Ian M Hale – Loss
Unsigned
The lilting, easy chords of 'Loss' take you to a stormy porch, a dark sky on a windy, American day. A Chevy pulls up, a girl with corn-blonde hair gets out. She wears a long skirt. You can see her clear, blue eyes.
This folk song is brilliantly mournful, evoking everything that songs of this nature intend to: melancholy, heartache, longing, joy.
Hale's cut-glass vocals run an icy finger down your spine and
sweetly recall the pain of your greatest love. Beautiful. 5/5
LC
Kap Bambino – Dead Lazers
Because Records
Kap Bambino are very cool. And possibly slightly mad. They're like The Ting Tings, but so much less annoying. And they make good music. So maybe they're more like Enter Shikari. Just with a crazy lady singing. And even more synth.
OK fine. Maybe they're more like Kap Bambino and maybe their new single 'Dead Lazers' is really, really good and makes me want to jump around in a crowd of sweaty people flailing wildly. 4.1/5
SL
Kill It Kid – Send Me an Angel Down
One Little Indian
'Wow, this band's amazing. The guy's voice is like a foghorn.' Kind of sounds like a contradiction in terms, until you listen to the song and discover that Dom is in fact right: this band IS amazing.
Vocalist Turpin's breathtakingly powerful vocals are complemented perfectly by Ward's sweet, dulcet tones. Blending keys, soft guitars, rising strings and dramatic percussion, the song carries you away on an emotional journey. The result is mesmerising. 4/5
GT
Eels – Fresh Blood
Vagrant/Polydor
Anyone reading Mark Oliver Everett's book 'Things the Grandchildren Should Know' will have no problem imagining 'E' barking at the moon, and why should they? As he is doing it right before their eyes in the video for corking new single 'Fresh Blood' from the upcoming album 'Hombre Lobo'.
Built around a descending bass arpeggio and featuring a chorus that sounds like a bunch of New Order loving werewolves re-recording 'How Soon Is Now', it's the perfect soundtrack to a bout of bourbon-fuelled stalking. 4/5
JS
Dirty Projectors – Stillness is a Move
Domino
Is it just me, or can Dirty Projectors be a bit full on at times? Whilst I realise that Black Flag's 'Damage' is a pretty challenging record, there were times on their version of it ('Police Story' comes to mind) where the band became so obtuse it was difficult to make out a melody, let alone a song.
Fortunately, 'Stillness is a Move' is a lot clearer in both style and form and comes across like a mix of a schoolyard skipping game and Liars. It's basically the kind of song Basement Jaxx have been trying and failing to write for years. 3.75/5
DH
Emperor Machine – Kananana
DC Recordings
The Emperor Machine have made what sounds like the theme tune to your favourite 1970's vigilante crime-drama TV show. This is proper swaggering through San Francisco in the sun music, probably with an enormous afro.
The groove is completely irresistible, and subtle percussion brought in at various points really gives the song that great Liquid Liquid feeling. The synths surge from that light cowbell poppy level to dramatic bad-guy-music asides. It won't change your life, and doesn't really try anything particularly interesting, but it's a great summer release. 3.5/5
MD
Dizzee Rascal – Bonkers
Dirtee Stank Recordings
'All I care about is sex and violence.' So asserts Mr. Rascal on new single 'Bonkers'. Really? Well, that and collaborating with Lily Allen, Calvin Harris, Chrome and Basement Jaxx. Now he can add major house(hold) name Armand Van Helden to that illustrious list.
With thudding bass underpinning a grindingly catchy tune, and Dizzee spouting some zaneeee shizzle over da top, it's difficult to see how anybody could think these two are bonkers. This is a shrewd career move for the both of them. 3.5/5
TJ
The Progidy – Warrior's Dance
Take Me To The Hospital
Never ones to take the subtle route, ageing rave-pop meisters The Prodigy keep their foot firmly on the throttle after the frankly ridiculous 'Omen' with this crass but stonking '92-flavoured breakbeat techno stomper.
It's got all you need (excuse the rhetoric): big, diva-flavoured vocals, rousing synths, a crunching bassline and, most pleasingly, those obnoxious, gurn-inducing rave stabs so synonymous with the Prodigy name. Sure, it's not pretty, but since when was that ever the idea? 3/5
MB
Datarock – Give it Up
Yap Records
Datarock have said that 'Give It Up' was actually an idea for
a music video before it became a song, taking inspiration from 'Bad' with a
comical dance off between two gangs.
The lyrics are funny ('we'll hook you up to an enema' –
chortle chortle) and the video is slick but it looks like more effort went
into that than creating a really good track. All the same ingredients from
previous big hits are present - it's energetic, it's got the jaunty 80's
pop-rock sound; but sadly it's just not as catchy. 3/5
EM
Ladyhawke – Back Of The Van
Polydor
This track evoked nostalgic flashbacks of being a kid, sitting in the passenger seat of my Dad's car, gleefully watching him passionately tap tapping the steering wheel to timeless classics, with that contagious, cheesy grin spread across his face. Content sigh - The good old days.
By no means as hard-hitting or as funky as Pip's previous single 'Paris is Burning', but the balance of rock, dance and classic writing on 'Back of the Van' guarantees to awaken that unshakable faith in happy endings in all of us. 3/5
LH
Hey, so just a quick note to say cheers to anyone who sent us CDs this week- we love you! And to remind everyone to join our Facebook Group. Kudos to Tom for not using the word 'brilliant' as well.
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