Fresh from our brains this week: our thoughts on the most underated producer in Britain, dope smoking fantasies and why George Michael is urinating on your New Order records for charity.
LV and Message To Bears feat Zaki Ibrahim – Explode
2nd Drop
LV put out one of my favourite tunes of last year in the form of their kwaito inspired banger on Hyperdub - 'Boomslang'. This one on 2nd Drop, a collaboration with Oxford's Message to Bears and Canadian/Burmese singer Zaki Ibrahim, is a much more chilled release.
A beautifully stripped down heartbeat of a track with subtle beeps, piano tinkles, and swells doing just enough to provide a driving backdrop to Zaki's honeyed vocals. LV are the most criminally unsung producers in UK music. 4/5
TO
Colleen Green – Green One EP
Hardly Art
Colleen Green makes snotty but totally cool fuzz pop about crank calling boys, dancing at house parties and smoking massive blunts. I mean, imagine if she was your girlfriend, I bet she’d tell me about her rad day drinking mocca lattes and hanging at the comic shop instead of whinging at me about how I’m always late and forget to call her. Dammit.
Anyway this EP is really good. 4/5
DH
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Belong / I Wanna Go All The Way
Fortuna Pop
‘Belong’ is the new single from Pains Of Being Pure At Heart that will feature on their sophomore effort due out on 29th March. The New Yorkers 2009 debut saw doe-eyed twee float graciously among 90s-revival analogies and a sugar-sweet response.
‘Belong’ comes as a notification of change, however. Hardly a power-pound of grating static and rousing vocals, it’s more of a declaration that proclaims the absence of twee and the arrival of more corpulent guitars that call on Smashing Pumpkins and banish the image of pocket-sized, cutesy indie darlings. 3.5/5
DJ
Wild Palms - Delight In Temptation
One Little Indian
The term "inoffensive" could at times be seen as a compliment, but perhaps wrongly so. You know that moment you’re a little too early to see a band at a festival and the previous band are just finishing up? They’re ok, but nothing special and nothing memorable. This track reminds me of every single one of those bands.
There is very little to dislike, their indie post-punk vibes are a valiant effort where many others have failed. It’s all just a little too "meh" 3/5
VS
Phetsta – Prism
Technique Recordings
This track's got an '80s Gameboy vibe to it. Except Super Mario's on speed being chased around by the cut up vocals of that giggling bimbo Princess Peach. I kind of wanna bop and bounce to it's disco take on D&B, but then again it all sounds a bit generic.
Rich synth patterns, check. Crisp drums, check. Some sort of droning going on in the background, check. Or maybe that's just Donkey Kong trying to get in on the action. 3/5
JJB
Bare Wires – Don't Ever Change
Robotelephant
Bare Wires are a teenage modern rock 'n' roll band from America who think hanging out windows smoking during class is cool. The repeated lyrics 'don't ever change' are boring and seem to speak nothing more than an apathetic attempt at rebelling. 1/5
NH
George Michael – True Faith
EMI
Ever wondered what New Order's 'True Faith' would sound like if it was sung by Akon and you were really high on a cocktail of hydrocodone, cocaine, and cognac (a.k.a 'tha lil Wayne'). Well wonder no longer, now you can discover what that's like without rotting your teeth or risking a massive heart attack thanks to perennial car crasher - George Michael.
He's released this autotune monstrosity to raise money for Comic Relief so maybe it was meant to be a joke. Which would be fine, except that it isn't funny. It's just crap. Really really crap. 1/5
TO
Zola Jesus – Soeur Sewer
Sacred Bones
Opening with nagging repetitive sounds and continuing on into a whining voice singing incomprehensible lyrics - the haunting overtones leave you feeling like you’re in a forest somewhere in the late 1800’s chanting and skipping circles around a bonfire.
Burning witches and gothic eyes make up the background to a song that brushes goose bumps onto my skin. 0.5/5
AM
Oh look - a meat house.
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