Single of the Week
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - 'Thou Shalt Always Kill (Lex)
Every year there's a new independent record that either creates a reaction in the listener akin to Archimedes getting particularly excited about something he's just discovered, or it brings people out in a rash that threatens to envelop their genitals and eat them up. This is that record. Thus far I've heard it described as "amazing", and "deeply shit", "hilarious and innovative", "terrible and really white" and most recently "bitter". How can you hate on a record that features the lines: "thou shalt not think any man over the age of 30 who plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile / Some people are just nice"? Answer, you can't unless you're a gimbit. Scroobius answers his own critics: "Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they've become popular," and this is already undoubtedly popular thanks to an internet generated buzz that's spread like a morphing virus with a right cob on. 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' splits people right down the middle - either they can't get enough of it or they want to split Mr Pip down the middle. Personally I think a track that advises you not to watch Hollyoaks and is brave enough to implore you to not buy the NME has to have something about it. Incidentally while one reviewer in this week's singles column thinks this should be single of the week, the other would like to shit on it and then flip it out of a clay pigeon machine and shoot it from the sky.
JA
Black Strobe - 'Shining Bright Star' (Playlouderecordings)
Ah, at last, a contemporary electro banger that doesn't come dressed up in dayglo vomit like its about to have a meeting with Super Super magazine down Brick Lane. Black Strobe's 'Shining Bright Star' wouldn't be hovering over some lonely stable as a pointer to the Messiah - nosirreeeee. It's a brilliantly pitiless black hole, a stomping mammoth of a bass to crush all comers, rampant synths for some scrotting that probably involves naughty things chopped out on a small, decorated plate and a buxom lady with a vivid imagination and an interesting leather collection. The unholy marriage of hell for leather dance music and the dark perversions of rock & roll is a notoriously difficult one to consummate, but Black Strobe walk up the aisle with plenty of swagger left for the wedding night.
LT
Joan as Police Woman - 'Flushed Chest' (Reveal)
Ah, what good timing. The sun drenches through the window while this languid, hooky reggae ode to flush chests drifts merrily by on the cans, man. If we're truthful it's not Joan as Police Woman's finest hour, but then her finest hour - yet to come we imagine - will be so divine it might actually make all other hours throw the towel in. And then where would we be? Which means this will do absolutely fine for now as the soundtrack to whiling away lazy hours on languorous afternoons in the sunshine. Lushness.
North Atlantic Oscillation - 'Some Blue Hive' (One Records)
The Atlantic's equivalent of the El Nino phenomenon, the North Atlantic Oscillation is the complex meterological whizzbang that controls our weather. It's fitting, then, that the band who name themselves after it are blessed with such a startlingly varied and tumultuous sound. 'Some Blue Hive' is akin to 'Sophtware Slump'-era Grandaddy at 30,000; burbling, grandiose and sprawling, it feels like falling through cotton wool clouds and gasping at the thin air, beautiful oblivion but seconds away.
LT
Foals - 'Hummer' (Transgressive)
Foals are supposedly one of the hottest new properties around, which is a worry considering their new single 'Hummer' actually sounds like it was made before the Twin Towers came crashing down. So what, are we having a 2001 revival already? The Rapture went to seed ages ago, mainly because their sound became stale and Robert Smith wanted his voice back. What Foals will do when The Rapture want their sound back is anyone's guess. Put this bunch of fucking tedious chancers out to graze this minute. Really everyone, I mean, wake the FUCK UP!! They're shit.
JA
1990s - 'See You At The Lights'(Rough Trade)
Not quite as acerbic or dryly witty as some of their past singles (there's more "ba-ba-baa-ing" than smutty comments about people's wives), 'See You At The Lights' sees Jackie McKeown lunging for a bite at the pop jugular with those funny teeth of his. We really must stop going on about his teeth. They're a band, not a dentistry puzzle for ffffsake. Anyway, with a great big radio chorus and a synth whirl that sounds like a spaceship landing on a Ford Cortina, 'See You At The Lights' buys a drink for the barmaid to garner a warm reception for the band's forthcoming debut album.
LT
Hanson - 'Go' (Cooking Vinyl)
Mmm plop.
JA
Arctic Monkeys - 'Brianstorm' (Domino)
Remember that tune by Babylon Zoo about the 'Spaceman'? Course you do, though chances are you recall the really cool introduction with the speeded up voice, and were so traumatised by the rest of it that you've somehow managed to wipe it completely from your memory banks. The Arctic Monkeys are a little like that. The record cranks up and your little heart is aflutter with excitement, but then they have to get on with the important bit: the song. And it's never quite as good as that initial pulsating, adrenalin-charged preamble. Saying that, 'Brianstorm' is precocious enough, and if we were 16-years-old we'd probably think this was the best record ever made. As it is it's the best Arctic Monkeys record ever made. A steady improvement then.
JA
Switches - 'Lay Down The Law'(Atlantic)
Where's the one labelled 'off'?
LT
