Friday, May 02, 2008

The alphabet of new music Part II

Nancy: none of them are called Nancy, but you could have guessed that. Camila Zamith and friends compose a Feist-esque joyous soul sound meeting Camera Obscura on a long day at the beach. Well, they are Brazilian.

Orphan Boy: everyone thinks they're the Jam these days and most of the time it goes horribly, Dogs-like wrong. This Grimsby-born outfit do it much better and smarter than most. Their fans already have a collective name, Orphanites, which is never a good sign this early on.

Pocus Whiteface: Good thing one: they're on that Giant Isopod compilation album of posts past (still happening, we're assured). Good thing two: they sound like Ikara Colt and McLusky at the same time, plus yelping vocal.

Q Without U: Glaswegian melodic skewering is getting something of a leg-up at the moment, and these deliver a deceptively perky take on Lemonheads power-pop. They're probably well aware of Q And Not U by now.

Rotary Ten: Sheffield outfit about to release their debut album head down the jerky post-punk route of millions, but in a direction parallel to Dartz! or Hot Club De Paris, sounding like Cajun Dance Party would had they heard the Minus The Bear/Q And Not U mathesque school.

Santa Dog: "heartfelt guitar pop with a melodic twist"? Yeah, none of those about. But there's something likeable about the Bristolians' pristine wistfulness that those who remember Marine Research or the Darling Buds should investigate.

Tandy Hard: Another one from the Drift Collective, Andrew Willis makes dark folk-pop, expansive and darkly joyous where many fall into the introspective trap. A British Josh Rouse? If you like.

UltCult: Counting the dream couple of Edith Bowman and Gareth Campesinos as fans, the twisted Yorkshire types sound variously like Love Is All taking to Patrick Wolf's latter day playground or Life Without Buildings reconstructing Electrelane in their bath. And they're 17!

The Voluntary Butler Scheme: Rob Jones drummed for The Boy Least Likely To and The School but on his own is a one-man orchestra veering from faux-soul to twee glam. Soon to support, inevitably, Darren Hayman and, somewhat less so, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong.

We Were Promised Jetpacks: the Glasgow/Edinburgh axis strikes again - on the face of it it's another post-punk disco drum accelerated drive to oblivion, but they do do that Orange Juice soul-inflected jangly punk-funk thing far better than most. Great name too.

The XYZ Affair: Ha! We have a suspicion the Brooklynites were named to attract attention in this kind of feature but they aren't half bad either, wordy, hook-laden We Are Scientists-recalling fun disjointedness.

Yppah: A Texan otherwise known as Joe Corrales, who produces shoegaze influenced downtempo IDM through sticking real instruments through multitudinous effects and loops. Were he British he'd be on Sonic Cathedral; as it is he's on Ninja Tune.

Zookeeper: And finally one Chris Simpson finds a rubbery rootsy route between Josh Ritter, Ben Folds and in his acoustic moments Chuck Prophet, as heartrending as the emo scene he was previously in only makes out it is.

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