DJ HAUS - Let's Get 2gether (Thug Houz Anthems 3) - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Three tracks on the Hoot Haus imprint that combine current minimal four-to-the-floor sounds with that good ole Strictly Rhythm and Nervous style so prevalent in the '90s. Hair-spray hi-hats, kidney-wobbling synth-bass and cut-up vocal samples that made me check that the whole thing wasn't created by Mark Kinchen aka MK. Sadly not, but it's fine in its own floor-filling way.
LIFE - Take Off With You - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Hull's own take on Life deliver a pumped indie anthem that's just the right side of fist-pumping and dressed in a great sleeve (well, avatar if you're downloading). For all its druggy overtones, there's an element of naive charm about this follow-up to their previous Money single, with lyrical content sure to strike a match with teenage rampagers across the land.
NEIL COWLEY TRIO - Mission - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
One of the trio's more under-stated little melodies, lifted from the recent album Touch and Flee and destined to be a fixture of their live sets. In truth, Mission subtlety is too strong for this to be considered as a single, per se, but it's an oddly engaging little morsel that starts like a Warp Records release before merging into some pleasing piano and drums melodrama that neither excites nor offends. It just is.
JACKO HOOPER - Egg Shells - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Blessed with a similar melodic sensibility as James Vincent McMorrow, Ben Howard, Jon Allen and the like, sweetly-voiced Hooper seems set to glue Brighton to the UK's musical wall. If he carries on like this, his future is assured and although there's nothing ground-breaking about Egg Shells, it's eminently more palatable than bloody Ed Sheeran or Passenger. There's no pretence and no pomposity about his style and the remaining songs on the For You EP drift quietly by on a wave of sensitive-man euphoria. Imagine a masculine Daughter.
PONY AND TRAP - Time To Engage - ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
An amalgam of Ting Tings (bounce), Haim (melody) and The Wave Pictures (if that's possible), Time To Engage is the lead-track from the same-titled EP and easily the best song on here by a country kilometre. Radically lo-fi and epic all at the same time, Time To Engage sounds like a live favourite but is bereft of soul or urgency - it needs a rinse through a mixing desk, frankly. As for the remainder of Pony and Trap's oeuvre, full marks for 'doing it', low marks for forgetting a tune or two. "You're coming over too flirty...". Indeed.
HANNAH TRIGWELL - Rectify EP - ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
Lovers of Lissie and the like will identify with Trigwell's latest EP. Lead song Hurricane is a harmless enough acoustic-pop burble that has the requisite 'uh-ohohoh's throughout, armed with a lyric that runs "...I feel the thunder in my veins, you hit me like a hurricane..". I'm not excited, to be honest. Other songs include Rectify (which sounds very similar to me), Hearts On Fire (promising atmospheric start, best song on here) and the blustery Tightrope which also has Uh-oh's on it. I really hate uh-ohs.
JUNGLE - Time - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Back with a fourth taster from the production duo's much-anticipated debut-album, Jungle's star might start slipping if they don't get it issued sometime soon. Time isn't as great as The Heat, nor as slinky as Platoon but does indulge in those all-important soulful harmonies and a tight ass-wiggling rhythm straight out of Prince's locker (circa Kiss, U Got The Look etc). Lacking in a chorus, the whole track sounds a lot like all of their previous releases rolled into one. Still one of the best things around though.
SBTRKT - Temporary View - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Sampha adds a James Blake/Sam Smith warble to this slo-funk number from SBTRKT's upcoming new album and rescues the whole exercise from obscurity. Those old enough to remember the likes of Eugene Wilde, Will Downing etc may find comparisons to much of their classic '80s releases as well as their label 4th and Broadway who, when they weren't churning out electro-disco classics, wielded heart-wrenching smooth soul ballads. Much like this. You can't keep a good legacy down.
NOAH FRANCIS JOHNSON - Harvest Tree EP - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
This man's music sounds like it should have a big, hard-rockin' metal band behind him rather than soft-focus acoustics. Maybe it's the heart-strings a-tuggin' on the epic lead-off track Bleed that makes this sound more like Bon Jovi than Bon Iver. Johnson's arrangements are far less bombastic of course and the folkier (and more enjoyable) For A Long Time suits the Welshman's expressive tonsils more. Things get bluesier on I've Been Thinking while the title-track employs some nifty piano-work to kickstart things in a Paul Weller-esque way. Designed to showcase the follow-up to his Life and Times album, Harvest Tree is an intentional mixed-bag.
DANITY KANE - Lemonade (feat Tyga) - ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Absolutely devoid of danceability, this bomp-stepping slice of confused RnB pop-rap tries to emulate The Neptunes and earlier Timbaland productions with little in the way of music, just layers and layers of vocals, kitchen-sink percussion and the occasional dalliance into melody, just for the sheer hell of it. To be fair, it'll have provincial summer-clubbers writhing in carnal union within seconds. I was writhing in boredom.
SINGLE OF THE ROUND-UP
PUSHER - Revive - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Sharing a template previously used by New Order, Mark Lanegan and Editors can be a tricky bit of juggling but likeable doomsters Pusher have been bang-on-the-money with their previous singles. Revive is the follow-up to the unsettling maelstrom of Let It Break and represents a more inviting side to a band who must be employing forces of nature to make their intense music. Squalling guitars swirl, drums rumble and bass-lines menace with intent - and that intent involves you investing in their album when it finally arrives.
Three tracks on the Hoot Haus imprint that combine current minimal four-to-the-floor sounds with that good ole Strictly Rhythm and Nervous style so prevalent in the '90s. Hair-spray hi-hats, kidney-wobbling synth-bass and cut-up vocal samples that made me check that the whole thing wasn't created by Mark Kinchen aka MK. Sadly not, but it's fine in its own floor-filling way.
LIFE - Take Off With You - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Hull's own take on Life deliver a pumped indie anthem that's just the right side of fist-pumping and dressed in a great sleeve (well, avatar if you're downloading). For all its druggy overtones, there's an element of naive charm about this follow-up to their previous Money single, with lyrical content sure to strike a match with teenage rampagers across the land.
NEIL COWLEY TRIO - Mission - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
One of the trio's more under-stated little melodies, lifted from the recent album Touch and Flee and destined to be a fixture of their live sets. In truth, Mission subtlety is too strong for this to be considered as a single, per se, but it's an oddly engaging little morsel that starts like a Warp Records release before merging into some pleasing piano and drums melodrama that neither excites nor offends. It just is.
JACKO HOOPER - Egg Shells - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Blessed with a similar melodic sensibility as James Vincent McMorrow, Ben Howard, Jon Allen and the like, sweetly-voiced Hooper seems set to glue Brighton to the UK's musical wall. If he carries on like this, his future is assured and although there's nothing ground-breaking about Egg Shells, it's eminently more palatable than bloody Ed Sheeran or Passenger. There's no pretence and no pomposity about his style and the remaining songs on the For You EP drift quietly by on a wave of sensitive-man euphoria. Imagine a masculine Daughter.
PONY AND TRAP - Time To Engage - ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
An amalgam of Ting Tings (bounce), Haim (melody) and The Wave Pictures (if that's possible), Time To Engage is the lead-track from the same-titled EP and easily the best song on here by a country kilometre. Radically lo-fi and epic all at the same time, Time To Engage sounds like a live favourite but is bereft of soul or urgency - it needs a rinse through a mixing desk, frankly. As for the remainder of Pony and Trap's oeuvre, full marks for 'doing it', low marks for forgetting a tune or two. "You're coming over too flirty...". Indeed.
HANNAH TRIGWELL - Rectify EP - ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
Lovers of Lissie and the like will identify with Trigwell's latest EP. Lead song Hurricane is a harmless enough acoustic-pop burble that has the requisite 'uh-ohohoh's throughout, armed with a lyric that runs "...I feel the thunder in my veins, you hit me like a hurricane..". I'm not excited, to be honest. Other songs include Rectify (which sounds very similar to me), Hearts On Fire (promising atmospheric start, best song on here) and the blustery Tightrope which also has Uh-oh's on it. I really hate uh-ohs.
JUNGLE - Time - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Back with a fourth taster from the production duo's much-anticipated debut-album, Jungle's star might start slipping if they don't get it issued sometime soon. Time isn't as great as The Heat, nor as slinky as Platoon but does indulge in those all-important soulful harmonies and a tight ass-wiggling rhythm straight out of Prince's locker (circa Kiss, U Got The Look etc). Lacking in a chorus, the whole track sounds a lot like all of their previous releases rolled into one. Still one of the best things around though.
SBTRKT - Temporary View - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Sampha adds a James Blake/Sam Smith warble to this slo-funk number from SBTRKT's upcoming new album and rescues the whole exercise from obscurity. Those old enough to remember the likes of Eugene Wilde, Will Downing etc may find comparisons to much of their classic '80s releases as well as their label 4th and Broadway who, when they weren't churning out electro-disco classics, wielded heart-wrenching smooth soul ballads. Much like this. You can't keep a good legacy down.
NOAH FRANCIS JOHNSON - Harvest Tree EP - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
This man's music sounds like it should have a big, hard-rockin' metal band behind him rather than soft-focus acoustics. Maybe it's the heart-strings a-tuggin' on the epic lead-off track Bleed that makes this sound more like Bon Jovi than Bon Iver. Johnson's arrangements are far less bombastic of course and the folkier (and more enjoyable) For A Long Time suits the Welshman's expressive tonsils more. Things get bluesier on I've Been Thinking while the title-track employs some nifty piano-work to kickstart things in a Paul Weller-esque way. Designed to showcase the follow-up to his Life and Times album, Harvest Tree is an intentional mixed-bag.
DANITY KANE - Lemonade (feat Tyga) - ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Absolutely devoid of danceability, this bomp-stepping slice of confused RnB pop-rap tries to emulate The Neptunes and earlier Timbaland productions with little in the way of music, just layers and layers of vocals, kitchen-sink percussion and the occasional dalliance into melody, just for the sheer hell of it. To be fair, it'll have provincial summer-clubbers writhing in carnal union within seconds. I was writhing in boredom.
SINGLE OF THE ROUND-UP
PUSHER - Revive - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Sharing a template previously used by New Order, Mark Lanegan and Editors can be a tricky bit of juggling but likeable doomsters Pusher have been bang-on-the-money with their previous singles. Revive is the follow-up to the unsettling maelstrom of Let It Break and represents a more inviting side to a band who must be employing forces of nature to make their intense music. Squalling guitars swirl, drums rumble and bass-lines menace with intent - and that intent involves you investing in their album when it finally arrives.