New Releases-24 Nov

New Releases-24 Nov

19 November, 2008
by: Music Team

*Single of the week*
Gentle Friendly – Night Tapes EP
No Pain in Pop

I was talking with some industry types the other night, and they reckoned the whole Animal Collective/Holy Fuck sound was going to be big next year. If that's true, then Gentle Friendly is a band you need to get behind right now, as these guys will be the toast of Shoreditch in 6 months.

Comprised of four songs that the group have been bandying around for a little while now, 'Night Tapes'  is Gentle Friendly at their schizophrenic best, with songs that morph from 'nails down a blackboard' noise into amazing, hypnotically rhythmic pop songs that remind me of PIL. We don't say this often, but buy this record…DH

Everything Everything – Suffragette Suffragette
XL

You could be forgiven for thinking  Everything Everything suffer from OCD when looking at this track title but completely irrelevant banter aside, this is really good and it's hard to imagine it not being an instant hit.  

One minute it's all uplifting harmonies and melodies, the next it delves into hard rock with crashing drums, frenetic bass and excellent lyrics like: 'Who's gonna sit on your face when I'm not there?'  Brilliant. EM

T.I. (featuring Rihanna) – Live Your Life
Atlantic Records

Opening with a bizarre fusion of voiced-over ramblings and fat-kid viral sensation Dragostea Din Tei, this smoothed-out transatlantic collaboration contains several of the annoying tics common to ringtone RnB – celebrity wisdom, short 'sample' chorus, tweaked vocals and yeah-yeah na-na singalong bits. It's still really good.

Basically T.I. is the kind of slick rapper that gets to work with the best, his punchy delivery and witty lyrics strike a chord, and there's even a moral message that denigrates thoughtless bling culture.JH

Boy Crisis – L'Homme
Chess Club

Any band described by Pitchfork as 'absolutely the worse band ever' deserves a listen, and as usual, they're completely right about Boy Crisis – even their name seems to imply a New York hipster take on NKOTB.

Still, the winds of irony never blow true, and by some quirk of fate, L'Homme is so bad it's actually sort of good. A sort of white boy RnB love groove reminiscent of Justin Timberlake and filled with samples ripped from Suzanne Vega songs; it's funny, but not quite Kevin Bewersdorf funny. DH

Frankmusik – 3 little Words
Apparent Records

FrankMusik's take on 80s electro-disco-pop sounds like the kind of track that might be playing at the disco of the local caravan site. You can imagine the mums in 80's swimwear lip synching to each other and holding invisible mics during the break down.

Just 'cause there's an ever so slight hint of some warped synth and slick production it doesn't make it good. In fact, this is inherently bad. The disco revival has seen some people jumping on the bandwagon and releasing bollocks. This is a prime example. LC

The Wow Signal – Infinity's Lobby
Genepool

A failure. The track has all the elements of an all-time indie rock classic: punchy guitars, driving rattling drums and a distorted Bowie-esque vocal, all recorded with lo-fi intensity and delivered in three minutes.

Unfortunately, the entire effect is about as memorable as, oh, I forget. I've just listened to it three times and the only impression I have is of wanting to listen to something else now please. JH

Bob The Builder – Big Fish Little Fish
UMTV

Yep. It's true. Bob the Builder has converted to rave. His latest single – released with calculated forethought six weeks before Christmas – aims to teach children how best to bust out moves while they're largin' it this NYE.

He covers such technical moves as the 'Nail In The Wall', 'Scoop it out', 'Dig it', obviously 'The Fish' in all sizes plus the all important 'Cardboard Box'. You also learn how to connect the moves, which after practice, will definitely ensure that you're child thinks you're a complete dick. LC


BlackBlack – Magic/The Emerald Forest
Germs of Youth

Jesus, I bet these guys had a good time at Burning Man. Assuming they were old enough to go. They probably pretended they were doing homework at each others houses, then cycled down from LA and spent the entire week weirding out hippies by singing falsetto and waggling video cameras.

BlackBlack make rather good, very twisty indie that feels disconcertingly like being surrounded by chanting psychedelic children, immediately prior to being burned in a large basket. JH

All New Adventures of Us – Firetruck Doki Doki
One Little Indian

ANAOU are an easy band to like, but a hard band to love. Whilst they're really nice and cute, they're like going out with a girl who cries all the time; you buy them an ice cream and they burst into tears going “I'm so happy”, and you accidentally drop it and they start sobbing “oh no, my poor ice cream”.

Firetruck Doki Doki is a trumpet led lament on lost loves and the torments of trying to get a girl when you're really shy. It's so twee that the lyrics themselves feel like the guy is reading from the diary under his bed. Man up! DH

Katy Perry – Hot N Cold
Virgin

I have to admit to a predisposition to hate this song because I really didn't enjoy 'I Kissed a Girl'.  Its pseudo -lesbian lyrics clearly dreamed up by some clever PR company are completely unimaginative and it has a really annoying tune to it.  

I'll try not to be biased though, I'm sure 'Hot N Cold' will be different. What's it all about then? Well it's about a boy.  He's hot, he's cold, he's yes, then he's no, he's in, he's out, he's up, he's down.  Guess what the tune's like? EM

Wow, the Facebook group looks empty. Do us a favour and join will ya! We're also and events site, duh!

Music Team