The Leeds music scene is booming at the moment. With the commercial success of the Kaiser Chiefs and the likes of iForward Russia!, the Duels and 10,000 things all expected to establish themselves this year, iLiKETRAiNS (Make sure you get the lower case i's) are entering into an already crowded market.

One thing sets them apart from their West Yorkshire peers however. Originality. While the aforementioned bands have gained underground and, in the case of the Kaiser Chiefs, mainstream success through making simple, danceable indie rock music, iLiKETRAiNS are seeking to establish themselves as a thought-provoking, emotion filled, post-rock influenced indie outfit who can succeed just as well with FX pedals and projections of trains than with jangly guitars and sing-along choruses.

With this in mind, their debut single release 'BEFORETHECURTAiNSCLOSE' hopes to set themselves apart from their Dance to the Radio label mates, and win over some more fans in the process.

The track begins with a backdrop of haunting tribal drums weaved around the sound of the cornet, sounding like they're providing the soundtrack to the end of the world. The level of melancholy only heightens when singer David Martins begins, using his vocals to enhance the feeling of despair without ever straining himself. Much like that of Ian Curtis, Martins' voice rarely changes tone or pitch, but by doing so only exaggerates the emotion of the lyrics.

Even as the soaring, glacial instrumentation steadily climbs to a frenetic crescendo of drums, guitars and horns, his voice moves little. As the song does reach it's climax, the band wear their post-rock influences on their sleeves. With nods towards instrumental legends Godspeed You Black Emperor!, the track reaches it's peak and then ends, much like it started, with the one last blast from the cornet.

'BEFORETHECURTAiNSCLOSE' is a beautiful piece of epic post-rock tinged indie, and certainly shows off the potential this band have. If iLiKETRAiNS can continue to produce heartfelt music of this quality, they will achieve the recognition they deserve. Let's hope they don't go off the rails (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

Review by Steve Carlton
www.iliketrains.co.uk
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The B-Side 'Jimmy 2Ks' is funkier if less immediately thrilling than it's a-side counterpart but still, the overall quality and rising status of this band means that Narco hopefully won't have to sell their songs to computer games for much longer. Ah well, the gaming world's loss is our gain.

This second EP, follow-up to last year’s 'Transition', is three tracks that have seen the band called “The saviours of dance music” (whatever ‘dance’ music is supposed to be). “Like there’s only one kind of music you’re allowed to make with certain instruments” said the band about their use of drum machines and synths. But this flippant laudit takes second place to the comparisons that are made between them and the heroes of their adopted home town of Manchester, Joy Division.

It’s less that they sound like Joy Division and more that they listen to the same Krautrock stuff that Joy Division did. Rhythm-heavy tunes built from the foundations of the drums and bass with skewed melodies layered over them, the singer straining to make his screech heard over guitars that sound like breaking glass.

The title track is a weird pop song, built around the kind of format used by Stereolab. There’s a pounding intro that builds you up through a verse and then, when any other band may slip comfortably into a chart-topping chorus, an instrumental section throws it off to the left-of-the-centre like a car breaking through a crash barrier and careering across the opposing traffic.

There’s nothing simple about the Longcut – from the often mentioned fact that their drummer spends their gigs jumping out from behind his kit to do his duties on lead vocals to their blatant disregard for any kind of simple, by-numbers songwriting. As you listen to them, it isn’t the melodies that you’re concentrating on – it’s the times when the rhythms drop-out then kick-in again. So in that sense they have their place in ‘dance’ music (and 'A Quiet Life' sounds great next to Mylo’s 'Drop The Pressure') but to say that they are here to rescue something ailing doesn’t do enough to describe the new sound that they bring.

Review by Chris Helsby
www.thelongcut.com
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Towards the end of the first song on this truly weird eight track oddity a voice says, "Do you like things that take a strange route, different things?" If the answer's 'no' then you should probably stay as far away from the Loggy Log EP as possible. But even if the answer is 'yes', you still won't be prepared for the sheer unhinged psychedelic lunacy of this offering from Nottingham's The Henry Road. It's a kind of deranged indie operetta based on the adventures of a character called Loggy Log, who lives in Loggy Land. He's not the only inhabitant though, as characters such as Crap Arrow, Roger Clayhole, and Mouth Chicken Carrier Pigeon also make an appearance- so far, so utterly bonkers.

Loggy's tale is narrated in a series of strange voices over a musical backing that's close in spirit to classic English psychedelia being filtered through eighties indie-pop, but that explanation doesn't do justice to the sheer amount of genre hopping The Henry Road manage over thirty minutes. The third track 'Mrs Screen' (the object of Loggy's affections, naturally) is a fifties tinged sock-hop primed waltz, 'Pecan Way (The God of Fire)' attempts a muscular rock sound, while 'Loggy's Theme' and 'Silly Loggy' are both Casio led lo-fi disco ramblings. The effect of all this madness is a strange feeling of creepy nostalgia- like the one you might get when you see a clip of an old kid's TV programme like Bod and realise how completely strange the whole thing was. However for all of it's deranged acid soaked inventiveness the Loggy Log EP remains simply a mildly amusing oddity that fast becomes annoying- best avoided for your sanity's sake.

Review by Ian Viggars
www.thehenryroad.co.uk
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Ever heard The Libertines?

If you answered yes, then you've already heard this.

Unfortunately I have heard The Libertines, far too many times. So the first time I heard this felt like I'd heard it a thousand types before.

So what is it? Boring garage rock, with a full London drawl which can't hold a note, and makes a virtue out of this by holding and playing with some of the melodic hooks for an excruciating few seconds. Clean sounding guitars are thumped into overdriven soundscapes, in a tip learnt from The Wedding Present over a decade ago, we have snare drum rolls used in the typical clichéd way that is to be built tension, there are stop-start bits, a high guitar melodic hook which apes 'Can't Stand Me Now', and the vocal is mixed far too high so that the music sounds as weak as the orange squash at the Church Fundraising cricket match. So yes, nothing new and thoroughly boring.

So boring in fact that about half way through I plain forgot that there was music playing or that I had to listen to it, I just started doing something else so unaware was I that this bland happening was still stumbling out from my comatose stereo speakers. Anyway, this meant that unfortunately I had to listen to it again, and it was just as prosaic and pedestrian as before. Only this time, I had that little tinge of sadness as I’d lost the hope that always accompanies new music by a group I haven't heard before, instead I was just going through the motions waiting for it to end.

So in conclusion; sounds like every other London garage thing, thoroughly boring, and having listened to it two minutes ago all I can remember about it is that it has a bit that sounds like the guitar riff from the big Libertines song.

Originality?

Review by Daniel Newman
www.thepaddingtons.moonfruit.com
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