SINGLES ROUND-UP 16TH SEP 2012 - Portico Quartet, Candidate, Silver Apples, Detachments, Pet Shop Boys, The Ghosts, Daughter - out soon

A glut of interesting, though not always great, singles and downloads due out soon

Candidate - April Again - 1st October - Playground

7/10

Billed as 'dreamrock' and clearly fans of The Byrds, Bright Eyes, The Church and mid-period Primal Scream, Candidate's oeuvre is paisley-coloured and trippy with it. Along with half of the musical world at the moment, the band hail from Brooklyn but sound refreshingly unlike typical acts from that neighbourhood. There's no pretense about April Again, just a fresh spacey summery sound jammed with hooks and a mannered vocal that perhaps isn't the most unique in the world, but when you have a decent song to sing, it doesn't always matter. Promising lead-off from their upcoming album (soon to be reviewed on this very site in due course).

Portico Quartet featuring Cornelia - Steepless - 1st October - Real World

7/10

The London outfit's decision to temporarily eschew jazz circles for those fascinated by the charm of laptops and electronica, might appear to have been somewhat suicidal in another band's hands. But with Portico Quartet, you know that the very essence of their unpredictable new sound is its predictably sound result. Steepless is as far removed from jazz as you can imagine, instead embedded in a whirlpool of skittering percussion, atmospherics and sub-twee girly vocals that neither detract nor heighten the experience by any huge degree. Their path towards becoming club-favourites has been enhanced by the punchy Luca Lozano version of Lacker Boo, another track from their self-titled third album, while the other remixes aren't quite as triumphant.

The Ghosts - Underrated - 15th October - Pocket Records

8/10

Being a bit of a sucker for this lot's recent album The End, from where Underrated is taken, I'm pleased to see one of the obvious songs being chosen as radio-fodder. Songwriter Alex Starling can turn the sort of tune that Pet Shop Boys might have knocked out around their Nightlife period, minus perhaps the lyrical wit. Essentially it's bright and breezy synth-rock with more hooks than a tackle-box and sports a natty near-stadium filling chorus to boot. The traditional remixes come in two forms - the lengthy epic trademark tribal-house minimalism of X-Press 2 is perhaps the most agreeable, though you'd hardly recognize it from the original (I guess that's the point), while Anders Kallmark gives Underrated a fist-pumping veneer that neither improves or ruins The Ghosts' efforts. 

Pet Shop Boys - Winner - out now - EMI

6/10

For me right now, Tennant and Lowe aren't pushing my buttons with their new album Elysium (see review on this site) yet, on this accompanying EP, they're showing signs of the old nuances we all know and love. Winner is a bit of a stinker, a faux pas of celebratory 'meh' swimming in mawkish cheesiness. Moving swiftly on, the bouncier A Certain 'Je Ne Sais Quoi' is almost classic PSB - take a well-known phrase or saying and twist it into a slice of English disco-pop, job done. Rudyard Kipling's beautiful and poignant poem The Way Through The Woods is given a thoughtful symphonic arrangement, before falling prey to sub-dubstep beats and a fitting settlement, while poignancy reigns supreme on I Started a Joke, a Bee Gees song primarily steered by the late Robin Gibb and previously (clumsily) covered by Faith No More. Mercifully, PSB do it justice by sticking to the plot. Y'see? This is what the duo's new album should be about - fun. 

Silver Apples - Edge of Wonder - 8th October - Chicken Coop

8/10 - Single of the Week

Formed aeons ago, American psychedelic songwriter Simeon has been rolling out an oddworld of the frenetic, the fraught and the fragile for the best part of four decades. Yet, listening to this unassuming and catchy little vignette, you'd be right in presuming this to be a new composition - and it is. Written in the past year and rush-released for some upcoming Silver Apples live shows aplus as an accompaniment to a vinyl repress of fourth album The Garden (to be reviewed right here in due course), Edge of Wonder is a little bit Brian Eno, a tiny bit David Thomas and not unlike Brian Wilson, which is no bad thing. Armed with his trademark oscillators and, what sound like, whirly-tubes, plus his own hand-built synth (called The Simeon, no less), Simeon has created such a deftly atmospheric bundle of eeriness that I'm finding it impossible to stop playing the wretched thing! The flip-side to this limited coloured-vinyl (and download) issue is an upgrade of mid '90s comeback single Fractal Flow, also a live recording greeted with enthusiastic audience feedback. Beguiling.

Daughter - Smother - out now - 4AD

8/10

Never mind the likes of Sharon van Etten and Jesca Hoop, fine though they may be, new kids on the block Daughter look and sound like real contenders for the celestial dream-folk throne, if Smother is anything to go by. Hearing this, you imagine desolate landscapes of winter-ravaged mountains and meadows, bleary-eyed young lovers dozens of miles apart and soaking up the last drops of despair from a bottle of single malt. Either that or someone's dropped narcotics in my chicken soup. 4AD have, once again, hooked up with a handful of talented writers who can already look forward to being compared to the label's other signings, such as Pale Saints, Bon Iver, Kendra Smith and Swallow - there are glimmers of brilliance here, for sure. The album bodes well.

Detachments - Fade EP - 17th September - Hacienda Records

7/10

For this first release of the autumn, Peter Hook's Haccy imprint, now firmly established as an occasional outlet for other localized artists including ex-Factory acts Section 25 and Kevin Hweick, as well as a few hit and miss projects (Hook's ill-fated Freebass being one), strikes out with Detachments who, at first listen, sound like they've become rather familiar with a few recordings from the original Factory stable, though not necessarily the best ones. The three songs can be divided up into an unremarkable, but pleasant, jangly ramble akin to The Railway Children (Nothing You Can Do), a jittery drum-machine heavy electro-pop number (Morning Light) not dissimilar to Red Turns To's lovely Lost Again (with authentic Hooky-style bass added for good measure) and the full-throttle closer (Until You Fade Away) which recalls Revenge or New Order circa Movement with yet more ankle-deep bass and gritty guitars throughout. Listening to this EP in reverse order oddly seems to make more sense, but overall, I like it whichever way around it plays.