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| Terry Emm - Loved and Never Lost |
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| OMD - Dresden |
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| Charlie Straight - I Sleep Alone |
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| Ty - Let's Start (inc on Vinyl) |
Great Mountain Fire:
Crooked Head:
6th May:
7/10
Possibly the best thing to come out of Belgium since the country's burgeoning cold-wave, post-punk, techno and art-rock scenes (and Soulwax), its lambic beer, dreamy chocolate and Dandoy's speculoos cake, Great Mountain Fire sound like a cross between Talking Heads, Theme Park and Treetop Flyers all rolled into one jolly package. Crooked Head serves a purpose perfectly here - with its insistent rhythm and optimistic candor, this breezy little number has steered past the possibility of sounding like a long and drawn-out Mumfords' song by stopping short of 3 minutes AND making me want to hear an album of theirs. Rather likable.
Ty:
Let's Start:
10th June:
8/10
Right back atcha with a second EP volume of Kick Snare and an Idea comes Brit-rapper Ty who refreshingly doesn't waggle his fingers in front of your face with aggressive and explicit spitting but instead knocks out party-friendly hip-hop bangers like this. Ty is way ahead of the game yet still utilizes ideas from the carefree days of tight-ass funky beats reminiscent of A Tribe Called Quest, Talib Kweli/Hi-Tek, Guru, Madlib et al. Tru Thoughts have signed themselves a real gem here - this is a summer anthem, replete with brassy stabs, lots of scratching which heads up both the vinyl version of Kick Snare part one and the digital version of part two. The other tracks on the EP prove that Ty isn't a flash in the pan - check out Like You Never for proof.
Queens of the Stone Age:
My God is the Sun:
Out now:
8/10
Fast becoming the Led Zep of a generation, QOTSA certainly know how to riff and produce super-charged rock battle-cries. Not unlike the best bits from Josh Homme's previous project Them Crooked Vultures, My God is the Sun is a fiery beast, possessed of Dave Grohl rattling out his best skin-splitting drum-work alongside Van Leeuwen and Fertita's fresh new approach. After the somewhat hazy previous album Era Vulgaris, issued in 2008, much has happened to QOTSA, apart from scrimping on quality. If the album Like Clockwork (out in June) is half as good as this, it'll be in a few year-end lists and glued to a few people's music machines.
Terry Emm:
Loved and Never Lost:
3rd June:
6/10
If the likes of Gonzalez, The Lilac Time, Ruarri Joseph and Benjamin Francis Leftwich have re-invented the songwriting wheel for you, you might dig Emm. After releasing an agreeably festive Christmas single last year in Gently, it's not surprising to discover that Loved and Never Lost comes from similar quiet pastoral origins. In fact, our Tel has a ring of Ray Davies about him, although admittedly more of a Waterloo Sunset more than You Really Got Me. Unlikely to challenge the likes of Sheeran and Howard, Emm sings in mild-mannered sepia when perhaps audiences might be hankering after some full-on passion, emotion and sharper tones. All told though, apart from not knowing who'd play this on radio (too softly-softly even for Radio 2, once suspects), Loved and Never Lost is an easy-going well-meant meander.
Charlie Straight:
I Sleep Alone:
20th May:
5/10
Talking of the bloody Mumfords, here they are under the new name of Charlie Straight. OK, OK, I'm being a bit glib - the Mumfords might not be the worst thing ever to have graced a stage and nor are these peeps, it's just all so bland to my ears. This starts in a hoe-down fiddly-de-dee manner, then comes to a halt in that annoying way that so many similar tunes do these days, before starting again, stopping, starting and, oh fucking hell, ending with a bloody skiffle-style bit with drumsticks on what sounds like a table leg. Non-threatening, ineffectual and like buttermilk to the ears, it'll sell very well in Surrey.
Colour of Bone:
Low Mode:
1st May:
6/10
Suitable for anyone requiring crunch on their musical cornflakes, Colour of Bone offer up a bolshie electro-rock pounder that draws similarities to Placebo, Enter Shikari and Garbage whilst remaining oddly polite in the vocal department. There were times when Depeche Mode might have considered cranking up their synths and drums to this level, but instead decided to bog themselves down with sensitive romanticism, rather than balls-out riffage. Colour of Bone won't replace the real Mode, nor will they change the world but they might make ears prick up with their Low Mode. Ones to watch.
OMD:
Dresden:
17th May (at OMD's website):
8/10
As if to ascertain their grip on the past recently substantiated by the cracking new album English Electric, OMD move from the '80s to the '90s with a CD single release for Dresden. After all, this was the decade that coveted the now virtually extinct format and it seems fitting that McCluskey and Humphries have opted to issue the second song from the album as an EP leader. Dresden is classic OMD - big synth-hook a la Enola Gay, European homage in the title, you could tick off the band's trademarks with every note. It's a belter and, for me, should have kick-started the album in place of Metroland. The accompanying tracks include a remix by John Foxx and the Maths and a track called Time Burns, previously-issued on the RSD 10" The Future Will Be Silent and cheekily included here as an exclusive. Hopefully it'll stop the bastards from selling said limited-edition for £80.