** a singles overdose **

one and all, i will be offline for a couple of weeks as of the end of today. so of course my postbox this morning was chocka with stuff. so here's a quick rundown of the singles in the pile most are out in august :

 

the sonic art - do you ever feel :  atmospherics and indie rock combine. while not a gripper, there is some interesting ideas being put into action, but little to make this stand out from the glut. link

nine black alps - unsatisfied : 3rd single from the bands well received debut album. having heard the final closing few songs @ glastonbury, i expected this to be a continuation of their nirvana love, but no. the band have a well defined guitar pop side that i was not aware of before, and this seriously catchy 3 minute number is going to really help propel the band to greater heights. perfect mtv/angry teenager noises, with a very nice and sensitive b-side as well called 'lost house'. link

the bravery - unconditional : despite the fact that the press have outed this lot as a purely fabricated band, i bear them no grudges. enjoy your 3 minutes in the limelight. oh, hang on you already have. this is well crafted indie rock, with a bit of sharp synth action. a re-release of their debut single, in which the lead haircut demands that 'he just wants love', which is fair enough. let's hope he gets it. link

steve lawler - that sound : 8 minutes long. grief. expecting some banging hard house tune, when the old school italio piano house riff kicked in i smiled. is this back ? of course, once the beat kicks in very little really changes but thats the whole point, we get an obvoius vocal sample holding the focus and making the hands-in-the-air vibe complete. this totally backed up by the breakdown @ 4 minutes, where the vocal and piano are left to their own, before the machines kick the groove back into touch and the implied euphoria is resealed. classic 92 house action.

funeral for  friend - monsters : never listening to the radio (or in this case watching mtv i suspect), means i dont hear any new stuff that doesn't arrive through the letterbox, but recently, whenever i have visited an old fashioned record shop there is always a classy eye catching cover by funeral for a friend, (or ffaf for short !) on display. they are obviously getting a lot of love. unfortunately the big and brash americanised riffs with melodic heartfelt vocals make me wonder about the whole .co.uk domain they maintain. link

cadillac - locomotive : now this could be more interesting. far away echoed 'howl at moon' vocals open the proceedings before an almighty fuzzed up bass riff distreses the woofers, prior to the track hitting a monstrous uptempo vibe. production by rich 'black crowes' robinson proves that not everything has to be 1973. kerrang readers and fans of queens of the stoneage should investigate this norwegian band further i suspect. link

ciccone - my summer never comes : madonna has influenced many bands of all genres in her path to world domination. so here comes an indie rock band proving that the woman still commands dues even in 2005, but whether this libertines style of rough and ready will make her smile is another matter altogether. catchy and pleasant enough, but doesn't really go anywhere that i haven't been taken before. a splash of the coral, a hint of streets (in the vocals), and a chunk-o-doherty, but, what's this? flip the record and there is a lovely extra hidden away, 'last breathe', with a deathly dark humour lyric, melodic piano, and girl-boy vocal interplay (cerys matthews is running around the grey cells as an obvious reference) adding an extra level of spice to the action - is the death natural, or something more sinister? i guess thats up to you to decide. a far more interesting song. link

 

now, can i get back to shriekback please

thanks

marke

ireallylovemusic