New Releases - 4th May

New Releases - 4th May

29 April, 2009
by: Music Team

*Single of the Week*
Fanfarlo – Drowning Men/Sand and Ice
Moshi Moshi

A double A-side – score!! And both bloody good tracks with bass guitars, pianos and the swinging rabble-rousing rhythm that recalls early U2 or Arcade Fire. Slurred, nonsensical words form an essential, smoky element. Fanfarlo groupies will just have to master the art of singing cobblers – well worth it for the live experience.

'Drowning Men' is darker and brooding, while 'Sand and Ice' is a whimsical Swedish knees-up – both have irresistible, uplifting momentum. With great cover art, a vinyl purchase is dangerously tempting.  4.5/5
JH

Plug - B-boy / You Keep The Beats
Parlour Records

Imagine if Lady Sov had grown up on a diet of Minutemen and Flipper bootlegs. This quirksome girl duo from London make the kind of savvy agit-pop that might be expected from a 'toned down' Huggy Bear attempting to capture that 24 Hour Party People fasterbutslower vibe. B-Boy jitterbugs along on a looping bass refrain whilst asking...Who got you drugs? B-boy, B-BOY!!

Meanwhile 'You Keep The Beats' maintains the lo-fi vibe to perfection. 4.08/5
JS

House of Brothers – Document 1
Pias

Document 1, as the title might suggest, is a little bland. Don't let that put you off, there are a lot of really good bland things. Apple sauce. Mash. Macaroni and cheese. All bland, all great.

Plaintive and somewhat haunting vocals over a piano line and guitar chords solid enough to give you a battering at a live gig, this is a great little tune that won't set the world on fire but to be honest, I think the world has enough fires. 4/5
MF

EssenVee – The Breathers
Unsigned

I expected to be slating EssenVee off for their single 'The Breathers'. Normally I don't go for this sort of stuff. It's tech-house which should mean it's rubbish to dance to and is more repetitive than Groundhog Day.

And it was. But you know what? I really liked it. I found it somehow comforting. It's scaring me a little actually. I even pressed play again once the song had finished... I think I need a lie down.
4/5
SL

We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices
FatCat

We Were Promised Jetpacks are one of those bands that the saying Drowned in Sound was invented for.

'Quiet Little Voices', their new single, is a beautiful cacophony of sound, with guitar riffs rising and falling, a constant drum beat propelling the song forward and all rounded off perfectly with lead singer Adams' gentle Scottish vocals, and all this whilst listening to the track on my less-than-perfect speakers. An indie summer hit, surely? 4/5
GS

Abe Duque - Tonight is Your Answer
Process Recordings

'Tonight is Your Answer' is a grooving wedge of hypnotic techno with a dreamy, meditative quality. This ocean-calm is offset by the Armalite M4 carbine assault rifle Abe Duque clutches on the cover of his ironically titled album 'Don't Be So Mean'.

The NYC-based producer samples Obama's inauguration speech, amping up the pace of the track using the president's comforting repetition: 'Tonight is your answer'. He builds up the solid, super deep groove, folding in some futuristic tweaks and bleeps, seasoning with tribal bird calls and finishing with a few dry handfuls of Latin percussion. Tasty. 4/5
LC

Dag för Dag- Shooting from The Shadows EP
Saddle Creek

Spooky, post-punk inflected lo-fi rock from this Stockholm-based brother/sister two piece, sounding not unlike Sebadoh given the Echo & The Bunnymen treatment.

Spectral vocals, creepy melodies and skittering drums combine to absorbing, quietly intense effect, with standout track 'Words' coming off like a shattering, rain-soaked retort to Doves' floppy 2002 'anthem' of the same name. Excellent stuff.  3.5/5
MB

Shapes – The Pasteur, The Oil EP
Big Scary Monsters

Strap yourself in both physically and mentally, Shapes' new EP is here. It's about as chaotic as trying to reclaim your shoes after indulging in the world's biggest post-hardcore prog bouncy-castle party. In a bowling alley.

Raucous, raw and distracted, it's a mish-mash of ferocious hardcore rock and mind-bending prog tangents that will either keep you hypnotised or have you hurling your headphones at the wall, depending on your taste. While it is musically peculiar, at the end of the day it is basically hardcore. 3/5
MD

Britney Spears - If You Seek Amy
Sony BMG

Oops, she's done it again. She's only gone and released yet another shockingly controversial song. If, like me, you're a bit slow and don't see anything wrong with looking for a girl called Amy, try saying the title out loud over and over again. (Warning: you may get some strange looks and/or unwanted advances.) See? Outrageous.

Annoyingly, the tune's actually quite catchy, which may well lead to disastrous consequences if absentmindedly sung aloud. You have been warned. 2/5
GT

Tommy Sparks – She got me Dancing
Island 

Stop the press! It's another electro-indie-pop tune with a zany video! Yay! You know that feeling you get when someone says 'it's such a lovely day we must go outside!' and you just want to punch them in the face and head straight for the cinema?

Well that's how I feel when listening to this track. It's soooooo 'catchy' and 'uplifting' it immediately made me want to start listening to some Shackleton-esque malevolent dubstep instead.  That said, Fearne and Reggie will probably cream themselves over it come the Sunday Chart Show. 2/5
EM

Will anyone join the Facebook group this week? Will Tom and Dom ever return? Will Tommy Franks be the new soundtrack to the war in Afghanistan? Will anyone get what Britney Spears is on about? Are Reggie and Fearne really ruining Radio 1?

For the answers to all these questions and more, join us next time for another action-packed edition of New Releases.

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Music Team