a few weird synth noises whacked in there for good measure. Brighton’s My Federation play gospel-tinged indie blues rock, the sort one might hear a thousand Stones/Primal Scream acolytes playing in bars round Britain and the US every Saturday night. What makes them different is that a huge synthesizer comes clanging in incongruously over the top. Worth a mention.
www.myfederation.co.uk

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, PO Box 4653 Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

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

SINGLE OF THE MONTH

Fireworks Night
When We Fell Through The Ice (Kartel/Organ Grinder)

Beatmag reviewed this very positively last year but surely it deserves its own Single Of The Month. The Devonshire band have now been signed to Kartel and even those who hate folk music’s recent return would be wise to listen. ‘When We Fell Through The Ice’ is a classic, a Leonard Cohen-style duet run smack into waltzing Wicker Man/Meat Puppets sinisterness. What’s it about? The video, which is on the CD, is a lovely animated shadowplay that hints at witchcraft and persecution. Whatever the narrative is hinting at, it’s a poetic and powerful song. Domino band Psapp remix it into a dark tango and there are also two decent songs you won’t find on the Fireworks Night album ‘As Fools We Are’. Keep an eye on this lot. Maybe they can stop nu-folk becoming a gigantic sea of singer-songwriter tossers brandishing acoustic guitars and bedroom mopes.
www.myspace.com/fireworksnight

Freefall Collective
100% People (Resin)

The breaks scene is not the hippest place at the moment, unless you happen to reside in Australia where it appears to be ceaselessly in vogue. Just because something’s out of fashion doesn’t mean the music has suddenly, universally become rubbish though. Just ask all those minimalist DJs who couldn’t get a sniff of action three years ago with the same sound that’s now bought them two houses and a Jag. ‘100% People’ rocks. Riding a liquid sex-throb of a bass, MC Manic spiels some easy-going ragga, the drums chop and drop whilst submarine plinks echo about. The result? Total dancefloor dynamite. Fuck fashion.
http://freefallcollective.com/

Shy Child
Noise Won’t Stop (Wall Of Sound)

There are a lot of groups about, in the UK at least, who are combining techno-electro with indie-rock. This is a great thing, an invigorating leap forward from the tired retro guitar earnestness of the post-Libertines scene. Unfortunately, as with any boom, most of it is throwaway dross. Pete Cafarella and Nate Smith from New York, use the same formula but deliver a jolt of ragged shout-along power. Call it nu rave, call it what you want, but it’s a raw jump-around energizer. The other track, ‘Cause And Effect’, hints that Shy Child could turn into The Bravery but, as they recently toured with The Klaxons, let’s hope they stay on the path of righteousness.
www.shychild.com

The Chemical Brothers
Do It Again (Freestyle Dust/Virgin)

The great survivors of the ‘90s dance boom shoot down expectations and fire out a tasty surprise. ‘Do It Again’ is a stripped back slice of electro-funk with vocals by Ali Love and it slinks rather than stomps. It’s a tune that’s sassily feminine rather than appeasing the boys-own techno-rocker crew who comprise the Chemicals’ primary audience. There’s a touch of Prince about it even, but with added steroid oomph. At the time of writing, Beatmag only has an original mix but the single will eventually come with an Oliver Huntemann remix and a couple of new tracks.
www.thechemicalbrothers.com

Mendetz
Future Sex EP (Naked Man)

We’re way behind with this. It came out a while back but we don’t hear anyone trumpeting its merits from the rooftops so it’s surely worth a mention. Mendetz are a four-piece from Barcelona who seem to have based their entire oeuvre on Blur’s ‘Boys And Girls’ put in the blender with the Scissor Sisters and Franz Ferdinand. ‘Futuresex’ is as catchy as Chlamydia but also sounds, from the very first listen, as if you’ve heard it many times before. Not entirely sure this is a good thing but they’re well worth checking.
www.mendetz.com

Plastic Little
Crambodia (Make Mine)

Twitched out New York hip hop with a rocking rhythm, a snappy sample and tight-spat lyrics. Not much info but the crew appears to consist of Packofrats, SQUID, Nobody’s Child, Jon Thousand and DJ Si Young, so who’s the lady rapper giving it rip? There’s a Pink Skull remix that tweaks it into that twilight zone where the likes of Diplo reside but not so far it all becomes an avant-electronic mess. Whoever they are, Plastic Little get the Beatmag vote. More please.
www.plasticlittleraps.com

Jacob Fletcher
Don’t Go Down/Burn (Fitzrovian Phonographic)

Fitzrovian Phonographic Records pride themselves on being heirs to London’s pre-war dandies, tragically decadent but urbanely hip. The music of Jacob Fletcher bears some slight resemblance to this ethos. ‘Don’t Go Down’ gloomily builds from a moody strum-along to a brass-laden march that sounds as if it may be about resisting drugs but probably isn’t. He has an album due featuring members of The Earlies and Ladytron which, given the dynamic of these two songs, bodes well.
www.myspace.com/fitzrovianphonographic

Bjork
Earth Intruders (One Little Indian)

Mental tribal synth-pop that rides in on mad jungle drums of the kind one imagines accompany hallucinogenic rituals deep in the South American rain forest. Bjork does her deranged vocal thing whilst bleeps and choral interludes fight it out to be heard in the ensuing melee. A dense noisy song that, assisted by Timbaland production, shows the Icelandic empress leaving her ‘Medulla’ vocal experiments behind in favour of pop that’s belligently off kilter yet filled with contagious dancefloor verve.
http://bjork.com/

Def Tex
Thanks But No Thanks EP (Son)

Billed as an album sampler, this vinyl four-tracker sees Son Records maintain their record for tasty UK hip hop. Lead track, ‘Run’, a tawdry saga of violence amongst council estate deprivation, sounds as if it’s backed by a proper band and consequently rocks menacingly, ‘Time Lord’ (featuring DJ Tags and the Fully Grown Men) is a lively instrumental cut’n’scratch piece with electro smarts, the title track is straightforward UK hip hip over squidgy minimal backing, and finally the verbal sparring and noise of ‘Bomber’ is nastily raucous. A solid package.
www.deftex.com

Operator Please
Just A Song About Ping Pong (Brille)

Boasting the same sort of gonzo garage spirit as The 5678’s ‘Woo Hoo’, ‘Just A Song About Ping Pong’ is goofy good fun riding a drum beat nicked straight off The Sweet’s ‘Ballroom Blitz’. The rest of the EP cannot match its very basic charms but, especially on the punk-with-a-string-section ‘Got What You Want’, these three girls and two androgynous boys from Australia showcase a chirpy power-pop potency which should see them staying around for a moment or two.
www.operatorpleaseband.com

Eskimo Disco
What Is Woman? (Stiff)

This is exactly the sort of opportunist cheesy electro-pop-rock referred to in the Shy Child review above. It has a Stephen Hawking vocal, a gauche silly lyric about aliens asking the question of the title and a keyboard riff worthy of Ryan Paris. It’s almost a novelty record (something Stiff were good at in their original incarnation) and it’s definitely a Human league pastiche. And yet, and yet, and yet… Avoid the Barry Clor disco mix but the original and Fred Falke’s trance-ravey take are trifling amusements to keep the wolf from the door when the radio’s inundated with dreadful indie shite and whingeing singer-songerwriter sorts.
www.myspace.com/eskimodisco

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, PO Box 4653 Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

SINGLE OF THE MONTH

Braintax
Syriana Style/Anti-Grey (Low Life)

That rarest of contemporary beasts, an outspoken and explicitly political record that dissects the ‘war on terror’ and invasion of Iraq. At its core is the precise expert lyrical rapping of Braintax, AKA Low Life label owner Joseph Christie, a Yorkshireman and perennial face on the UK hip hop scene. Such pin-sharp skewering of society’s wrongs is rarer in popular music these days than a hint of intelligence in Heat magazine. ‘Anti-Grey’, loosely based around Visage’s ‘Fade To Grey’, is a prolonged sneer at gentrification and racism featuring new face Dubbledge. Check Braintax’s ‘Panorama’ album for more.

The Television Personalities
My Dark Places Remixes (Domino)

Dan Treacy is a guitar pop cult, a man who’s been in the shadows writing perfect three chord, two chord, one chord gems for thirty years. He’s a wilful sod too, who does just what he likes, often the most obtuse thing possible, hence the chaotic nature of his live shows (let alone his life!). He’s usually AWOL and currently has an album out on Overground Records, whilst still owing Domino a new one to follow ‘My Dark Places’, his patchy album of last year. This EP, then, is Domino’s stop-gap, and it’s a (mostly rather enjoyable) mess too on the Battles, Lingling and Black Dice remixes, but the E*Vax remix, ‘You Kept Me Waiting Too Long Long Long Long Long Long Long Long Long’ is delicious, with Treacy’s maudlin lyrics accompanied by lovingly crafted mournful electronics.

Jamie Woon
Wayfaring Stranger/Gravity (Live)

From the Jamie Lidell school of soul and on a Lewisham grime label comes New Malden boy Jamie Woon who covers a traditional spiritual, letting rip with his gospel voice, while ‘Gravity’ is a gentle acoustic number. Where it really gets interesting, though, is on the Burial mix, all grandiose gothic gloom, a Gregorian dub that expansively showcases the disparate elements that make England’s capital so everlastingly musically exciting.

Late Of The Pier
Space And The Woods (Way Out West)

Late Of The Pier come from Castle Donnington but, judging from their sound, it seems doubtful they spent their formative years attending the famous heavy metal festival there. Instead Nottingham’s top notch electro-rock club Liars sparked the bands inspiration. The result is a four piece band pitched midway between early Gary Numan and The Bravery. Despite being recorded at home, it’s immediate stuff, with a juicy thread of accessible pop running through it.

M. Ward
To Go Home EP (4AD)

Ward’s fifth album, ‘Post War’, reminded his small cache of fans that one of America’s great country rock songwriters is still on heartfelt form. His songs are wistful and beautiful, drenched in longing and nostalgia, and this 7” doublepack EP is a treat. As well as the lovely cover of Daniel Johnson’s ‘To Go Home’ that was on his album there are three exclusives – a delightful Dixieland-goes-Honkytonk trifle called ‘Cosmopolitan Pap’, the lazy low key bar-room blues of ‘Human Punching Bag’ and a strutting cover of Austin folk-rocker Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s ‘Headed For A Fall’.

Repeat Repeat
Homestop Welcome (Soma)

Techno old hand Dave Congreve’s outfit with partner Mark Rutherford are reliable for dancefloor nodders but this time they’ve hauled in Andrew Weatherall on the remix. He gives ‘Homestop Welcome’ an electro-dub treatment that’s slow-burning but persistent. It bubbles along on a looping bassline for seven minutes while a thousand cybernetic gnats bleep and niggle, spacey but far from ambient. Basically, the Lone Swordsman is still on top form.

Bonde Do Role
Solta O Frango (Domino)

In the wake of CSS, some more raucous talent from Brazil, this time from Curitiba in the south. Discovered by DJ Diplo, the trio take a simple electro template and add carnival percussion then have a shouty party over the top. It’s all in Portugese so we’re not sure what they’re on about but it sounds like a Planet Mu experimental tune gone lo-fi new rave, and that has to be a good thing. Loud and careless, Bonde Do Role look promising.

Calvin Harris
Acceptable In The ‘80s (Fly Eye/Columbia)

Some throwaway electro-pop fun by a young guy from Dumfries in Scotland. Beatmag only has the original mix but there’s a Glimmers one out there somewhere which has to be worth a listen. ‘Acceptable In The ‘80s’ is an amusement rather than essential but the chirpy Nik Kerhsaw synths, inclusive irony and retro tone bode well for future Harris output.

LostAlone
Elysium (Scorpia)

There’s nowhere to go and grab hip kudos if you’re a straightforward heavy rock band. You can make it via hard work, the slaggy media cannot stop that, but the only positive coverage you’re likely to receive is from Kerrang and their ilk. Just ask Lostprophets. Actually, Lostprophets is a good reference for LostAlone, right down to the similarity of name. The trio, two thirds of whom look like Bobby Gillespie circa 1988 (which may help their profile), deliver harmonic riff-rock that has ‘success’ written large upon it.

The Knife
Marble House (Brille)

The standout song from last year’s ‘Silent Shout’ album turns up with a host of remixes. The original is such an icily gorgeous complex duet, carefully orchestrated for maximum emotive impact, that the remixes have difficulty locating a fresh access to pull it apart and reorganize it. Rex The Dog misses the boat completely by trying to create a floor-filler, Bookashade and Emperor Machine mostly ignore the original track, the former to effective minimal techno effect, David Sitek adds to the tunes already significant bombast, which leaves it Planning To Rock to simply, and perhaps most appropriately, reduce the song to a ghostly lament.

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, PO Box 4653 Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

1.Arctic Monkeys
When The Sun Goes Down (Domino)

Their opening single, ‘I’ll Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, was sharp as a tack but the bitter lyricism of ‘When The Sun Goes Down’, with its darker observations about prostitutes and punters, took matters a step further. There’s a huge market in the UK for music that details urban/suburban living, from The Streets to Hard-Fi, but Arctic Monkeys push lyricism a step further, adding a dose of pithy vitriol worthy of Philip Larkin.

2. The Aliens
Alienoid Starmonica EP (Pet Rock/EMI)

When John Maclean and Robin Jones of the now-defunct Beta Band hooked up with their old buddy Gordon Anderson it was likely the music would be a little unhinged. Few, however, could have predicted this psychedelic-electronic whirlpool wherein country and western warps into outer space, where Gram Parsons has a hoedown with The Orb, and where the pop-mantra chorus of ‘Robot Man’ loops joyously round and round and round.

3. The Gossip
Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version) (Kill Rock Stars)

A definitive dancefloor hit of the last quarter of the year, pointing the way to what 2007 may hold, if we’re lucky. Beth Ditto came top of the NME ‘Cool List’ though it’s difficult to deduce what that means since Carl Barat was up there a year or two back. Ditto, however, is the real deal, an Alabama punk rocker whose vocal chords pitch up alongside Soulwax’s Moroder-in-motorik-Hell riffing perfectly.

4. The Klaxons
Atlantis To Interzone (Merok)

Raging out the traps at a hundred miles a millisecond comes the years most-hyped band. They want us to know they like William Burroughs. They want to tear through the whole song as frantically fast as possible. They want to tie a few electronic bells’n’whistle onto it song for the sheer noisiness of it. Then they want us to yelp along to the patently loopy chorus. Seems churlish to say, ‘No’.

5. Scissor Sisters
I Don’t Feel Like Dancing (Polydor)

Leave it a year or two, obviously, because inescapable songs are not very loveable. Resistance, however, is useless. To disagree is akin to pretending that ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ is rubbish simply because you’re so sick of watching hen parties fall over to it. A perfectly calibrated hunk of Elton-esque disco that’s leavened with the electro-pop bollocks to drag even the most unwilling onto the dancefloor.

6. Reslesslist
Butlin Breaks (Life Is Easy)

A couple of guys from Electric Soft Parade knocked this up with a mate and then disappeared from view. It’s the greatest piece John Barry never wrote, all twangy guitar, tinkling percussion and joyful brass. It may simply be a case of precision sampling but, whatever, it’s jammed with enough gusto to have even Agent Harry Palmer cutting a dash in the Empire Ballroom.

7. Hot Chip
Over & Over (EMI)

For the line, “Over and over and over and over/Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal/You know the joy of repetition is in you,” which is as good an encapsulation of Es and raving as there’s ever been, it deserves attention. A cracking song, although the avalanche of praise for their passable electronic pop album is rather mystifying.

8. Amy Winehouse
Rehab (Island)

She didn’t want to go to rehab but would they listen? No, no no – so she had to write a song about it. Not only is it a great uptempo soul shouter but it also sums up the modern celebrity cult of media absolution via The Priory (see last issue’s Media Slag).

9. Gnarls Barkley
Crazy (Warner Bros)

Some in Beatmag’s offices were won over immediately by this modern soul gem while it took others half the year to ‘get’ it. All parties now agree that Dangermouse and Cee-Lo have delivered one of those classics that will still be played long after we’re all dust.

10. Metronomy
You Could Easily Have Me (Holiphonic)

Joseph Mount is now established at the vanguard of noisy rock’n’roll-tronica, in demand for remixes for everyone from Zero Seven to Roots Manoeuvre. This is the tune that established him. It has just the right ratio of grungey distortion to crunchy beats. An original.

11. Kasabian
Shoot The Runner (SonyBMG)

12. Padded Cell
Are You Anywhere (DC)

13. Lil’ Chris
Checkin’ It Out (SonyBMG)

14. Camera Obscura
Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken (Elefant)

16. Diastole
Escalade EP (diastole.net)

17. The Pipettes
Your Kisses Are Waster On Me (Memphis Industries)

18. Fireworks Night
When We Fell Through The Ice (Organ Grinder)

19. Kelis
Bossy (Virgin/EMI)

20. Gelatine Rocks EP
Sensational Baby EP (Treacle Nemesis)

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

SINGLE OF THE MONTH

Backini feat. Dr Oop Capone
Radio (Lumenessence)

The best song on this year’s ‘Re:Creation’ album from Brighton’s Rob Quickenden receives the remix treatment. The original is sufficiently impressive, a lacerating broadside delivered by Dr Oop Capone at the shallowness of much modern hip hop, it contains lines such as, “Even the women with their breasts augmented, is rented from a strip club, it ain’t authentic.” The fact that Capone’s rap is so articulate, the beats so funky and Viola Wills’ sweetly sung chorus so catchy seals the deal. Product 01 remix things into vicious fax-machine electro-pop, the Qemists rip into a drum & bass rocker and new Lumenessence signing Jay Bharadia wanders into Boards Of Canada-go-post-rock territory. A very tasty package, as smirking women used to say in British porn films.

Para One
Dudun-Dun (Naïve)

This is where nu-rave should head next – but only slowly or it will frighten off all the glow-stick-wielding indie kids. Daft Punk mates Para One, particularly when remixed by Death From Above 1979 alter-ego MSTRKRFT, are techno electro with a twist, gnarly dancefloor grittiness with just enough bouncy bass funk to keep the laydeez on the floor. ‘Dundun-Dun’, while probably not definitive, is very much the sound of hot clubland circa early 2007 so grab a slice while it’s hot.

Gotan Project
Mi Confession (XL)

The Gotan Project album ‘Lunatico’ received an underwhelming response earlier in the year, a shame because, although it was merely more of the same, it was as beautifully constructed as its predecessor. Still, it’s understandable that fans queried whether they needed a simulacrum of an album they already possessed. The same cannot be said of Edu K’s ‘Drop The Bass Remix’ which transforms the tango-rap of the original (featuring Buenos Aires hip hop crew Koxmoz) into squidgy stop-start Aphexian electro.

Wunmi
Talk Talk Talk (Danny Krivit Re-Edit)/S.O.S. (Documented)

There is more than a faint whiff of Young Disciples’ dead-souled London rare groove trendiness about this, as Wunmi is a very beautiful fashion designer and model who works with Masters At Work, but the rolling Afro-groovy soul-funk of ‘Talk Talk Talk’ is simply too classy to argue with in the end. Not sure about the Police cover, though…

The Weir
The Legend Of Kid Icarus EP (www.theweir.co.uk)

More a mini-album than EP, ‘The Legend Of Kid Icarus’ is the work of Andrew Weir from Southsea, UK, and contains six tracks of beat-tronica that occasionally veers onto the dancefloor (as on the ‘Funky Brother’ beats of ‘Above The Clouds’). Mostly it sticks to orchestral atmospherics, live vocals, organic percussion and even a driving Joy Division vibe on ‘Slipstreams’. It’s imaginative and lively yet has all the hallmarks of a bedroom studio obsessive. Someone should introduce Weir to a class songwriter and watch the sparks fly.

Adam Gnade
Shout The Rafters Down EP (Drowned In Sound)

There is lo-fi and there is really lo-fi. Things don’t come much more lo-fi than the acoustic strum-through of this EP’s title track, a single mic picking up everything with vocals lost somewhere in the background murk. So far, so intriguing, but the second track, ‘And On Bad Days We Were Sawn Asunder’, is moodily drawled poetry set to a lazy narcotic jangle, then ‘We Love Nowhere And Know No One’ reaches for squawling electric guitar. In the end Gnade sits promisingly between Devendra Banhart, Jack Kerouac and a smacked out Butthole Surfers, which is surely a fascinating proposition.

Twisted Charm
Boring Lifestyles/Happy Alone (Because)

Four-piece from Northampton with a lead singer going by the irresistible name of Nathan Doom. Based in London, they were signed to the Because label from France who also deal with The Klaxons and DJ Mehdi which bodes well. ‘Boring Lifestyles’ introduces a saxophone into a jagged new wave racket and shouts the title’s rancour at the world in no uncertain terms. ‘Happy Alone’ seems equally pissed off but ends with an unexpectedly melodic lament. Promising.

Xavier Lacoeur & Gower Ramsey
Dark Disco Place/Henry Goes To The Circus (Love Minus Zero)

And so to the dancefloor. Xavier Lacouer is Tom Neville and ‘Dark Disco Place’ is seven and a half minutes of sheerest foot-moving throb. There’s the odd bit of whispering but mainly it’s simply a heads-down techno-house roller that has a tough sexy central dynamic and the occasional sliver of ‘Gravitational Arc Of Ten ‘ synthesizer. The flip is similarly proportioned glitch-house which doesn’t quite muster the zap of the A-side.

Art Brut
Nag Nag Nag Nag (Mute)

However much one thinks one knows about pop music, it never ceases to deliver surprises and the unexpected. The dramatic success of Art Brut’s dry suburban British wit in the USA is a prime example. Quite how a band who sound as if they should be on Stiff Records circa 1979 have made the cover of the Rolling Stone in 2006 is a mystery. Which isn’t to say they’re not good – they’re cracking – miles away from the usual indie whining, and their latest single, the first off the new album, is an Ian Dury-meet-Alternative TV paean to stomping out of the house with your Walkman on when the parents start moaning.

Ooze feat. Tish K
Random Wondrous Things (Chillosophy Music)

Chillosophy Music? This quirky electronic gem almost deserves to be ignored on account of the terrible label name. What bloody hippy thought of that? It’s the kind of thinking that gives ambient electronica such a bad name. In any case, rant aside, this is a stately-paced elegant hunk of bleep-soul from someone called Sebastian Mullaert, a melancholy song echoing from the floor of a deserted robot factory. Andy Dragazis, AKA Blues States, has lately served mainly as Memphis Industries’ in house producer, but is here on hand to provide a luscious torch song remix.

Shitdisco
Reactor Party (Fierce Panda)

A messy tribute to gabba raves at deserted nuclear plants in Russia from an English group who derived their name from a degenerate club night they ran in Glasgow. Part of the nu-rave wave, a title we’ll keep using until someone thinks of a better one, Shitdisco have some of Happy Mondays’ scattershot disarray (particularly on the Luke Smith and Night Moves remixes) but a yelping punk vocal and underlying electro threat define the sound as utterly 2006. This could be the start of something good…

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK

SIX OF THE BEST

SINGLE OF THE MONTH

Kasabian
Empire (Columbia)

Kasabian’s self-titled debut album mixed and matched Oasis’ arrogance with Happy Mondays’s druggy grooves, all topped off with tight contemporary electro-rock production. Initially it sounded a bit of a pastiche but the songs are insidiously defiant and catchy and it remains, perhaps, an essential album of the post-millennial decade. The Leicester rock monsters return in ebullient form with a mighty racket wherein the drug-funk has been replaced with a bombastic glam-rock throb. Kasabian continue to be contenders, a populist rock’n’roll band in an age of post-rock reassessment, folky bores and Coldplay wimpery. Fire up the sound system, get out the drugs and ignore the endless critiques from old bastards who reckon they’ve seen it all before. ‘Empire’ is a 24 carat stomper and that’s all that matters.

Man Like Me
Wine & Dine (Non Stop)

From worrying that he’s spent half an hour laying into Chelsea Football Club in his opening pitch, through to self-recriminations over a pint the following lunchtime, Man Like Me’s view of a night of chatting up followed by the next day’s paranoia of is truthful, funny and endearing. He’s found an intriguingly unique MCing voice – very male but also comically self-critical. Happily the accompanying music isn’t the usual sub-Dizzee grimey racket but a muscular electronic rumpus that holds the attention and holds its own (as showcased on the various remixes).

Pop Levi
Blue Honey EP (Counter)

Ninja Tune’s new ‘proper band’ sub-label (or at least we think that’s the idea) kick off with the Super Numeri avant-rocker’s solo project and it’s a cracker. Like Kasabian he’s decided to grab a chunk of early ‘70s glam and smear it all very his very 2006 production. Funnily enough, he even looks like a member of Kasabian on the cover art but before we get carried away with the analogy, he owes the Leicester rock band nothing. Pop Levi’s T Rex-ish racket is very much its own thing, bursting with zippy riffs and vocal harmonies, and with a vibrant good time attitude to pilfering rock history.

Ulterior
Weapons (Advanced)

Cheap journalism but… Underworld on speed. At long last some of techno’s boys have realised that there’s fun to be had embracing punk raucousness. With the guitar hordes invading the electronic arc, it’s about time some of the original beat-slingers tried their hand at rocking out. Paul and Benn McGregor and guitarist Paul Simmons owe the usual huge debt to Suicide but who cares – their seething bullet train of beats’n’noise surges out of the speakers with visceral intent, and the singer happily has the same addiction to speaker echo-units that the Butthole Surfer’s Gibby Haines exhibited for years.

Smatka
Mr V (www.smatka.com)

Coming on like a mutant fusion of Grace Jones and Gina X Performance, ‘Mr V’ is a narrative about the eccentric character of the title, delivered over a squelching computer meltdown. Smatka hails from the Polish-German border and her vision of pop is particularly skewed, like Toni Basil one moment and an elecroclash Slits the next. Pronouncing all her ‘w’s as ‘v’s, she marches through these three offbeat tales with a strident Teutonic singlemindedness. She’s certainly a one-off and her untempered derangement is a tonic.

Culprit 1
Sway EP (Exceptional)

A nice opening shot from a promising electronic talent. He must have learned a thing or two during his years at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, mostly that tuneage doesn’t have to be JUST bangin’ or JUST chilled as long as there’s something lush going on, a lesson the often wonderful Orbital made their raison d’etre. Nothing on this five tracker is outstanding but all of it tempts the taste buds to hope for more, whether in the shuffling majestic grooves of the title track or the washes of My Bloody Valentine-esque fuzz on ‘Amoh’.

Singles for review should be sent to…

Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 9FG, UK