Latest Single Reviews

Delphic - Counterpoint

Trancey, hypno-beated electro- pop with an incessant looping synth riff, occasionally augmented with an Edge-style, delay-drenched guitar part. Lyrically we find the protagonist variously 'holding my head up' and running 'through streets and empty corridors', asking to be told that 'nothing's wrong today' over and over again. There is a 'nice' mood throughout, but that alone isn't nearly enough to sustain interest over a trying 6 minutes and 21 seconds. Yet, in fairness Counterpoint did leave me with food for thought. I still can't quite decide whether the track is only 3 minutes or 6 minutes and 21 seconds too long.

Bot'ox - Overdrive

This is a French electro-pop mood- piece instrumental. It's light on the instruments, heavy on the mental and mood-wise not unlike what Lennon's 'Revolution 9' may have sounded like had it been made with a sequencer.

Young Fathers - Automatic/Dancing Mantaray

Young fathers are a Scottish hip-hop trio with heavy overtones of Outkast. Both tracks here are smoothly and highly produced - 'Automatic' is dancey and upbeat, 'Dancing Mantaray' is bass heavy, quirky and rather appealing. The vocal stylings are very Andre 3000 on 'Automatic', yet Young Fathers have enough song craft and personality about them to suggest that they may be able to carve out a niche for themselves. Promising.


Chapel Club - Five Trees

This is insipid plodding pop-rock complete with a depressing everyman vocalist. There are several instances where they commit that most cardinal of lyric-writing sins - the melodic emphasis is completely out of whack with the lyrical emphasis. Thus prepositions/conjunctions etc. are stressed instead of key words (e.g.' I strayed too far into A dream'). The chorus lyrics revolve around the line 'Dust in my heart, dust in my veins'. If that's what Chapel Club are trying to express here, then they've done themselves proud.

Airship - Algebra EP

As per-usual the accompanying PR release would have you believe that this band are the second coming. By the end of the second paragraph phrases such 'generation-defining artists' have already been cheaply bandied about. In reality, Airship are much nearer to the 47,000th coming of the regional English indie-pop template, with chiming guitars and earnest, yearning vocals. The moods across the four tracks are, it must be said, admirably varied - showing an unusual versatility. There's an appealing Pixies-esque feel to some of the songs - ( 'Spirit Party's verse is reminiscent of ' Monkey Gone To Heaven'). The title track is by far the best, with a somewhat uplifting low-soaring chorus. Yet, as so often, hope for more dies with the melodies. They're decent enough, but there's little magic here.