SINGLES ROUND-UP 20TH OCT 2012 - Richard Hawley, Voluntary Butler Scheme, PJP Band, Caviare Days, The Bloogs, Nightingales, Will Miles - out soon

Richard Hawley - Seek It - Parlophone 10" - Out now - 8 out of 10

After feeling the full force of Hawley's visceral psychedelia as found on recent album Standing at the Sky's Edge, one of the opus' quieter moments comes as a welcome relief. Not that the Sheffield bard's more vividly raucous moments haven't been a breath of fresh air, you understand, it's just that he does plaintive so bloody well. Seek It is one of his more reflective triumphs, along the lines of Motorcycle Song or the contents of Truelove's Gutter. The thing with Hawley is you know what to expect, but then he gives you the unexpected in the form of simple effective songwriting that has elevated him above 99.9% of the current chart detritus ebbing and flowing around radio playlists at the moment. Single of the round-up.

Atoms For Peace - Default - XL Recordings - 19th November - 7 out of 10

Now then - Radiohead's frontman Thom Yorke is out and about again with his most-recent side-project, Atoms For Peace. Default is Yorke doing Yorke like a clockwork machine - a gently simmering body of throbbing synths and resonating clicking beats, layered with Yorke's desperate dispirited croon and a mournful but engaging atmosphere. If you've liked Yorke's solo Eraser album or the past couple of Radiohead releases, you'll need the Kleenex when you hear this - it's rather lovely, if a little predictable.


Voluntary Butler Scheme - Brain Freeze - Split Records - 19th November - 5 out of 10

I am immediately transported back to the '90s and bands like The Farm and Dodgy when I hear stuff like TVBS - a sort of faux-funk with stop-start rhythms and brassy little stabs, all topped off with painfully optimistic good-times vocalizing and DIY production. Part of me feels guilty for marking him (it's the nom-de-plume of Midlander Rob Jones) down for being so sodding jolly, but the other half of me is recalling the clumsy arrangements and the fact I can't hear him in the mix. A game effort in the field of indie-pop but sadly, not my bag.


PJP Band - I Am a Racer - Ouf Records - 29th October - 7 out of 10

Out of the traps like a pitbull on heat come the latest act out of Plymouth and hey, you know what? That town is becoming a little hot-bed of talent (finally). Not that PJP are particularly individual or unique - there's nothing wrong with clipping bits of Arcade Fire, The Killers, Mystery Jets et al and assembling them into a rampant little indie-rock anthem that certainly offers promise - but on the strength of this song, I'd have them at my festival. Well sung, well-played.



Caviare Days - The Awakening EP - Label 259 - 26th November - 6 out of 10

Here we have Sweden's equivalent of what sounds like Voice of the Beehive and Curve. Which is no bad thing if you're old enough to remember those two outfits, or completely alien if you don't. Caviare Days (not a good name) are sisters Lina and Maja Westin (good voices) who deliver an EP that swings from psychedelic pop and spaced-out melancholia a la School of Seven Bells on the title-track to the more acoustic trip on When The Light is Breaking and the sputtering false-starts on The Lucky Ones. The first two songs work a treat, the second are forgettable but the whole is worth a listen.

The Bloogs - Freezing Rain - Self - 3rd December - 7 out of 10

Never mind the shite weather teeming it down outside, here's a band who positively LOVE the rain. So much so, the callous bleeders have written a song about it - and blow me, it's rather enjoyable. "I miss my mates, I miss my room, I miss my mum, I miss the womb" is a lyric that has an element of lazy-arsed student about it, before the whole thing launches into a joyous paean to the wet stuff. "It tranquilizes fires in my brain", opines their singer. That'll be far too much single-malt and marching powder, I reckon. All in all, along with a few other songs knocking about on their Soundcloud, The Bloogs (named after Dr Suess characters) show enough potential to suggest they've got legs (or wings in the case of their namesakes).

Nightingales - Real Gone Daddy - Cooking Vinyl - Out now - 7 out of 10

This gripping slice of aggressive cacophony comes from The Nightingale's recent resurgent album, No Love Lost. Perhaps not the greatest choice of single ever, Robert Lloyd's charges can still sound as incendiary and uncompromising without ever having to change gear, or so it would seem. That is until the bizarre bit at the end which sounds like the theme from Chigley, which is a world apart from the song's intro which reminds me of Squeeze's Another Nail In My Heart played inside a jet turbine. I actually prefer the rather less-laboured non-album flip-side, Book Of Right-On, which harbours a few pleasing riffs and a natty chorus. 

Will Miles - Shallow Water - Wildheart - 26th November - 6 out of 10

Roll-up, roll-up for the laid-back folkarama of London's latest strummin' man Will Miles who occupies a similar seat frequented by Frank Turner, Josh Bray and many others. Miles though gives his songs a bit of bluesy welly as well as a fearsome holler. The accompanying song Angela is an altogether more restrained affair with a harmonica motif and forlorn lyrics about lost love and, well, death. Where Shallow Water fails to ignite any flames within my soul, the flipside succeeds in a taught Van Morrison style. Promising though - check his EP out.


For information about live shows by any of the above, try heading to Allgigs here