12 September 2008

by Lisa Holmes

The Joy Formidable, Unkle, Little Man Tate, The Feeling, Flo Rida, Black Kids, The Coral, Paperplains, Daniel Powter,Young Knives, Fuck Buttons

"The Joy Formidable are everything a band need to be in these cash-strapped times. Save money, stay at home and listen to this record."

The Joy Formidable – Austere
Beautifully eccentric, this is a subtle barnstorm of a track. It lures you in with delicate feminine whiles then sneaks up behind you to plug in the amp and blast you with filth. The Joy Formidable are everything a band needs to be in these cash-strapped times because each listen reveals a different facet, be it melody, power, or delight at making music. Save money, stay at home and listen to this record.

Fuck Buttons – Colours Move
Fuck Buttons are the King Kong of experimental acoustics, this is music as primal as the big gorilla but with enough heart to make you miss it when it’s gone. Scary and disorientating, their skilful use of tribal drums seems to beat out a message of intent and purpose. Fuck Buttons are coming, and it isn’t likely there will be any survivors.

Young Knives – Dyed In The Wool
Snappy suits and punchy eccentricity used to be the Knives trademark, and this sadly doesn’t compare favourably to their earlier efforts. It is off the pace and really overdoes the chorus repetition – and yes we do get the irony in light of the song title – it just doesn’t work well, clunking where it should click.

Paperplain – 11:30/Spin Wheel
A strange cross between Laura Marling and Joanna Newsom. Paperplain is 18 year-old Helen Page who has found her way to our ears via the miracle of the internet – or MySpace as it is otherwise know. Softly spoken and breathy in her singing these are intimate rambles about tummy aches caused by over-shaken cans and night caps.

The Coral – Being Somebody Else
The Coral make sounding like you have time travelled from the 60s somehow less annoying. Here they are trying on Glen Campbell for size and being remarkably successful as always. We suppose you could say it must be something to do with talent; and annoyingly you may be right.

Little Man Tate – Hey Little Sweetie 
NN thought the Little Men had spilt but it appears that they got muddled up with another Monkey spawned band in our brain. Here they give us their best Fratellis impression, but you would have thought one of them would have been more than enough.

Daniel Powter – Next Plane Home
Mr Powter seems to think that not releasing a song for a few years means that people won’t notice that they might sound a teensy weensy bit alike. What’s that they say about winning formulas?

Black Kids – Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo)
They sound like The Cure and have good hair – what more is there to want from a band?

Flo Rida – In The Ayer
Southern-fried rap, with a bad grasp of grammar and a tendency to add an ‘ay’ in to every word. For example jam becomes ‘jayam’, and damn ‘dayamn’. There is no doubt it is intended for the commercial dancefloor, but the quality of the rhymes lets it down with Rida failing to unleash any of his flo'. Ho ho.

The Feeling – Join With Us
Hypno-pop currently debuting as the ‘soundbed’ for the current Toyota Arius advert. Which is a good job because it’s hard to know what else it would be good for.

UNKLE– Remix Stories Vol 1
This is a mixture of refitted tracks taken from UNKLE's recently released third album ‘War Stories’ and James Lavelle’s compilation of his work for TV and film ‘End Titles…Stories For Film’. It is an interesting take on a truly original pair of artists featuring icy beats, spacious strings and all manner of sparky beeps and clunks.

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