missive 117
07-03-2007
Singled Out
Missive 117

For Kelly and Mark

Singled Out - Preposterous ponderings from the personal hi-fi of life

My space gubbins…..

http://www.myspace.com/chownasty - rip ‘ungawa’ - stupidly catchy - think mummies ganging up with go team to kick the livin’ shit out run dmc and aero smith - world domination awaits though what world that is - is anyone’s guess.

http://www.myspace.com/staggers - rip the freak beating fuzzy ‘out of my mind’

http://www.myspace.com/theportugaljapan - shonen knife meets the ramones - rampant fuzz buzzing ice cream parlour candy pop from Japan - rip ‘have love will travel’

http://www.myspace.com/tsuneglamsam - rip ‘glamour Tokyo’ - stunning mascara smeared glam garage that wires trex / new york dolls and mott into a horny hot pot of savage strutting sex.

http://www.myspace.com/mad3tokyo - in a word (two) f*ckin mental gnarled garage road kill boogie rip the white hot ’spy from Kyoto’

http://www.myspace.com/fuk2006 - cranium crunching evil punk mayhem - think discharge fitted with turbo charge and a rocket up their arse - rip the mental ‘smash up the kitchen’

http://www.myspace.com/sickbus - bastard sons of the UK Subs - rip ‘artificial’

http://www.myspace.com/thecoffindaggers - tasty twang via dick dale and the phantom surfers - rip ‘coffin dagger’

http://www.myspace.com/ronnie5678s - blimey thought they were long gone - rip ‘let’s go boogaloo’

http://www.myspace.com/hormonas - the Italian reverend Horton heat - rip ‘fingi l’orgasmo baby’

http://www.myspace.com/itstimeforthepeacocks - good wholesome cool as f*ck rockabilly from Switzerland - download the new untitled cut

http://www.myspace.com/sewerratsonmyspace - rip the previously unreleased ‘johnny’

http://www.myspace.com/thelivingend - rip ‘wake up’

http://www.myspace.com/therippersinaction - shade wearing sizzling 60’s primal beat pop - rip ‘just a creepy man’

http://www.myspace.com/slovenlyrec - Nevada based imprint

http://www.myspace.com/wauylosarrrghs - rip the bastardised surf grooved ‘johnny be good’ ’rey de tablistas’

http://www.myspace.com/thehipshakes - to smart for their own good - good time shambolic fun, wild, frenetic crooked rumble - rip the punch drunk and barking ’never enough’

http://www.myspace.com/copter - rip ’voodoo wop’ - dirty, dirty, dirty sounds like an evil Alvin Stardust fronting the Makers….

http://www.myspace.com/highschoollockers - they describe themselves as black metal power poppers - frankly ridiculous - think Rich Kids sparring with the Dead Boys - rip ’shotgun wedding’

http://www.myspace.com/thetraintrippers - rip ’the gambler’

http://www.myspace.com/cotpf - b movie, Gregory era cramps / trashmen loving grave robbing rockabilly - rip ’cannibal girl’

http://www.myspace.com/fleetingjoys - star crossed shimmer pop converging where ride meet mbv.

http://www.myspace.com/thecortomaltese - sleek tightly wound hooks to die for, melodies that attach like limpets in your head space blessed with a humable factor to the power 10 and riffs ripped from the pixies, the loft, green on red, and the Eskimos - three track demo for download - each cut a peach.

http://www.myspace.com/parascopes - great name - agreed -gritty 60’s authenticated garage beat pop - rip the ‘steppin stone’ like ’no friend of mine’

http://www.myspace.com/shugband - Glaswegian based tasty techno - rip the floor rumbling ‘January 13th’

http://www.myspace.com/wolfieband - sounds like a step back in time to classic era raincoats - angulated yet playfully fraught - the long and short of which - well f*ckin cool. Rip ‘wendy wack’

http://www.myspace.com/imogene - superbly chilled stoner psyche - rip ’wormwood raindrops’

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynjamesband - seductive, sensitive and emotionally wide open acoustic amour - rip the radio friendly noire-ish EBTG like ’drifting out of control’.

And if you only have time to peak at one of these recommended my space links then make sure its this one - http://www.myspace.com/wizardstelllies - absolutely no info on this lot and only one track posted - but hell what a track it is - ‘who is mr broom’ is a tension racking stoner folk gem - kinda sunburned hand of the man meets godspeed - don’t say you weren’t warned

The record type things…..

8yone ‘key motion’ (boltfish). You know how it is - you take your eye of the ball and several crucial Boltfish releases sneak under the wired fence - much to our joy I hasten to add. This little dinky dreamer arrives pressed up as a limited 4 track 3” CD is the debut release from 8yone - better known to friends and relatives as Thuringian resident Mathias Gorf. 8yone has been quietly plying his trade out of societies gaze since 2004 -in that time crafting an absorbing array of aural alchemy. Sadly our copy - notwithstanding our best efforts - only plays the first two cuts I’m afraid - believe you me we have tried this cutie on every known appliance in the singled out shed including the toaster - which given it got a tad frisky maybe wasn’t the best idea we’d had that day - I suspect that future servings of cheese on toast will never again be the same in our gaff. That said from the two available cuts we did manage to rescue offer a rather dandy array of sumptuously worked lunatic symphonies. ‘Gluck’ kicks off the set - longingly wrapped in swathes of cathedral-esque ambience and freckled with the type of shy eyed wonder that tugs delicately upon your heart strings, like lonesome transmissions into galactic voids this sweetly fostered orphan playfully sighs and coos amid spongy backdrops of milky mellowness and recurring flashbacks of fading memories. ‘glacial sunburn’ is as about as perfect a title as I’ve ever known, sums it up perfectly sounding as it does like a particularly homely ISAN snuggling up to Plone with a loosely minimalist Wagon Christ overseeing the arrangements. Threaded through with bulging squelch like beats that skip, skitter and stutter over minimalist binary coded love notes. Well worth further investigation. www.boltfish.co.uk

Taborshell / Sektor ‘Split’ (Boltfish). The sixth and final instalment of the highly engaging ‘Tandem Series’ put out by Will Bolton’s (Cheju) Boltfish label collective sees Hoxton based Chris Massey AKA Taborshell going head to head with Plamen Marinov better known to the IDM underground as Sektor. Eight tracks - 42 minutes of sumptuous electro pirouettes await inside, each artist asserting their bid for your affection with four cuts each. It’s not until the passage of the later brace of cuts ‘Intelligence Idolised’ and ‘Man Magnificent’ that you realise that Massey isn’t as new age as you’d first come to expect. Culturing alien circuitry binary code communications with a sense of classic song structures his finite arrangements of looped glitches, beats and whirrs stutter and momentarily pause arcing to deliciously craft an alluring backdrop of intricate rhythmic structures with slow building in stature ‘Intelligence Idolised’ creating a kind of calm before the storm entrée for the Kraftwerk-ian ’Trans Europe Express’ like ’Man Magnificent’ to work its charm. With its cavernous interludes and ceramic Far Eastern like accents it makes for a magnificent sonic portfolio of lushly vibrant landscapes that trip somewhere between the realms of frosted elegance and celtic serenity. Elsewhere ’Robot reality’ does as it says on the tin, decorated with a sense loss, alien in texture and glitchy in delivery its braided with untutored restless beats that skip and hop upon a surface sheen of glacial swathes. ’Humans are History’ perhaps the most expansive thing here courts with an engaging warmth that unless I’m very much mistaken to these ears appear not dissimilar it has to be said from a seriously chilled out d_rradio which as you should all be to aware of is a god thing. Sektor on the other hand provides a - dare we say it - more frisky alternative to Taborshell’s four part suite. Better known as Plamen Marinov - he’s been the toast of the IDM scene since putting aside his DJ head phones and moving into making his own electronic music rather than playing others - a handful of releases under his belt for the likes of Camomille, Tonaton and Uran97 have seen his stock rise. Four tracks feature on his side of the split forming as were an extended suite, beautifully worked cosmic interplays, lightly toned with the emphasis on curvaceous starlit melodies that smoulder and seduce in equal measure, from the high altitude pastoral pines of the delectable ‘ekol iton’ with its softly stirring gaellic accents to the glacial amour of the lilting lunatic pirouettes of the dreamy ‘ilohi teshel’ with it’s Biosphere like sense of presence. Elsewhere ‘kikish’ is part Clangers crafting sonic apparitions from celestial beaches bathed by alien moons - quite beautiful stuff if you ask me. www.boltfish.co.uk


All six volumes of The Tandem Series are available as a limited box set in a DVD case that includes all twelve featured artists doing their stuff across 6 discs which equates to over 4 hours of the most cutting edge electronica there is to be had. www.boltfish.co.uk

And while you are suitably whetted of all things electronic just a quick reminder about that superb Cheju release via Smalfish which it seems has been followed up in double quick succession by two more releases from the prolific talents of Wil Bolton (Cheju). Scarcely had time to hook up with these - first up the ever good value for money u-cover imprint of Belgium. Those with slightly long memories may remember them releasing the very excellent Cheju related Biotron Shelf debut last year Aside acting as a vehicle to their in house ensemble Ontayso, the label has been responsible for putting out a host of release by the likes of Shortwave, Somni 451, Starfish, Tomcats in Tokyo and Mileau - just to name but a few. As part of their newly subscribed ’mini disc’ series which to date has played host to releases by YLID and (Boltfish co label owner and one half of Biotron Shelf) Mint - latest outing for the label comes in the guise of ’Foil’ by Cheju - 5 newly pressed cuts of sumptuous electronica - well we’re saying sumptuous electronica - in fact we are crossing our fingers that it is - not having actually heard it - and now fearing some sort of extreme musical departure into death metal realms - check it out for yourselves at www.u-cover.com. Second Cheju release arrives courtesy of the newly set up French net label Cold Room. All releases are freely downloadable under the ’creative common licence’ whatever that is - still - sounds like a worthy piece of legislation for a change. Entitled ’the Switch’ EP it features four spanking new cuts and marks the label seventh release following outings by Voskhod, Macon Tights (2) and Somaticae who by all accounts is a 17 year old glitz-tronic whiz-kid - as said all are free to download - so fill your boots. www.netlabel.com.cold-room.com (a link which surprise surprise - doesn’t appear to work - so best going through www.cheju.co.uk)

Lost Penguin ‘Pleasurewood Kills’ (Fake Product). F*ck me - what a racket. Lost Penguin are two young lads and one young lady who it seems can’t resist kicking the sh*t out perfectly good beat pop tunes, pitching themselves under the tag line ‘talent less pricks’ (c. My Space) which frankly is a little bit of an oversell - only joking - it would be true to say that this scuzzy little caustic cutie craftily strangles the crap out of the riff from Siouxsie and the Banshees ’Love in a void’ and wires into a deranged brew of ice cold austerely treated minimalist electronics the type of which early Cabaret Voltaire would have considered to left field and proceeds to pogo all over it with a mental agit pop boy / girl vocal the like of which we haven’t heard around here since the dark days of riot grrrrlll. Fraught, frenetic and bloody fabulous evil pop. ’I believe I can fly’ over on the flip is just a ruddy rampant slab of chaotic slam dancing carnage, abrupt, corrosive and splendidly flying in the face of all known structured music doctrines - two chords, a skin twatting sticksman and a lunatic girl vocal singing to a different tune - top f*cking notch we are already loving them so much. Essential type thing. www.myspace.com/wheresmypenguin

Bromheads Jacket ‘What if’s and maybes’ (Marquis Cha Cha). Well bugger me with a large stick type thing - no sooner do we dispatch one rather well formed and acutely tuned release from Sheffield’s finest then along comes another pogoing, punching and puking its way across the bijou Singled Out listening space. Another cut culled from their acclaimed debut full length ‘Dits from the commuter belt’ (which we have promised ourselves to get if only so that we can get a good nights sleep without fear of waking in a cold sweat panicking as to its absence from our rather well heeled record collection) - the live favourite ‘What if’s and maybes’ stomps in at a lean and mean optimum fight weighting 1.51. Seems these days that the extra capacity afforded by the CD means that it gives too many bands to much space and time in which to pack out their releases with meaningless sh*te - happy to say that’s not the case with the Bromheads - instead what you get is a pure distilled slab of no nonsense fuck you eye poking raucous good fun. Where they may lack in terms of finesse they more than make up by the shed load in energy, attitude and rawness - the Bromheads exact all the charm of a smack around the head with a cricket bat. Admittedly not as toxic as the barnstorming Small Faces meets Sham ‘Lesley Parlafitt’, ’What if’s and maybes’ is still a jaunty buzz sawing sub two minute bar brawling lock in of grittily shambolic delights kinda Streets cross wired the impish Cockney Rejects with the pub rock mentality of early career Squeeze thrown in for good measure - sounds sort of irresistible don’t it. www.marquischacha.co.uk

Small Arms FIYA feat. Serocee and LS ‘Murderer’ (1965). More limited groove from the label that brought you the View and that excellent Pizzy Yelliott Marley cover early last year. Several releases tucked into the waist band of their baggy strides, the production duo Scott ’Monz’ Moncrieff and Thomas ‘Toddla’ Mackenzie Bell have been feeding the urban collective with their becoming brew of soulful hip hop for a fair while now of late found dusting their golden touch on projects featuring Broken ’n’ English and Ayah. ’Murderer’ superbly fuses tripping beats and chilling hip hop accents in a heady and highly addictive down tempo dub-tastic collage of sound that essentially recalls not only Dreadzone and Zion Train but early Depth Charge. ‘Give it to mi’ over the flip serves up a slice of cool pulsating down tempo groove that pays subtle nods to the Furious 5. Quite smart if you ask me. www.1965records.com

New Cassettes ‘You won’t stop’ (Fantastic Plastic). Yes I know it’s been out for ages and that all you bright young things out there have bought it, played it, wore it out and moved on to whatever weeks we are in great new hopes - but hey still worth a mention despite the fact that the band have probably long since disbanded and gotten nice jobs as bank clerks. ‘You won’t stop’ is the debut release by Midland based 5 piece New Cassettes who - unless my ears deceive - sound like a rather frisky Koreans having left there glacial bound pop igloo in search of warmer climes. Pressed on red vinyl (as though you needed further prodding) ’You won’t stop’ is a delicious portion of swagger like sweaty angular post punk disco sumptuously fused with a honey toned pop matrix that suggests these young chaps have spent many a night slipping in the odd Eagles, Buffalo Springfield and Cars record into their essential west coast pop listening pile. The result a delectably catchy affair sprinkled with sugar coated harmonies that tilt with softly countrified perspectives while laced throughout with an audacious snaking riff that swerves, side winds and swoons with the best of them. ’Yeah’ over on the flip opts for a spot of dislocated panting gnarled discofied new wave funk spikiness that at times sounds like a youthful and experimental minded U2 (c. ’A celebration’) being retuned by a split persona made up of elements of the Only Ones and Punishment of Luxury. www.newcassettes.co.uk

The Electric Cinema ‘Cut Down’ (Sugarlow). Those among you with distant memories may well remember us falling cock-a-hoop for this lots debut release ’Heat Exchange’ which offered up one of those rare moments of a band setting their stall in such exquisite style that it literally left you jaw dropped in awe. Frankly one of the best debuts we have ever heard - fact. Crafting mini pop operas bruised with a longing tragedy and sprinkled with the stuff stars of made of, the melodies Electric Cinema are finitely executed and exude an off kilter radiance, the modern day disciples of Meek, they carve an unerring pop majesty that is drawn from an array of reference markers from Buffalo Springfield to the Flaming Lips (though if you asked for my personal view I’d say they are mid point between those early self released outings by the Earlies and Tex La Homa) and styles ranging from numbing early 70’s MOR to spectrally woven cosmic voyages and everything of worth in between. ’Cut Down’ their second release is culled from their forthcoming self titled long player (which incidentally includes the aforementioned ’Heat Exchange’ and the irresistible ’We are all robots’ which is stupidly good). Taking a subtle cue from the Tornadoes ’Telstar’ and softly bleeding into the fabric the lilting frailty of Shady Bard, ‘Cut Down’ shyly unfolds into a picture box of crystal tipped melodies, growing in stature from its timid entrée it slips past your radar unguarded blossoming into a beguiling feast of lunatic carnival sounds and tenaciously dipped lazily worked west coast motifs that congregate on mass to buzz, whirl and cascade their warming charm inside your headspace. The sumptuously ornate and celebratory ’Diagrams’ over on the flip is equally engaging - a melting pot packed to bursting with prime slices of Pulp and New Order lovingly cooked and left to simmer by the Polyphonic Spree, this lightly smouldering portion of princely pop provides for a soft centred mercurial marinating of intertwining feel good harmonies and honey glazed melodies baked done to crisp. And with that - though it could be anything else - Single of the Missive. www.sugarlow.co.uk

Deluka ’I’ll wait’ (Kill Sound). Things you need to know. Deluka are a quartet. They are led from the front by Ellie Innocenti. They are from Birmingham. They formed in 2005. They have shared stages supporting Ladyfuzz, Test Icicles and the Infidels. They are the proud parents of a - by all accounts - blistering debut ’Stop, Stop’. By the year end (if not sooner) they will be your favourite band. That’s the domestics out of the way. ’I’ll wait’ is the bands second single, an unstoppable heaving mass of seismic scuzz pop scored through with an adrenalin sapping edge the type of which that drives your nervous system into jangling spasms. This acutely angst ridden angular baby trades sucker punching blows like they are fast going out of fashion. Braided with a towering front line armoury of strutting skin peeling zig zagging riffs and a punishing choral underpin that literally nails you where you stand, this potently friction laced baby is as equally at home crushing you to a pulp with its seeming ferocity as it is caressing you with its subtle smoking sassiness. Consider yourselves warned. www.killsound.co.uk

Underground Heroes ‘Stella the Mistress’ (1965). Absolutely bugger all information about this lot other than to say their a quartet based out of Chatham. What we do know though is that the two rather sprightly cuts that feature either side of this limited slab of wax have a sense of the pub rock / late 70’s punk camaraderie about their wares. ‘Stella the mistress’ (a three chord driven tale of everyday oblivion) in particular has a streetwise awareness and raw edge common touch that hints at ’Give em enough rope’ era Clash sparring with Chron Gen, more Parkinsons that Paddingtons in terms of attitude, style and savvy which in our books is a damn good thing. Flip side ’Lost in Dundee’ is more the ticket, a shambolic beer fuelled ska sharpened slice of spiky punk pop that in its urchin like zeal craftily pickpockets your basic proto punk riffs straight from out of the pocket of Brian James - neat, neat, neat then. www.1965records.com

Silent Type ’Kneel’ (Kids). We happened across this little gem by sheer accident while trying to track down a release featuring It Hugs Back which appeared on ‘the best Kids Christmas album in the world ever ever ever’. Okay - arguably we should have gotten it at Christmas - but in our stupidity totally forgot about it and only remembered when said band’s near perfect ‘Lights in the Trees’ debut turned up and renewed affections having featured on a Tigertrap 2007 sampler (see elsewhere here). Confusing or what? To add to the confusion said album is available as a special deal via the KIDS site for a measly three notes - while for a further fiver you can acquire not only Assembly Now’s ‘It’s magnetic’ (which incidentally featured with much fondness in these very pages a few missives back) and Mighty Six Ninety’s ‘Keeping you in mind’ (see below) but this superb - pressed on 10 inches of wax - two track nugget from Virginia’s Silent Type. Is everyone still with me on this? Describing themselves as indie shoe gazers you won’t be to surprised to hear that we know bugger all about this quartet other than the fact that they plan to record not one - but two - albums in the coming months - one promised to be a rock based beauty the other more acoustically based. For now all we have is this little gem and when I say gem I mean just that. ‘Kneel’ is achingly slow, mercurial and touching - one of those kind of cuts that so few bands are lucky to ever craft in their career yet when they do it sets them aside as a beacon / marker for others to sit up and take note. Breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreaking, ‘Kneel’ is beautifully measured and succulently poised, gently unfurling with such alarming grace its majesty is overwhelming. Think ‘Rob a bank’ era Butterflies of Love with its DNA cross wired with elements of Bang Bang Machine’s ‘Geek Love’ and spectrally touched by a shyly introvert Galaxie 500. Hushed strings seductively play peek a boo amid sumptuous heart sapping windswept and breezy gaellic weaves themselves pebble dashed by a sweetly suggestive montage of tenderly treading chords that act as a mallowy soft centred base for the softly delivered boy / girl vocals to drift longingly above. Precious stuff. Flip over for the equally engaging though downcast sounding ‘Stones, Knives and Curses’ - slyly paced for maximum effect and again eye wateringly flecked with sparsely drawn emotionally racked string arrangements that are deliciously filleted with a cortege of smoothed feedback shimmers and punctuated by brief bristled moments of intensity - not so much a case of crashing against your defences but wiping them out - more please and soon. Strictly limited to 200 copies.

Mighty Six Ninety ‘Keeping you in mind’ (KIDS). Limited to 750 hand numbered copies (ours is numbered 711 in case you were wondering - which I guess means that if you want one then ‘off your arse and sharpish to it’ seems to be the byword) and pressed on 7 inches of heavy duty sky blue wax. Mighty Six Ninety (don’t ask) are a LA based quintet who it seems long for the days of shimmering electro pop - if that is - ‘Keeping you in mind’ is anything to go. Mixing elements of 80’s radio pop - early Icehouse, Psychedelic Furs and Aha in the main, Mighty Six Ninety certainly have the measure when it comes to crafting effervescent hi-art pop - jaunty, immediately accessible with a subtle trace of mid 90’s 60’s obsessed combo Rialto thrown in for good measure all gathered together in a delicious three minute slice of aloof feel good euro pop perfection. Flip side features ‘With me’ which to these ears sounds like a slowed down take of New Order’s ‘Run 2’ done by the Lover Speaks - those much in love with all that mid 80’s soft pop such as Cuting Crew etc…with fall head over heels for this. Tasty in a word. Both releases via www.kidsthelabel.co.uk

And sticking with the Kids label a tad longer - Mighty Six Ninety also appear on the aforementioned ‘the best kids Christmas album ever ever ever’ - and yes we know its not Christmas but as Wizzard once sang there’s no harm in wishing. Pardon me while I rescue my finger from the back of my throat. Anyhow 11 tracks in the main featuring a plethora of bands doing their own take on a seasonal Christmas chestnut (‘Merry Xmas Everybody’, ‘White Christmas’ - incidentally done by Mighty Six Ninety with a distinctly Morrissey vibe, ‘Last Xmas’ - by Findlay Brown which frankly has to be heard to be believed - whistling - which left us feeling very fuzzy) or else failing that doing their own (as is the case of Captain Kidd, It Hugs Back and the Wombats whose ‘Is this Christmas?’
Steals the show and who it seems have a forthcoming single due soon in the shape of a 2x7” set entitled ‘Backfire at the Disco’ which you can bet your arse we will be tracking down in the coming weeks along with the new Paul Hartnoll single (is that Paul Hartnoll of Orbital fame we ask) ‘Please’ which apparently features Robert Smith (is that Robert Smith of Cure fame we wonder - so many questions - not enough answers) - anyhow all available via KIDS - addy above.

Tigertrap Sampler 2007 (Tigertrap). One of the in form labels on the underground scene at the moment, North London’s Tigertrap records have been flavouring the stale old indie wax racks for over a year and a half now culminating so far in over a dozen must have releases. Home to the infant terrible Tiny Masters of Today (a pint size primal White Stripes - whose ‘KIDS‘ out scuzzes even the celebrated pioneers of no-fi the Mummies) and latest recruit to the cause ex Symposium man Wojtek Godzisz (debut 6 track single due soon and featured elsewhere here amid these pages) such signings have seen the labels stock rise considerably. This nine track sampler acts as a superb showcase for newcomers of the label and fans alike. Featuring a mix of new and old stuff from the enviable Tigertrap catalogue including a cherry topped chestnut from It Hugs Back whose debut ‘Lights in the Trees‘ featured here still sends shivers down the spine several months on from its initial outing. Elsewhere there’s the quite screwball 586 whose ’We got bored’ frankly has to be heard to be believed - a screwed head on angular mish mash of Bow Wow Wow,…and the Native Hipster and Pop Off Tuesday replete with wonky electronics- a band who if we had our way we’d make it law they released at least one single a week. Not so far back in the weird and wonderfully wonky stakes the wonderfully petulant Infants - from Tokyo - stump up their recent ’Firetruk Theme’ - wired, agit hardcore kinda Atari Teenage Riot with spasms. Taken from the labels second single release - Scanners’ ’Lowlife’ just coolly cuts you in half and would quite frankly smarten up any record cllection daring to consider itself well heeled. ’Sean’ by Popular Workshop featured on their split the Far Cries last year - packed to the rafters with zig zagging riffs and set to an insidiously maddening hypnotic grind that should by rights wipe-out the coolest indie floors - keep your eyes peeled for their forthcoming ’Stutter and Dance’ EP due imminently - as good an excuse to get your arse to a record shop as we’ve heard in a fair few months. Not officially out until next month - and from what we can gather the debut release from Belfast based foursome the Clone Quartet - ’Carousel’ is your streamed tenaciously infectious pop hooks type affair - think of the drama pop of the Sparks spliced with the Associates mindset and riffs supplied by mid 80’s New Order - impossibly gorgeous. With a new single released around about now entitled ’Discussions’ time to re-acquaint yourselves with Look See Proof’s debut outing ’Tell me, tell me, tell me’ - see sawing riffs, floor throbbing underpins and a tune you can whistle yourself to madness with . Nuff said raked. www.tigertrap.co.uk

Tiny Masters of Today ‘KIDS’ (Tigertrap). F*ck me scorching stuff indeed. Second single from the Brooklyn based brother and sister duo following last years long since sold out debut ‘Stickin it to the man’. Tiny Masters of Today are as - previously advertised - brother and sister - Ivan (12) and Ada (10), while most of their peers are no doubt experiencing the pleasures of smoking tabs and wearing baseball caps back to front - these two scamps have been bunking school crafting pure primal rock ‘n’ roll boogie hose lineage can be traced back to the Halo of Flies, the Mummies, the Ramones and the Dwarves (albeit without the obscenities). Three tracks feature here distilled into a lean and mean crucial as hell six minute frantic fuzz fest. ’KIDS’ the lead out cut is pure hotrod grind, a bastardised slice of scuzzy lo-fi beat pop with its eyes truly blackened - deranged, mental and schizoid - think of a rampantly unloved Ministry and then some more. The stark ’Pictures’ is mid 70’s blank generation revisited with molten hot Suicide vibes beset to bongo beats and tribal motifs. ’Cellphone’ wraps up the set - a devilish psychotronic bastard of some measure, Sonic Youth in design and attitude albeit kicked, battered and bruised and somewhat bent out of shape. It’s enough to make you burn your White Stripes records in revolt. Stunning in a word. www.tigertrap.co.uk

More shortly - take care of yourselves…..

Mail me at mark@losingtoday.com or visit the super not so duper www.myspace.com/thesundayexperience for update type things….

Mark
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