Friday 27th May 2005 -
Use our review page here as a shortcut to official website's for our featured new CD's .... A, Arcade Fire, The Coral, Dead 60's, El Presidente, Garbage, Ladytron, The Longcut, Maximo Park, Mystery Jets, Ordinary Boys, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Rakes, Special Needs, Stevie Wonder, Timmo Maas, Towers Of London, T.Rex and a brilliant new compilation Twisted ...
Hot Hot Heat, Audioslave, Kills, El Presidente ...
Coral, Chromeo, Ian Broudie, BSP, Faithless, Neon..
Kaisers, Donnas, Raveonettes, Hal Kings, Queens ..
ARCADE FIRE - NEIGHBOURHOOD new single
Loads of requests for Arcade Fire, Neighbourhood 3 Power Cut is barking mad, if only because it's so darned difficult to read the sleeve! A massive hit, a brilliant band. XXXXx www.arcadefire.com
THE LONGCUT - A QUIET LIFE newsingle 13 June
The Longcut, formed in 02 with members from Huddersfield, Leeds and Maryport have a rather New Order type sound and it works brilliantly. A Quiet Life is reminiscent of Blue Monday with it's opening guitar line and that can't be a bad thing. Vocals by singer / drummer Stuart Ogilvie are a little more desperate than Bernie's however with this powerful arrangement, A Quiet Life could break through the Top 75 XXXx www.thelongcut.com
SPECIAL NEEDS - BLUE SKIES new single 13 June
Special Needs play Cardiff Barfly on Friday 3rd June, 'Dexy's Midnight Runners meets The Ronettes'??? Blue Skies is almost nursery rhyme-ish. A refreshing idea, Blue Skies is designed to take you back to childhood days at the fairground, whether that is strong enough to break through the current crop of car-jacking gangster rapsters is becoming rather more different to predict, Mystery Jets and the awesome Arctic Monkeys are already making a beeline for this niche - however this is catchy enough and could do well. XXXx www.specialneedsweb.com
EL PRESIDENTE - ELECTED new album in July date to be confirmed
El Presidente have a revolutionary connotation, and yet here they are living the Glam dream, Hello, T-Rex, Glitter, Sweet ... it lives on. 100mph is great by any stretch, sexy slinky, struting confidence ... Without You is a little awkward in some respects but could well be a bigger hit, Rocket with it's Metal Guru-esque harmony line and Turn This Thing Around are equally strong tracks, these guys n gals have something! XXXx www.el-presidente.co.uk
GARBAGE - SEX IS NOT THE ENEMY new single 13 June
Not sure about this, the song on Bleed Like Me with the biggest potential is I think Bad Boyfriend (featuring Dave Grohl). This has got the Sex word but it seems decidedly unsexy, and rather hard etc... Shirley and her gang are at Brixton Academy on 9th June and download the following day, while it's a fine album, I'm not sure this single will do Garbage any favours XXXx www.garbage.com
THE ORDINARY BOYS -
BOYS WILL BE BOYS new single 6 June REMIXES single 13 June www.theordinaryboys.co.uk Every now and then an artist or group will come along with stuff you could have written yourself, capturing your subconscious thoughts and putting them over better than you could ever imagine. The Ordinary Boys manage to do that for me, Over The Counter Culture was spot on and I look forward to their second album. This collection the Lady Sovereign 'Boner' Remix of Boys Will Be Boys, the "We Soldier On" song for the silent majority, the controversial "The KKK Took My Baby Away" and here's another great title "Quarter Life Crisis" - awesome! XXXXX
T-REX - BORN TO BOOGIE new album & DVD 16 May When I first saw Born To Boogie, I was disappointed it didn't sound more like the records, a three minute version of Hot Love, Telegram Sam strangely rushed ... Well here we are in 2005, 28 years after Marc, and this is quite a wonderful collection of Bolan at the top of his game. Right from Emperor Rosko's introduction and 'D'you want more?' through the bizarre poetry, the accoustic medley featuring Elton John and Ringo Starr ... and you can buy the movie on DVD - Bolan did get a bit big headed and it's a shame coz he didn't need to - he was the biz! XXXXX www.marc-bolan.com/
THE CORAL - THE INVISIBLE INVASION new album 23 May
This is a fine collection of songs in Dreaming Of You style. Shorter and more focussed than Goodbye, there's some prospective follow-up In The Morning singles here, Something Inside Of Me, She Sings In The Mourning, Leaving Today, Late Afternoon ... nice XXXx www.thecoral.co.uk
TIMMO MAAS - FIRST DAY new single 30 May
Timmo Maas releases 'Pictures' his first album for Warner Bros on 13 June, and this is a quite brilliant taster. First Day featuring guest vocals by Jo Kate and a certain Brian Molko of Placebo ... nice. "I see you've reached my underground, Help yourself to guns and ammo, It's the first day of the rest of your life" very nice ... a big hit! Listen out for Kelis and Nenah Cherry on his album XXXXx www.timomaas.de
THE DEAD 60's - LOADED GUN new single 13 June
I really like this band, there is a controlled edginess to their songs, a desperate atmosphere, a pleading vocal - Loaded Gun has some fine syncopated guitar and bass, the whole thing lives in Clash Dub Land - it's brilliant and Dead 60's deserve large success with this. Their debut album 'The Dead 60's will be released on 27 June and they'll be playing The Other Stage at Glastonbury. XXXXx www.thedead60s.com
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT YOU'RE INSANE
limited edition promo
Maybe this should be a single soon, it is superb. At the moment though there are no plans to release this and the next single already penned in for release soon is In My Head'. Brilliant XXXXx www.qotsa.com
TWISTED - INDIE FLOOR FILLERS new album out now
A very useful compilation this, Track 1 is a great re-mix of The Killers 'Somebody Told Me' then there's the extended Bodyrockers 'I Like The Way You Move', Bloc Party's Banquet Remix, another couple of Phones Remixes this time The Others 'This Is For The Poor' which is OK and Futureheads Hounds Of Love mmm not quite ok. Rapture 'House Of Jealous Lovers - Album version' and Kasabian's Processed Beats are all worthwhile highlights XXXXx
LADYTRON - SUGAR new single 13 June
Liverpool based Ladytron have hit the jackpot here. This is a wall of sound in the truest sense, blitzing it's electro/rock through your speakers with great vocals, melody and atmosphere. And no wonder, producer Jim Abiss knows how to make a stadium sound, Kasabian and Placebo are just two of his success stories. Ladytron's third album Witching Hour is due for release on 29 August. XXXX www.ladytron.com
TOWERS OF LONDON -
FUCK IT UP new single 20 June
What don't I like about this? It's a strong production and hard vocals seemingly in the truest punk ethic. It must be the notion that we can all live in some bubble and remain 'passers by' forever. 'Fuck It Up' is naive lyrically and seems to me totally at odds with Rotten Johnny's 1977 stance on the meaning of life ... maybe I'm just supposed to dislike it. Towers Of London are on The NME New Music Tour, Download and various dates throughout May & June extending North to Aberdeen, South to Brighton and West to Bristol, maybe - maybe not XX www.towersoflondon.net
A - BETTER OFF WITH HIM new single 27 June
A great A single was 'Starbucks', unfortunately that was just a minor hit. It must be really dissappointing to get a top pop chune like that and see it struggle to number ... 20. Better Off With Him is harder and not so melodically simple. It's the first single from their 'Teen Dance Ordinance' album out on 4 July. See them on their short UK tour climaxing at Download on June 11. XXX www.a-communication.com
THE RAKES - RETREAT (Remixes) promo only
The Rakes are breaking through big with Stockholm and Retreat. Bine indie tunes and now the Phones have re-mixed Retreat in an electro style. The mix stays true to the songs feel and message and works rather well as opposed to the Terror remix which is a little too disjointed for my ears. XXXx www.therakes.co.uk
MYSTERY JETS - ON MY FEET new single 6 June
The Mystery Jets have been hailed for some time as the next big thing, but somehow On My Feet is a little too oblique - too disjointed - a little too ambitious maybe. Possibly too clever, which of the variety of hooks and melodies here will linger? Too many to choose from, and musically they've been out powered, out produced by The Arctic Monkeys. It's tough but sorry XXx www.mysteryjets.com
STEVIE WONDER -
SO WHAT THE FUSS
new single 16 May
At last the long awaited follow-up to Songs In The Key Of Life, just what has Stevie been doing since 1976??? Seriously this is his best tune since then, Prince features on guitar, precision backing vox from En Vogue, great song, great melody - great mix, the 'Global Soul Mix' that is, it sounds like it was made to follow Superstition. In a different age this would have been Number One. XXXXx www.stevie-wonder.com
MAXIMO PARK - GONE MISSING new single 18 July
Very unusual, the timing on 'Graffiti', vocals too and a deserved Number 15 hit. Gone Missing is a little more difficult to call, rather more standard issue, I feel the band have more unusual, unique songs to come - but this is not the pick of the bunch XXX www.maximopark.com
