SINGLES ROUND-UP - 29th August - Jon Hopkins, These New Puritans, John Foxx, Dutch Uncles, Paul Haig and more
Ooh this sounds a bit New Ordery to start with (circa when Hooky was thrumming for them), if they'd pitched up next to Goldfrapp or Polica for a session. Torrini has darkened her horizons and knocked out a slice of deeply-layered electro-pop with commanding success. It all means bugger all lyrically, but I'm a bit enamoured with the whole sound she's achieved here. Excellent single - the album's out this month. I'll be waiting. Meanwhile, check out the Andrew Weatherall re-rub that is doing the rounds - ten minutes of Kleenex-soaking loveliness.
Midlake - Antiphon - 8/10
In Eric Pulido, Midlake have found themselves a capable lead crooner, ensuring that the Texas outfit retain their trademark harmonies to the fullest. Antiphon, the title track to their forthcoming album, is a languid psychedelic canter that almost enters Kula Shaker territory (Tattva - seriously, have a listen) before redeeming itself with a storming chorus hookline and finishing its business in three short sweet minutes. Less Americana, rather more surf-like, this is Midlake approaching their possible peak. Lush.
Phantom Runners - It Takes Me Away - 6/10
Young in existence but grown-up with ideas, Phantom Runners' It Takes Me Away jingle-jangles like a million other indie bands but lands right-side-up by sounding positive and rosy-cheeked. I remember an Irish band called Power To Dream - '90s power-poppers who delivered similar inoffensive wonderment that, on its day, could have launched ships (on others, it sank them). These chaps mine a similar seam so it remains to be seen whether their sprightly take on life wins through.
Another glitch-pop vocalist but one with an admittedly keen ear for a tune. He's done his major-label time in the past as David's Lyre and real name Paul Dixon, covered oodles of songs, handed out remixes like sweets and now set his sights on the club-scene by teaming up with Kulkid for this. Tell you what - it works, sort of. Four to the floor and with an ear and an eye on the '90s, Fyfe delivers a staccato house rhythm that may or may not break him in a few UK clubs, but may just fall short in crossing him over to a chin-stroking fan-base. Promising.
Wet Nuns - Hanging - 7/10
Who's up for some death-rattle-rock 'n' roll then? Sounding like they've been canoodleing with Ozzy and Lydia Lunch, the Nuns carve another notch on the bedpost tagged 'death blues' with a soul-searching piece of grimy bluesiana that neither offends nor, for that matter, excites. It all improves when Hanging hangs low down and dirty for the final sixty seconds, that last shot of bourbon still coating the teeth and tongue of a hard-bitten song that ends better than it starts. Still better than most of the bumfluffery out there though.
These New Puritans - Organ Eternal - 9/10
Easily my favourite extract from the sprawling triple-sided Field Of Reeds album, Organ Eternal is the cyclical and eerie track that sits at the end of side two like some reverential carillon. As a stand-alone track, it's unlikely to excite anyone other than the sort of geek who loves hearing five and a half minute beatless epics scupper radio playlists. And there aren't enough glockenspiels in pop these days - all hail these boys and Dutch Uncles for slipping them into their music (real or otherwise). This song is the perfect marraige between what Steve Reich tried to do on Drumming and what Talk Talk actually did on Spirit Of Eden. Single of the week.
Jon Hopkins & Purity Ring - Breathe This Air - 8/10
Mutual admiration has brought these two likely electronica acts together (plus a few favours owed to Hopkins for his work on the 4AD act's music in the past). This re-working of the Immunity album-track is expanded to include Megan James' sweetly-intoned vocals, making the whole thing crystalline and haunting as opposed to just glitchy (but still excellent). Pleasing but I hope the entire Immunity album isn't subjected to an 'added-vocals' idea - the original is exemplary as it is.
If the pair had lopped off the first 50 seconds of this atmospheric epic, Evangeline may well have been perfect radio fodder. As it is, Foxx and Hulkkonen have crafted a minor-key melodrama that rivals anything Jon Hopkins or Goldfrapp are releasing right now. Big synths, breathy Foxx vocals and a barely-there rhythm triumph over a possible temptation to go 'dancey'. David Lynch lends his twisted talents to a couple of remixes here, more funereal than fun, while the other new tracks are just as rewarding if not better - Strictly is positively sinister, for example, while Can't See You Anymore has an air of Ryuichi Sakamoto about it. On 12" and CD.
Anna Calvi - Eliza - 6/10
The first new extract from new album One Breath is an part-operatic folky jangle that recalls PJ Harvey and Siouxsie, albeit with the usual Calvi histrionics. Sadly, there's no song to speak of, merely bash-bash-bash rhythms, a bit of guitar widdling and a long overdue melody piping up at around the two-and-a-half minute mark before the whole thing careers into a wall at speed. Hardly the stuff of exaltations and jubilations then.
Roots Manuva - Stolen Youth - 7/10
Written for the popular kidulthood soap Skins, the biggest crime here is not the choice of drama programme (it's a good 'un) but the fact that Roots Manuva is still not a household name, whereas Stryder, Labrinth et al plague the charts. Manuva is up there with the best of them - the Kwelis, the Raekwons, the KRS-Ones etc - he's not better, he's just up there as a clever lyricist and a neat arranger. Skins was OK to provide for - at least it wasn't My Family or Waterloo Road - but the man's work deserves adulation on a wider scale for longer. Get this then check out his catalogue.
After several years seemingly hiding away, electro-pop's cruelly forgotten son has once again kicked a few boundaries with this double 'a' side single. Issued as a pre-cursor to his forthcoming Kube album on ROL (his first since 2009's Relive), Red Rocks is a twitchy off-kilter effort that sounds like it's running for a train, while UW2B is a deep-grooved trap-bass workout that's minimal lyrically but jam-packed with stop-start riddims that recall his Cinematique and Coincidence vs Fate eras. Chopped-up soundbites, intricate beats and trademark melodies? Welcome back Mr Haig, we've been expecting you. And, by the way - Kube will be reviewed on this site soon.
Dutch Uncles - Nometo - 7/10
Ah those dulcet Dutchy tones gently trilling over a soft, deftly woven tapestry of light indie beats and neat hooks. It's another successful single release for the band on Memphis Industries who, by now, should have done what tour-mates Everything Everything and the (vocally, at least) not dissimilar Hot Chip have achieved. Nometo won't change much in the band's fortunes but is a likeable 3 minutes nonetheless.
MGMT - Your Life Is a Lie - 5/10
A clear cut case of style over substance with MGMT once more - the video being more interesting than the song. It's not abhorrent though, just downright annoying with its stuttered jerking beat and duh-duh-duh lyrics plodded out like a shopping-list. I remember Devo doing songs like this (Be Stiff, Social Fools, Sloppy) and getting away with it by being completely eccentric. MGMT probably wish they were that imaginative. Gah. You see what is. Happening. I'm reviewing this. In time to the beat. It's time to move. On.
Sarah Neufeld - Hero Brother - 7/10
When not shaving the strings for Arcade Fire, Sarah Neufeld writes her own brand of busy cyclical folky shenanigans like this. After a minute or so, the stomping begins and we're all involved in some devil-may-care hoedown more suited to the middle of a stadium, rather than Ireland's west-coast or a Texas hillbilly rave-up. Intricately performed, Neufeld's take on the violin is as aggressive as John Cale or Laurie Anderson, or as pretty as Aly Bain or Seth Lakeman - take your pick. Arcade Fire need to use this lady a lot more.
The prettiest and most obvious radio single from the band's 2013 album finally gets a single release, albeit as a rounding-up sweetener for lots of English Electric out-takes, b-sides and remixes in the form of a 10-track EP - it's an album in itself. If you chance upon the weird video that goes along with it, you'll hopefully not be deterred too much - dogs knobbing cats is certainly NOT what this song seems to be about. Romantic, elegaic, typically OMD is the order of the day and a fitting final single from their best album in decades.
Jim Bob - Dream Come True - 7/10
In which Carter USM's lanky straggley-haired icon does his usual sub-Clash/Strummer sneer, set to a brassy jangly commentary on all-matters media, namely "for £100 I'll come and play in your living room", "another break-up LP" and, well you get the picture. It's that 'paying-for-services' phenomenon, other than singing a song, recording it and playing it for the love of it. I think. Anyway, it's rather subdued for Jim Bob but that doesn't make it any less interesting. Bring on the album.