01 February 2008

by Tom Mendelsohn

Those Dancing Days, The Blakes, the Duke Spirit, The Mouth, Itch, Hot Chip, Operhouse, Anathallo, Scanners, The Cave Singers

"Worth hearing over and again until your heart bursts."

Those Dancing Days – Hitten
We are biased because we have met them and they were nice to us, but anyway, this is thoroughly jolly good bittersweet nostalgia-pop, pitched to perfection, worth hearing over and again until your heart bursts and you have to listen to the unfiltered crapshoot which begins below.

The Blakes – Two Times
Ordinarily we would beat savagely down on tired-sounding straight-up garage rock of the like last seen hocking up a lung circa 2004, but this particular number features the immortal lyric “cocaine and drugs and alcohol”, which totally rescues it…

Of course that’s a lie; this is top-order dogshit.

The Duke Spirit – The Step And The Walk
This is all very well, but would they have a career if the NME didn’t want to bang their singer? Doubtful; they’re piss-awful pub rock.

The Mouth – Just Passin’ Through
Bowl-cut cunts take an enormous step backwards here, with a tune so obvious Liam Gallagher probably headbutted its tabs in ten-foot letters into the side of a cliff. This is so obnoxiously retrogressive, NN would literally rather guitars had never existed than be forced to listen to it one more FUCKING time.

Itch – The Bombshell
Post-Libertines. Hanging’s too good for ‘em.

Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor
This is very much OK, in the sense of faint praise. Like everything Hot Chip do, this single would be fine in a vapid electro kind of a way, if they weren’t hyped to their high tits with quite such unreason. The record really needs a good deal more weight behind it for it really to be ‘ready for the floor’.

Operahouse – Born A Boy
Quoth our friend the press release: "This quartet from Camden…" – enough to get you and your haircuts flushed out of the airlock, where we come from (space; space which is filled with poison and slavering aliens).

Anathallo – Hanasakajijii (Four: A Great Wind More Ash)
This sounds exactly as you’d expect from its name: sweeping, orchestral, twee. The work of this apparently deeply pretentious seven-piece is a prime example of what happens if you put instrumentation above writing good tunes in the band mission statement. We keep banging on about it, but it’s true. Seriously, you’ll get a bad review otherwise. Ooo.

Scanners – Lowlife
Scanners’ first single – 'Raw' – was a rip-snorter. Scanners’ second single 'Lowlife' is light on admirable qualities. It’s not bad and it has a deal of promise, but in itself, well, it’s boring and unimportant.

The Cave Singers – Dancing On Our Graves
A nasal-voiced military-drummed folk stomp, we guess. We aren’t big on folk, but the riff is pretty fun, and we’ve heard a fuck of a lot worse today. The emperor elects to spare The Cave Singers.
your mum said on February 3rd 2008 [report abuse]

ahhh....that was an absolute JOY to read......

fletchy fletch fletch said on February 6th 2008 [report abuse]

Seconded. Plus he let Cave Singers off the hook.

Mendelsohn said on February 6th 2008 [report abuse]

even my highly developed sense of vanity can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not. i should have noted that all the rest of the songs on the cave singers' myspace are dog.

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