3 September 2008

by Rob McCrae

British Sea Power, Les Gars, To Catch A Thief, Pavilion, Captive State, The Inconsolables, The Ash & The Oak, Future Loop Foundation, Drever McCusker & Woomble, Neimo, Metronomy

"The deeper you go the more catchy it becomes."

British Sea Power – Waving Flags
Re-released single that reverberates from altitude with the beat of an army marching down a hillside. The crescendo peaks on the thumbing time of the drums even if the vocal somewhat disappoints like a tour guide speaking into his windcheater.

Les Gars – EP
Hailing from Canada and declaring love to be merely receiving “a haircut and a gun”, they exert considerably youthful brio without hitting on anything other than punky insouciance. They sound like they look like the Towers of London.

To Catch A Thief – Your Eyes Will Burn
Scottish rock is occasionally wiped free of the scrawny edge that you’d expect from a country where it rains all of the time and people live in utter degradation. This has more in common with the long shorts indie that probably pervades all of America’s college radio.

Pavilion – Spoils Of War
When you picture a pavilion it’s usually raining and housing drab sandwiches going into the mouths of funeral looking faces. This has a moderately more uplifting message although nothing that’s going to shake the foundations of the local disco.

Captive State – Elmore Grove
Pleasant enough with a vocal that sounds like Keane if they weren’t reliant on the occasion histrionic falsetto to shake the radio listeners from their slumber. The deeper you go the more catchy it becomes.

The Inconsolables – Hoverfly
Any band that are inspired by the 1964 Olympics deserves your time especially if your watch piece is turned to the period in Blur’s canon when Damon replaced lyrics with the nah nah nah sound and the distant faint echo of Hard Fi provided an annoying but repetitive reference point.

The Ash & The Oak – Inside Out
This could be The Mamas And The Papas on a jaw full of Quaaludes, the vocal harmonies chiming with so much blissed out energy in might as well be an enormous flower in your minds eye. Slightly too wispy to make any impression.

Future Loop Foundation – Another English Summer
Typically they graced the Guardian Readers favourite festival to spread out the Travel section aka The Big Chill and this is so lightweight it might be masquerading as some weightless gas. The mumbled lyrics have Lemon Jelly et al poisoning it through the middle.

Drever McCusker & Woomble – Silver & Gold
The kind of lilting song that you might hear echoing from an old fishing shack down by the loch before a single gunshot bought proceedings to a concise finale. There’s a Celtic tinge to this sorrowful tale.

Neimo – Poison The Chalice
The Smiths influences are strong and it says that they’re French on the tin but they sound so provincially English that you’d be pushed to find the requisite pretentious bone in their body. It has a Clash like chorus courtesy of the clattering guitars.

The Presets – Talk Like That
While their enormo electro pop beats keep the masses docile and entertains a crowd of gurning fools there is still an emptiness that swirls at the centre of their music. It doesn’t have any of the pile driving intensity of Leftfield or any of the switch ups of The Prodigy.

Metronomy – Heartbreaker
When you’re treading on such well worn territory as heartbreaking you have to come up with something unique otherwise legions of lyric assimilators are going to on a Columbine like rampage. Or something. Lacking incision  and normally Metronomy are pretty amazing.

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