This week it's ladies night!
Girls Names/ Brilliant Colors – I Lose/You Win
Tough Love
The good people at Tough Love records have teamed up with US label Slumberland to bring you another great transatlantic split in the form of ‘I Lose/You Win’. On Girls Names’ contribution ‘I Lose’, the Belfast trio put downbeat, Beat Happening-style vocals, driving guitar riffs and plenty of fuzz to typically good use.
On the flip, Brilliant Colors send a woozy slice of San Francisco sun to drizzly London with ' You Win'. Both groups are great, but it will be interesting to see where they and the current flood of C86-inspired bands will go from here, being so indebted to a very specific era of music. 4/5
SJ
Girls – Broken Dreams Club
Fantasy Trashcan
The title track from Girls’ new EP sounds something like Bright Eyes going for Christmas No. 1. Read: it’s pretty darn miserable.
The horns of isolation that give it a seasonal feel and the super-sad jazz organ of despair towards the end are melancholy gold. However with lyrics like “I just don’t understand how the world keeps going nowhere” this is perhaps not one to listen to alone in your vomit-stained pyjamas the morning after the office xmas party…4/5
AH
Lykke Li – Get Some
Atlantic
Lykke Li's up-beat contribution 'Get Some' has you tapping your boots and scurrying the streets at speed, its actually the ideal music to listen to when tardy, not to sell it short.
I do feel like I 've heard it before but there is something enchanting about her as a performer (see her video entrance where she glides on, complete with recycled veil and dances in distorted kaleidoscopic visions) and credit must be given for her versatility as an artist. Conclusion: I Lykke Li. Apologies. 4/5
JD
Taz – Gold Tooth Grin
Numbers
Scottish producer Taz Buckfaster is a dubstep whiz-kid who began messing around with the genre when he got his first set of decks ages 16. He's got a wide range of musical influences, from classical through to heavy metal and drum and bass.
To be honest, I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to dubstep, but this is track has a mellow vibe to it, a gentle beat that's head-twitchingly addictive and a melody that gets lodged in the brain without being annoying. All good. 4/5
SB
Kid Adrift – A4 in Ecstasy
Universal Island Records
Kid Adrift's new single wouldn't sound out of place in the Matrix. Watch Neo as he starts to run. Cut to slow motion. Aaaand the fight sequence starts.
It's an underground club kinda tune. It's not my cuppa, but it doesn't get monotonous, the beat doesn't make your brain dribble out your ears by the end and one may even suspect that it was made by people instead of robots, so it gets my vote. 3.5/5
EB
Miles Kane – Inhaler
Sony
I can already see the crowds singing along to this one, less the chorus but the funky guitar riff which populates the entire three minutes. Although I fear that the comparison is a little too complimentary I might describe this as The Stones on speed.
It's got a nice bit of groove behind it and his arrogant vocals give the whole song some serious strut. 3.5/5
LG
Samael - Antigod
Nuclear Blast
I don't like death metal...or gabba. I just don't consider them to be music as they have more in common with the sound of a generator working overtime than with the sound of instruments. I have, however, seen people dancing to nothing but the sound of a generator working overtime and who am I to tell someone what they should and shouldn't listen to anyway?
I'll tell you who! I'm a muthafunkin music critic that's who! And I say death metal and gabba can f*** right off. This new single from Samael is 'industrial' though, so I think it's actually rather good. 3/5
TO
Duffy – Well Well Well
Polydor
My ears are ringing. What has happened to her voice? I only have the volume set to halfway, yet the start of the song kinda made me jump. Have they digitally adjusted it in the hope that only dogs will hear it? Or has she been sucking helium?
Relentless squealing- that's all it is. I'm off to lie in a dark room. 1/5
CW
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