10 March 2007

by Rob McCrae

Howling Bells, Wolf & Cub, Pretty Ricky, Alamos, Jet, Julie Feeney, The Sounds, Vessels, Polytechnic, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Simon Breed, The United Kingdom of America, Clark, Capdown.

"Howling Bells have pied piper qualities and kids follow at their heels, drawn in by the sleazy vocals and a laconic hang to the guitar."

Howling Bells – Low Happening
Howling Bells have pied piper qualities and kids follow at their heels, drawn in by the sleazy vocals and a laconic hang to the guitar. The fact that it ends just as you’re beginning to synchronise with the druggy drawl of lead singer Juanita Stein just heightens the pleasure.

Wolf & Cub – This Mess
Prone to disintegrating stages on the vapour trails of their psychedelic Primal Scream in the midst of their drug valhalla sound bodes well for Wolf & Cub, avatars of the latest band craze which appears to be naming after Gods’ animals. With the viral feedback of BRMC swirling through the mix, it’s an exhilarating mutation and the best thing Australia have produced since the year Kylie.

Pretty Ricky – On The Hotline
In the mid 90s, Jodeci wrapped the audibly-challenged female population around their little fingers by way of their tawdry sex anthems and this inexcusably sends you right back to those days. It even has a beat so retro that it practically scores those movies where characters spoke on brick-sized mobile phones without a sliver of comedy or irony.

Alamos – Silly Icarus, But You Can’t Really Blame Him For Trying
Heralding from Scotland, although their sound has disaffected American youth ploughing through the centre, forthcoming producer Steve Albino will undoubtedly caress these attributes for future commercial gain. If you imagine Mogwai with Mclusky screaming on vocals then bevelled edges smoothing out the band’s raw sound. Recommended.

Jet – Shine On
A band that used to be about sibling rivalry and the fact that they were bigger than digital cameras in Japan but now they’ve chosen the fireside and turned into Embrace with a nasal melody that might as well be a Manchurian robot. Admittedly, this soulful ballad is preferable to their attempts at balls-out Stratocaster rock n roll but the ghost of Oasis glowers on the horizon already dismissing this kind of competition.

Julie Feeney – Aching
Nothing about the presentation inspires optimism including the opening bars of what sounds like a kazoo falling into a string orchestra. Strangely her vocals recall the halcyon days when Texas were delivering hit after hit although. But where they had pop hooks, this just floats into the atmosphere with a voice that recalls a wraith hovering over your house frightening you all to sleep.

The Sounds – Dying To Say This To You
This is the sort of lo-fi rocking track that advertising executives will hear in a club toilet while they’re doing coke off someone’s outstretched arm and then the next thing you know it’ll be advertising chewing gum. It’s pretty addictive and the patronage of Foo Fighters and The Strokes don’t come as throwaway recommendations. Plus they’re photogenic- bonus! Some bands really do just splice it all together.

Vessels – Yuki/Forever The Optimist
There’s the melancholy of Sigur Ros in the layered piano that whispers along like it's been played on a remote island and the sound is just drifting into earshot. Beguiling with multiple uses of bleeps and weird effects switches, it gives it an icy feel but also one that you can snuggle up warm to.

Polytechnic – Cold Hearted Business
This is a voluptuous indie anthem probably with a video where school kids take the day off and large it with the guys rocking it to the core. In fact, maybe that’s why they’re called Polytechnic because this has the adolescent demographic stabbed through the neck. On the other hand it may be because it just isn’t as good as University (if they happened to be a band).

Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly – I Spy
He’s 21 and he has a voice that has a few shattered edges so there’s no room for disparaging comments because when viewed alongside his peers, he’s shoulder to shoulder. This track does feel like something he flippantly doodled in his notebook in the same way that Kurt Cobain used to give short shrift to lyrics and carve an anthem out of a melody, this is like a vaguely disappointing copy. Sell out Astoria gigs can’t be wrong though.

Simon Breed – Devastating Sky
He sounds like a Nick Cave impersonator which surprisingly adept use of a kid’s xylophone slipped behind the ragged vocals. He’s a man who has been swilling the remnants of a cheap ashtray but this turns out to be unnervingly majestic even though it shouldn’t be. The production sounds like it costs a nano percentage of a Kanye West video.

The United Kingdom Of America – Indier Than Thou
Updated Chas & Dave with lyrics taken from the mumblings of a bus stop tramp, this is possibly the flimsiest single released this year and a reminder that music in porn films isn’t necessary the nadir of ear bound entertainment. Lyrically isolated this could actually be the word for word monologue of a particularly thick taxi driver who has spent too much time talking to his windscreen.

Clark – Ted
Like a radiator dropping on your head and then fizzing in your ear, this is claustrophobically good, played loud on a stacked system you can almost imagine the future spaceship that this will be embraced on when Clark is chosen as artist of the new millennium. The EP unravels into a plethora of instrumental palettes all of which can be feasted on subtly in the background, probably in hip art galleries.

Capdown – Surviving The Death Of A Genre
Check the aching frustration at the back of Capdown’s pogo rock recalling the straight edge of Lostprophets and the kind of music where the middle eight merely signifies that there needs to be more shouting. On the flipside, the flirt with a reggae beat and an inspired cover of 'Trick Me' by Kelis gives hope for the future.

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