Single Servings

Submissions are piling up again, so I'll attempt to batter through as many of the singles and demos as I can here. These will be quite short, but would most likely go without reviews if they weren't lumped together. More of these later, since it is 2am and that seems like a good time to stop writing.

Aspen Tide: From The Strong Came Forth/Quiver

Got quite a lot of time for Aspen Tide, even though they make music that I usual feel is aimed at people a good ten years or so younger than me. Happy to report that their new single is a good one then. From The Strong Came Forth mixes things up a bit, changing direction a few times as it goes, inspiring bouncing around one second, then slipping into something more gentle and restrained the next, with a good old bit of screaming to round things off. B-side Quiver is a bit poppier and more melodic, and hits the spot too. Aspen Tide are still a wee bit rough around the edges, but that's fine with me, there's a risk that with too much polish to the songs they'd lose their character.

The single is out now, available from iTunes.

Poor Things: Innocence/18

Hm, time for me to eat my words it would seem. My only previous experience of Poor Things was seeing them support French Wives a while back. I was so disinterested that I wandered off halfway through their set for a fag/pee/beer without feeling that I was missing anything good. This single though, well it isn't half bad. Not particularly revolutionary maybe, but well crafted, with good hooks and melodies and roughly a million times more engaging than I found them live. there's more than enough on show over two tracks to make me revisit the band, and look forward to catching them again soon. I'll be the guilty looking guy in the corner.

Innocence/18 is released by Red Hat Records on May 30th, with a launch gig at Bloc on May 26th.

Plastic Animals: Maybe Tomorrow/Test

These are a pair of free downloads on the band's Bandcamp page, an EP follows in July. Two tracks isn't enough to get too worked up about, but they are both rather promising ones. If the point of putting out a couple of freebies was to stir up a bit of interest in the upcoming EP it has worked on me at least. Maybe Tomorrow is very dreamy and hazy, with delicate wee bits of vocals and melody poking their heads out from behind a wall of sound just long enough to make themselves known. Test is even more dreamy, trotting along at a pace the average snail might consider leisurely, and is a wee bit lovely. Ones to keep an eye on, I reckon.

Salute Mary: Pacifying Hungry Ghosts/Rubella Rubatta

Promising until the fella starts singing, then it feels like Eddie Vedder has escaped the time stream and somehow found himself in an Edinburgh post-rock band. Please, someone set him free. Minus the vocals it might not be so bad, but with them I just want to never hear this again.

The single will be available as a free download from May 23rd.

PRIS: Soundcloud Stuff

I had no idea we were due a Shampoo revival. Surprisingly to some of you, I'm completely fine with it if we are. That is who PRIS immediately remind me of, along with a bit of the swagger and snarl of Kenickie, and they've got all the self awareness Powder and Pearl Lowe were lacking. So far none of this makes sense to many of you, to which I say - stop making me feel old. Normally when Londoners email me out of the blue it is to tell me about a gig I've no chance of making it to, and little interest in, but PRIS's shouty email didn't ask me to go to anything, and warranted further investigation, partly because it came with a picture. Probably not in the slightest bit cool for a 30 something Scottish indie snob to be listening to, but this is ridiculously fun and catchy. God help them when the NME chews them up and spits them out, but until then enjoy the band and know that the World is a little less boring and po faced with them in it.

Nothing out, but have a listen on Soundcloud.