They occasionally sound like the Deirdres taken over by Sebadoh, elsewhere as if Bearsuit were playing at one of those Pavement covers nights. They call themselves 'cuddlecore' and the online music press love them except, as far as we can tell, that based in their native Birmingham. Their new album, the first to be given a proper release (through Odd Box Records), is called A Little More Suspicion In Our Fairytales Plz and were it not for some pissing about at the end would be 22 minutes long. Attaboy/girl!
A single quite a little time ago now, we know, but we never properly wrote about it at the time and now we have the opportunity. So... it's really, really great
Has about as much to do with the World Cup at heart as Colourbox's Official World Cup Theme - even the sampled commentary is from a non-World Cup game, being of John Barnes' famous goal in the Maracana - but the Hood side project do good things marrying the influence of striped sunset sound of the Go-Betweens, Lucksmiths etc to pre-Ibiza New Order
Another winner from Alcopop! Records, and another touched by the decayed comforting hand of Grimshaw, Folkestone's own have the cheek to smuggle a proper radio-friendly chorus into math-ish stop-start verses
Beachfront Afropop takes a hit of purest adrenaline and refuses to sit still. The whole "eh eh!" bit towards the end is as close as they've got to essence of Koenig, the rest vibrates like sonic boom
Another standout from a fascinating album, traversing from Eno to Neu! in the blink of an eye
Been Listening rewards repeated listening as the reflections of Flynn's listening over the last year and a half or so becomes more nuanced. That said this is fairly close to A Larum, a fingerpicked travel through life
A kind of black sheep of the JoFo catalogue in that it's something they knocked off with a South African producer while there for a few gigs earlier in the year and apparently bears little continuity with what they're currently writing.
The amazing self-classifying single. Another simple but effective winner from the Fortuna Pop! stable, the longstanding Cardiff cult collective are calling it a day after their autumnal fourth album. What happened, knowing retro get too easy for them?
We'll write more about their new album next week
Now what? We liked it when it was originally released in late 2008, and we're not going to stop liking its rustic, rousing charm because you vaguely heard the album, saw the audience gigs, noted the fashion effect and said so.
See Meursault.
As pointed to on Lucky Soul's Twitter - so what do you think a Pipettes/Earlies/Alfie/Liam Frost's Slowdown Family supergroup would sound like? Classy, and classic, and of course slightly retro, pop. Of course.
What makes Cosmology so fascinating ahead of its implausible math-prog shapeshifting reputation. The time signature changes all over the place, Eva does her Sheffield Exorcist thing to excelsis... then it turns into tinglingly ambient cooing for a bit before the power chords return as if there was nothing wrong with such stylistic hurdling. And they look like they should be a Field Mice-behoven indiepop outfit from Stockholm.
From one of the year's very best albums, and we do mean that, Mr Hipster Oh I Only Listen To Complicated Brooklynites, a queruously voiced admission of temporary loss and yearning and a video that proves special effects aren't what they used to be now everyone can afford them.
Accidentally topical Pete Shelley-voiced awkward old school Television Personalities-ish indie featuring (former?) members of Esiotrot. That's it, now go away.
To think they once sounded like Pixies. Now they sound like Liars rubbing up against sheet metal until it leaves an imprint. This is a taster while they get on with writing and recording their third album.
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