FKJ - Waiting - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Sometimes an acronym covers a multitude of sins, such as naming your band. FKJ stands for French Kiwi Juice, a name almost as exotic as this blissed-out music. Fans of SBTRKT, Airhead and late '80s soul will warm to the man's heat-seeking formula of summer soul and skittish RnB beats, from the superior EP opener Waiting through to the woozy Learn To Fly, both with guest vocals that provide a lift to proceedings. Open The Door speeds things up a little, favouring staccato vocal samples over an actual verse-chorus structure. Overall, an EP that promises much and actually delivers most of it.
Weezer - Back To The Shack - ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
To all those bemoaning the '80s retro sounds around should consider this - the '90s are getting a rebirth thanks to bloody Weezer. This lot and Wheatus drove me up the walls with their ineffectual jangle first time around and it seems some of you can't get enough. So here's Weezer circa 2014 sounding like they've always done. A little bit glam but with one eye firmly cast on the student market, Back To The Shack lacks oomph and I really don't care if I never hear it (or them) again.
Carousels and Limousines - Superman/Strange Love - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Double A-side singles, created so that no-one but YOU has to make the decision as to which is the best of the two songs on offer. I can't make my mind up about of these from C&L, Bath's very own Kings Of Leon (of sorts) - on the one hand you've got the earnest rock jangle of Superman to contend with or, if acoustic mellowness is what you seek, the lighter and slightly more interesting Strange Love. This is the band's best offering to date but they still lack that killer tune - so far.
Sometimes an acronym covers a multitude of sins, such as naming your band. FKJ stands for French Kiwi Juice, a name almost as exotic as this blissed-out music. Fans of SBTRKT, Airhead and late '80s soul will warm to the man's heat-seeking formula of summer soul and skittish RnB beats, from the superior EP opener Waiting through to the woozy Learn To Fly, both with guest vocals that provide a lift to proceedings. Open The Door speeds things up a little, favouring staccato vocal samples over an actual verse-chorus structure. Overall, an EP that promises much and actually delivers most of it.
Weezer - Back To The Shack - ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
To all those bemoaning the '80s retro sounds around should consider this - the '90s are getting a rebirth thanks to bloody Weezer. This lot and Wheatus drove me up the walls with their ineffectual jangle first time around and it seems some of you can't get enough. So here's Weezer circa 2014 sounding like they've always done. A little bit glam but with one eye firmly cast on the student market, Back To The Shack lacks oomph and I really don't care if I never hear it (or them) again.
Carousels and Limousines - Superman/Strange Love - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Double A-side singles, created so that no-one but YOU has to make the decision as to which is the best of the two songs on offer. I can't make my mind up about of these from C&L, Bath's very own Kings Of Leon (of sorts) - on the one hand you've got the earnest rock jangle of Superman to contend with or, if acoustic mellowness is what you seek, the lighter and slightly more interesting Strange Love. This is the band's best offering to date but they still lack that killer tune - so far.
Tom The Lion - Wasting Sunlight - ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆
Finger-clicks, choirboy melodics, eerie piano, ritualistic off-kilter tribal drum-sounds, anti-pop - it can only be the much-touted theatrics of Tom The Lion. Released as a digital taster for upcoming album Sleep (although it won't actually feature on it!), Wasting Sunlight is a precious yet cumbersome beast, all thunder but little in the way of lightning but still 100% more interesting than the cack occupying many people's ear-space right now.
Goldie - Electric Abyss - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Eight minutes long and part of a body (sorry) of work that celebrates the human organs in all their skin-covered glory, Goldie's offering touches on matters 'brain' with a track that slowly builds from almost being musique concrete into unmistakably fidgety Goldie, bleeps, wooshes, tweaks and old-skool bass-stabs and all. This is just about the most approachable and inventive piece of music he's done since Timeless, quite frankly - I hope he expands on the idea. The other Body Of Songs include contributions by Bat For Lashes and Ghostpoet plus another seven to be announced later in 2014 (the whole album will be issued in 2015).
Martin Carr - The Santa Fe Skyway - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Germany's Tapete Records label is fast becoming a haven for treasured songwriters - Lloyd Cole and Bill Pritchard being recent signings - so it's no complete surprise to see Boo Radleys' frontman Martin Carr strike up a solo deal with them. On the strength of this single, the first from new album The Breaks out in September, they must be bumping fists in delight. The Santa Fe Skyway comprises an element of Britpop, lots of strings and killer hooks that recall the days when The Boo Radleys weren't writing Wake Up Boo and were writing Lazurus and the like - hell, there's even some brass on this rather rousing number. Hit.
Paul White - Honey Cats - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
While we're still waiting for XL to release the much-touted Jai Paul album, R&S have already hot-footed it in a similar direction with minimal beats producer Paul White. An album entitled Shaker Notes is due out in September, a set that promises to be just as off-the-wall as mid-'90s Apollo signings Uzect Plausch, Tournesol and Locust. Honey Cats sounds like some druggy theme-music to some forgotten detective b-movie from the '70s, the sort of film that went straight to video, not because it was crap but because no-one cared. Lots of people care about White though - he's ditched his usual global-beat and samples and headed for a mildly-menacing jazz-shuffle that features a doleful and insistent bassline and sleazy bluesy vocals that could get him arrested if he tries it again. Let's hope he does.
Goldie - Electric Abyss - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
Eight minutes long and part of a body (sorry) of work that celebrates the human organs in all their skin-covered glory, Goldie's offering touches on matters 'brain' with a track that slowly builds from almost being musique concrete into unmistakably fidgety Goldie, bleeps, wooshes, tweaks and old-skool bass-stabs and all. This is just about the most approachable and inventive piece of music he's done since Timeless, quite frankly - I hope he expands on the idea. The other Body Of Songs include contributions by Bat For Lashes and Ghostpoet plus another seven to be announced later in 2014 (the whole album will be issued in 2015).
Martin Carr - The Santa Fe Skyway - ★★★★★★★★☆☆
Germany's Tapete Records label is fast becoming a haven for treasured songwriters - Lloyd Cole and Bill Pritchard being recent signings - so it's no complete surprise to see Boo Radleys' frontman Martin Carr strike up a solo deal with them. On the strength of this single, the first from new album The Breaks out in September, they must be bumping fists in delight. The Santa Fe Skyway comprises an element of Britpop, lots of strings and killer hooks that recall the days when The Boo Radleys weren't writing Wake Up Boo and were writing Lazurus and the like - hell, there's even some brass on this rather rousing number. Hit.
Paul White - Honey Cats - ★★★★★★★☆☆☆
While we're still waiting for XL to release the much-touted Jai Paul album, R&S have already hot-footed it in a similar direction with minimal beats producer Paul White. An album entitled Shaker Notes is due out in September, a set that promises to be just as off-the-wall as mid-'90s Apollo signings Uzect Plausch, Tournesol and Locust. Honey Cats sounds like some druggy theme-music to some forgotten detective b-movie from the '70s, the sort of film that went straight to video, not because it was crap but because no-one cared. Lots of people care about White though - he's ditched his usual global-beat and samples and headed for a mildly-menacing jazz-shuffle that features a doleful and insistent bassline and sleazy bluesy vocals that could get him arrested if he tries it again. Let's hope he does.
UMA - Calm/Easy - ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆
Berliner couple UMA recently released their debut album, a collection of chilly electro-pop vignettes that didn't excite this writer in the slightest. Calm/Easy is one of the better songs on the album but even when extracted as a single, I'm failing to see the point. The merest of songs is buried under minimal skittery beats and a chorus so featherlight, it might well have fallen from the wings of a dove - or a pigeon. UMA's production is crystal clear and punchy but it's looking for a song to match.
Berliner couple UMA recently released their debut album, a collection of chilly electro-pop vignettes that didn't excite this writer in the slightest. Calm/Easy is one of the better songs on the album but even when extracted as a single, I'm failing to see the point. The merest of songs is buried under minimal skittery beats and a chorus so featherlight, it might well have fallen from the wings of a dove - or a pigeon. UMA's production is crystal clear and punchy but it's looking for a song to match.