Poor Joseph will probably be bundled in with the whole singer-songwriter bracket alongside the likes of Damien Rice and Stephen Fretwell. It could be worse, both the aforementioned are doing rather well for themselves after all and Joseph Arthur deserves to do just as well with this, a rather fine specimen lifted from his critically acclaimed album, Our Shadows will remain. There's something oddly great about this song. Could it be the slight 80's feel about it, the poppy laid back guitars or the fact that Arthur's melody conjures up images of watching the sunset whilst strolling hand in hand with your girlfriend along the beach? You tell me. It will probably be mistakenly identified as a cheesy song but closer inspection will reward the listener with a sense of fragility, strengthened by Arthur's distinctive falsetto vocals. Lovely.

Review by Bevis Man
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Singer/guitarists Karl and Matt have an eccentric vocal style, which at times is impossible to pinpoint. Their voices are the same throughout but each song is quite different, giving them a different aura, and possibly driving you round the bend if you try too hard to work out who they sound like. My advice is: don't. Just enjoy the overall effect and let your legs do the thinking.

'Winter Girl' may have a false ending, but it's a promising start to the demo (see what I did there?). It is quite the pop song with yeah yeah yeahs, handclaps and cymbals all round. Random thoughts that pop into the brain here include The Kinks and The Small Faces.

'Dance Tomorrow' is better, with a rock 'n' roll disco feel: sort of like The Ramones in a good mood. Great intro. The guitar has a Libertines moment in the middle, then suddenly the whole song starts to skank like The Specials 'talk about twist and shouting! Next up is 'Roses and Riots', an ace song that showcases some stellar drumming. Bass throbs menacingly, deep at its heart, offering a brief glimpse of the band's darker side. Confusingly, R&R somehow manages to remind me simultaneously of Interpol and early Ash.

For the most part, the guitar work on final salvo 'Don't Make Me Evil' is again quite reggae, with a cracking bassline throughout. Meanwhile, some of the track's careening guitar parts and lyrical la la las are Libtastic, and will soon have you singing 'La la la… don't make me evil tonight'. But don't write them off as a Libs covers band just yet, as their range is varied in just four songs. This one stops very suddenly, which is mildly annoying but does make you press play again.

It seems that Movement like to surprise. And perhaps it is a surprise that a new band with record companies watching in the background have surfaced in Manchester who are not following the trendy eighties/art-rock/new-wave route – but why should it be? Movement, aptly monikered, make music to dance to.

Review by Anne-Marie Pattenden
www.movementhq.tk
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Sounding a little late Joy Division and the first New Order album is nothing bad, as long as you don't just sound derivative and actually do something different with it. And this falls into the nothing bad category, the synths and half dead vocal delivery, far from sounding cold or harsh are actually brimful of life, shimmying out of the stereo speakers and purring the story of their lives.
They even manage to bring out the humour that people so often forget in this type of rock, peeking out from behind the refrain of 'I wanna, I wanna, I wanna have fun' is the cheeky little 'Girls, just wanna' as they manage to endear themselves to you even further.
There's also a bit of mid period Idlewild there on the second track, Follow The Lion, with the sparse arrangement and retrained vocal displaying a knowledge of their craft far beyond merely a demo.
Oh I do hate the concepts of demos, just call it a record, there's no need to make excuses for this, its perfect as it is, over production would only destroy the charm that infuses all three tracks.
The final track is simply a sweet confessional of picked reverb drenched guitars filled with regret over all the lost girls and wasted weekends.
All in all an excellent RECORD (not demo) of intelligent indie shot through with genuine sentiment and personality. File nest to Idlewild, for all who like a bit of heart and soul in their guitar music.

Review by Daniel Newman
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As a fan of the early Beta Band stuff and K,B,T's two previous e.ps (NME said this was the debut, fools) I was really looking forward to hearing this.

The track starts well with oddball disjointed drum n bass style beats that only mental patients on strong medication could dance to with the C I Am vocal mantra looping away and starts building up like there's gonna be some cosmic prog rock freakout (Which there isn't).  Then in comes the ragamuffin rap from MC Topcat with an anti war rant about Bush n' Blair n' nuclear bombs and the very abrupt end leaves you feeling that it's not quite finished. It sound like two tracks bodged together and doesn't really gel.  I think the backing track is definitely a grower once you get used to the odd beat but overall this track could benefit from an instrumental version and a rap remix as I can't see this being a hit in either club or chart.  I like it but I wouldn't want to pay hard cash for an album of this.

Review by Review by Andy Jesse.  A.K.A.  DJ Strange Of Strange Brew
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This single starts off pretty slowly with the kind of twangy intro that many indie guitar bands have used before, then picks up the pace a bit with a few power chords, the whole song has that looking out of the window at the pissing rain kind of melancholy that is the sound of British guitar indie pop, I like the overall sound but it's just too mellow for me and doesn't really rock out until the very end.

The video which is included on the CD has the rather novel concept that you don't need to hire an expensive road crew for your next tour, simply get all of your bands equipment and about ten five year old kids and jam them all into a single suitcase, thus giving you all the time you need to stare out of the window at the pissing rain.

Nine Black Alps have put out a few rocking tunes and this seems to be the obligatory third single 'Ballad'.  They are going to have to work a little harder at it if they want to make it to a second and third album.

Review by Andy Jesse - Strange Brew
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Beautiful, broken melodies shimmer and stutter along, purity and serenity deconstructed by spiteful technology, and I can only sit here breathing deeply.
This is something quite wonderful, as the voice of an angel flutters above sparse and atmospheric guitar, while being slowly pummelled by the electronic noise and trickery that swipes at it, causes it to jerk, interrupting the serene quality and forcing you to address that this song manages to perfectly capture the two sides of the classic binary division of good and evil, without letting you settle on either. Instead you're forced to reconcile the two, accept that you need to work with the two in order to achieve anything. You can't get the good or the sweet without the bad or the harsh, and in this case you need to take the beautiful song of the sweetest sentiment that's rendered just out of reach by the crushing electronic force which teases and taunts you.
This song forces you to confront the ugly and upsetting in order to dream of the beauty beyond, deep down you know how perfect this song is, but the mauling it takes by vicious technology means that you have to make this exist in your head.
Something truly special.

Review by Daniel Newman
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Jangly intro, good solid beat, catchy chorus, I like this one.
I reckon this would go down well at any indie club, The track bounces along with some great drumming and rocking guitar riffs that remind me of song2 by blur with the metal pedal turned down a notch or two. These guys stand out from the usual guitar bands, as they actually sound like they are in a good mood and enjoy playing. None of that looking out of the window at the pissing rain stuff here.

The website www.wearescientists.com informs me that this band are American and are also just a little bit bonkers, imagine looking at the world through the eyes of a genius who was dropped on his head at birth. Check out the vids and song downloads.

Recommended

Review by Andy Jesse - Strange Brew
www.wearescientists.com
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I first heard Bloc Party just under two years ago, and it seems that in just two years (see what I'm doing here?!) they have undergone somewhat of a transformation. The Bloc Party that I heard those two years ago seemingly burst onto the scene, all Gang of Four inspired angularness and infinitely danceable basslines, with She's Hearing Voices, and the first single proper Banquet. Then followed Little Thoughts, an excellent lesson in how to write a likeable lo-fi indie pop record. Imminently there after came Helicopter, arguably the bands finest hour to date with weaving angular guitar lines and culminating in a harmonic-fuelled wash over the listener. On the strength of these singles, obviously expectations were high for everyone's now favourite British-based guitar quartet. And so it came, Silent Alarm. I'm sure that I am not the only one who felt disappointed with Silent Alarm, as it became apparent that Bloc Party were moving away from their angular roots, and more towards a blissed, chilled out sound, with an equally sensitive heart. This is not to say that it is in any way bad for a band to change, who wants to hear a band become a parody of themselves, and record the same song ten times over? But it just feels a bit early for Bloc Party to have reached the middle of the road, especially given their early promise.

            So, onto 'Two More Years'. The first new material since Silent Alarm, Bloc Party are undoubtedly eager to show that they haven't quite reached the point of burn out yet, and it is quite refreshing that they have new material ready after such a short period of time. Opening with a pulsing, machine-like single note guitar, the song features what are slowly becoming Bloc Party trademarks of swashing synthesised sounds. The drum beat is stolen directly from the Minotaur Shock remix of their own track Tulips, and at times the whole song feels like it could indeed be that particular remix. Perhaps their recent Silent Alarm remixed album has had a profound influence upon the band. It seems that the song never really gets going until the second chorus, where the vocals are layered over one another, and the whole affair becomes much more interesting, but apart from that, the song sounds like it could have been written by any recent pop act. Kele Okereke's vocal seem to have improved, and he no longer sounds like the fresh-faced kid just out of school, but seems to be experimenting a little more with where emphasis can be placed on words, which is perhaps something that Silent Alarm lacked. Two More Years is a fine example of how a pop song should be written, but coming from Bloc Party I expected a little more.

Those two years ago when I first heard the band, I searched around a came across a small self-run version of their website. There was no stylisation to the site; it was raw and simply plain black with white text, featuring a couple of pictures, a brief history and tour dates. Whilst writing this review I thought that I would check back to that site, but it has been replaced with something so 'shiny' and glossy it almost hurts your eyes to look. Maybe this is an epiphany for how their music will ultimately end up.

Review by Ben Wykes
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Signed to Fantastic Plastic, Umlaut hail from Sheffield and they are part of a roster of interesting, fresh bands coming out of the city at the moment.  This is their first single, and Winter Coat betrays a beginner's air as part of its charm, while it is a promising start as it is tentative.

And it is all indie, indeed. All twinkling guitars, winsome lyrics, white boy endeavours, topped with the occasional macho backlash.
The A-Side, Winter Coat, is a winter sun of a song, breaking into one of the most ridiculous and enjoyable bridges since the last one. While the b-side is another fragile tune, it does breakout into a Pavement dirge for some reason, but we don't care.

This is all perpetuated by some excellent drumming, which is understated and expressive in all the right places.

It’s all honest stuff, and the Umlaut's music is without cynicism nor is it hardened, and these songs will mean something to someone.

Small first steps, but their direction, defined by this single, are the important thing. Coming away from this single you feel Umlaut are one's to watch, (casually of course). 

Review by Alun McKeever
www.umlauttheband.com
www.fantasticplastic.co.uk
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Apparently inspired by 'pneumonia and microwaveable meals', The Mexicolas are the brain-child of Birmingham-based Jamie and Tim.  Jamie has spent the last seven years of his life touring the world with Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, Thunder and Wheatus.  He's also managed to squeeze in assignments with aging guitar-ponce Brian May and violin-flaunting ex-wonder-kid Nigel Kennedy.  Band-mate Tim 'started out on classical guitar but soon became engrossed by the drums after listening to Iron Maiden's 'Piece Of Mind'.'  Pedigree, indeed but do they cut the mustard? Whilst the name hopes to evoke alt.metal titans Queens of the Stone Age, the stodgy support-band dregs on offer are much closer to the early records from increasingly-tiresome indie bores Feeder (topped-off with hoary, 80's hard-rock vocals).  Admittedly it's all very well executed (almost to the point of being clinical) but, ultimately a little bit too bland and sterile for my tastes.

They say: 'honest, gutsy, believable'.  I say: drippings from the pop rock slop bucket.  Quite how many teenage dirtbags out there will fall for this re-heated faux-alt.rock ballast/bollocks is anyone's guess.

Review by Tom Leins
www.themexicolas.com
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These guys are slowly building up to greatness and deservedly so. In a day where I have knocked my mobile into a pint of water and subsequently it has decided that functioning is no longer an option. Add to this I have also somehow managed to burn myself on a plate fresh from the microwave despite its protestations of being 'microwave safe'; that such a song should pick me up with its enrapturing opening, kicking into a bass driven pre-amble and lyrical accompaniment of 'I'll stick a fork into your side just to make sure you're still alive' bodes well for the rest of this overcast day.

Battle have a truly distinctive sound. Vocalist, Jason Bavanandan, has a tendency to sound like the tabloids favourite living dead and the luscious guitar line throughout could easily be set alongside any of The Libertines better material. All the same, Battle are refreshing and inventive with melody and in 'Demons' have crafted a song that can fit in nicely with any of the current crop of angular post-rockers. A glimmer of hope in a day of misfortune and mishap.

Review by James Ainsworth
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More made for TV/Commercials Carnival-In-A-Cantm from Basement Jaxx. This repetitive and beaty commotion isn't one of their greater cuts of quality accessible pop and isn't likely to have as big an impact on the memory as previous hits such as 'Where's Your Head At?' and the such like. It is however an uplifting arrangement from Felix and Simon which formed an integral part of their colourful Headlining sets this summer at the likes of Glastonbury and further a field.

Review by James Ainsworth
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This is the debut single from San Francisco's purveyors of big noised constructions that more than hold their own in the most vacuous and soulless of cavities. A haunting vocal coupled with synths and shoe-gazing guitars, like a reduced Explosions In The Sky with vocals. Expansive and crisp, 'On & On' is a gloomy piece of hope. A refracted beam of light that pierces a dusty hanging air in an abandoned warehouse.

The b-sides are a little experience of a come down from what has just gone before. Slow and turgid and ultimately weak, especially 'Plus 1' which has an apparent 'This is what we could also sound like' and is somewhat timid. It's a shame that the b-sides detract from the mood of the lead track. 'On & On' certainly shows promise if they stick to that sound.

Review by James Ainsworth
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With a band name conjuring up such images of dreamy landscapes of music to drift off into a world of mystery and frivolity it is with great whoops from the merry fields of golden rows of corn and sun drenched meadows with amiable scarecrows and bunnies going by the names of Oscar and Ruth that I report back to you that the name matches up to its connotations. This record also takes me back to the 80's. How do I know it is such a time, when first time round I was merely a lil' tot? The sense of nostalgia comes from spending too much time watching Trigger Happy TV and listening to the soundtracks featuring the likes of The Church and Monaco and the such like. It is that Stone Roses Squire Strat guitar vibe that staples this record to the uninspiring side of a reviewers book of phrases where the most applicable phrase right now is perhaps; 'nothing new here'.

The tracks are extensive yet uninventive, like a Shed Seven album or any one of several back-end of the indie daze, that was so prevalent back then and so obsolete now. Track 3 has shades of modern twist s to an old theme and is very much an amble in the ilk of The Music. I like it. I like it a lot. Delay is the order of the day come track 4 and a slower number that glides but with no direction, like an Ocean Colour Scene album. To find this style of guitar band relevant now and wearing their influences on their sleeves, you get the impression of a band that has battled against the cream of their county for years but m issed their ship for the taste of local victory. Perhaps there is a chance for The Ambience in this dawning of a new era of Brit Pop and guitars prevailing over synths and beats. Rumour has it that Noel Gallagher is looking to sign Shack so there is always hope. When the music fades, all is stripped away and The Ambience leave us with dreamy indie.

Review by James Ainsworth
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Franco-German duo, they've risen from the abyss that was the death of electroclash in 2001, and, well, far from trying, they've gone and applied more eye shadow. NME declared them 'crap beyond estimation', which is, for anyone with ears, enough reason to stand up and listen. The a-side admittedly does wash over you like retro lift music, but 'l'il dirty' and bonus track 'useless man' - with prima-diva Leigh Bowery- is wondrously depraved, if a bit too minimal to the max.

There are also seven mixes thrown in on this second disc- remixes of M.I.A (lazy and good), Xlover (strung-out standout) and Temposhark (fool's gold). It soon dawns, mind, that, a bit like watching 'Cash in the Attic' in your boxers whilst smoking, an hour with Noblesse Oblige is fifty-five minutes too long. It delves into retrocity so much that there seems no progress from 1982, let alone four years ago. They've got the act, they play at- get this- VICE magazine's East End pub- but where's the goddam tunes?

It's as fake as the blood smeared on their necks.

Review by Chris Field
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Two mixes of 'Always Too Late' and one Patrick Wolf- alright- mix of 'helpless fool for love'. Honestly, I only remember the single-of-the-year-if-it-wasn't-for-bloody-arcade-fire track 'Heartbeat' from Annie's album, and the one that sounded a bit like 'Sunday Girl'. Oh wait. That would be 'helpless fool for love' then. Well Mr wolf has breathed his dark swoony synths all over this track. To awesome effect. I can see this being played at a dinner party at the point when you proceed to throw all your guests out the door for just not cutting it. You could swim in this song's careless caress.

Review by Chris Field
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You should not waste your time reading any further; there are only 500 copies of Mondegreens available. GO AND BUY ONE NOW! I'll still be here.

Ok so you got one? That was close. Now I'll tell you what I think.

Following on the heels of their sold out 'EPOne' this instrumental trio construct music so complete with grandeur and power, so disarming and dignified that it is hard to fathom what architectural secrets were passed down, what maps were inherited that unlocked the doors to allow such heart and eloquence, such sheer bloody mindedness and commitment to be captured on tape. In minutes Ctrlaltdelete teach me to love, destroy me with heartbreaking beauty and give me comprehension of the meaning of creation, yet there is nothing ethereal about the four tracks contained within, many instrumental bands become soundtracks, background musings allowing you to wonder a path of your own choosing, only coming back to the music, to the physical process of listening during brief, waking, snapshots. Ctrlaltdelete accomplish the near impossible, creating music so effecting, so blindly absorbed that it takes you deep inside your own conscious, yet music so vital, so tangible, so commanding that it never allows you to wander from its path for a second. 'Patter, chance and menace', typically contorted, soars between skyscrapers, replaying deleted scenes from your wildest dreams, your heartbreak, your first love, your birth and death over and over behind your eyelids.

This is the sound of a band exploding inside your head. This is the final siege, this is everything they've got, this is all that matters, this is brilliance.

Review by Jonathan Sebire
www.wethreekeys.co.uk
www.motivesounds.com
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The marriage of electro-glitch and soaring guitars is rarely a happy one, you judge them with the same scepticism that you hold for a pregnant bride on her wedding day. Fortunately Bristol's Leave Land For Water, which is one of the greatest band names I can recall, rain down such twisting cascades of beauty in tracks such as opener 'The Cinders Spread' and the bliss box lullaby of 'Olad' that you are left mesmerised by the seamless melding of analogue raptures and digital brushstrokes.

Born in late 2003 from the ashes of electro acoustic menace The Boy Lucas LLFW retain the glitch quirks and use them as a base coat for more expansive indulgences. Immediately gaining recognition and being short listed in the top six groups at Dazed & Confused Magazine Annual Creative Awards, the band chose to play the waiting game and spent 2004 sculpting, tearing apart and rebuilding both in the studio and on stage. The benefits are plain to see. This EP is a haunting, breathless snap shot of what may yet be to come.
           
The tracks contain here hurtle past like a stop motion daydream. Seeping into your conscience through the back door and occasionally pinning back your eyelids with fleeting moments of crystal clarity. Multi-vocalled samples in 'Bonnie Banks' holding a dignity and relevance that Moby would die for. Throughout Lucas' voice holds a reverence that somehow keeps this from slipping into sub Coldplay vogueing, recalling a lass ostracized pre-Bends Thom Yorke in attitude if not sonics, whilst the combination and competition of organic drums and studio beats lends a sense of off kilter warmth to the quietest moments that envelopes you, drawing you into a journey that's over before you notice its begun. In short when including the epic King Seven Remix of 'Dead Museum' this is a record of spellbinding possibility, the perfect calling card for a set of precocious songsmiths.

Review by Jonathan Sebire
www.leavelandforwater.com
www.sinkandstove.co.uk
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Power trio Nothing plough a brand of quirk rock that is not dissimilar to The Replacements and the less roots elements of The Levellers. This four track ep is the final instalment in a three disc series on Brighton based Marowak Records and coincidentally the final output with recently departed bassist Dan Lee. On first listen the songs seemed to slip by, you could tell that live this would be a band that threw themselves into the music with wild abandon and exhumed the ghosts of 1991: The Year that Punk Broke before destroying all before it with J Mascis fuelled volume and violence cocktail, yet on record the songs sounded muted and asphyxiated. Blow outs such as the end of 'Three Steps to Cheese' seem cocooned under glass as you find yourself desperately searching for a hammer to release the noise below.

All was not lost though, three or four listens down the line revealed some exquisitely crafted fuzztone pop songs that crack the skulls of Goo and Zen Arcade against the fist of Green Mind and a host of seminal US underground eighties godheads finest moments. Piers Blewett's voice adds a quintessentially English juxtaposition to all this indie Americana and his lilting declarations make sure they are never completely submerged beneath the referential signposting that could easily reduce a band to mere copyists!

Splints & Oxygen is endlessly frustrating in the depth of promise it holds, ultimately failing to do anything short of send me searching through records to dust off those artists fingerprinted here. If it has one great accomplishment it is that it has made me hunger to see Nothing live, it has made me desperate in fact, I crave to hear 'Granok' shoe horned into some nameless box dive with amps imploding under the strain. These songs deserve to breath and make ears bleed. Fortunately Nothing tour all throughout November. Try before you buy.

Review by Jonathan Sebire
www.nothingrock.com
www.marowakrecords.co.uk
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Calvoon are certainly not haircuts. I have seen their video (included with the single here), and their collective domes look like an assortment of plants from your local Botanical Gardens.

That aside, 'CominOnStrong2TheMaximum', Calvoon's second single, is all out soft-rawk warfare. This Oasis gilded, four-piece from Newcastle, certainly are into this rock 'n' roll thing and are famed in their native land for their rollicking shows. Here though, it's all professionally produced and slick guitars, and shouting and 'yeahs!' in a kind of well managed barrage.

The enthusiastic band seems to be matched by ambitious management. With a slick-ish video and an intense touring schedule, Calvoon could be vying for McFly's place after drinking them under the table, if they're not careful.
But with inane lyrics, confidence and swagger, Calvoon do hew out predictable and solid songs, firmly rooted in the pop tradition. For this reviewer, while this single is big and brash and full of youth, in the end it is as boring as a football chant committed to record.

From the sound of the single alone this bad review won't faze Calvoon, and fair fucks to them. They know what they are about and if the people are liking it, then that is more than enough. It sounds like these chaps are living the dream and 'CominOnStrong2TheMaximum', really, in their own heads. They believe it and I won't stand in their way, and nor would they let me.

Love that title though, ace.

Review by Alun McKeever

www.calvoon.com
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Record labels are not something that I know too much about, but there always seems to be a select few labels out there intent on pushing new music, and giving a platform to new bands to voice their work that otherwise might not have the opportunity to do so. Fantastic Plastic is a label that I have come across through the bands Guillemots and Help She Can't Swim, but apart from that, I know little about it. The sampler itself was pretty neatly packaged, and instead of being in the now traditional cardboard sleeve, it was wrapped in a piece of A4 paper. The novelty is (for me anyway, you hardened sampler lovers might be used to this) that it doubles as a sort of flyer for all the bands featured on the sampler detailing tour dates, EP release dates and website addresses. This is pretty cool in itself as it gives you more than just standalone songs, it allows you to look into the bands further, but then again, I guess that's the point of a sampler really. Annoyingly, I haven’t got Internet access as I write this, so I can't do any background research. Anyway, onto the songs.
           
First up are Guillemots, and the single here (Made Up Love Song 43) has been given quite a lot of rotation on various BBC Radio stations (6Music etc), so I am already quite familiar with it. For me, this is the strongest track featured here. It starts fairly slowly, with a sparse rim-tapped snare beat, and a keyboard backing the soft vocals. The song seems to feature a plethora of different sound effects throughout either they are a heavily numbered band, or there are a lot of samples coming out to play. About halfway through, an alarm clock goes off (A Day In The Life anyone?) and suddenly a bass line Roni Size would be proud of cuts through the gentle atmosphere of the first half of the song. Bass lines are where it seems to be at in music at the moment, and Guillemots use it to stunning effect. As well as this, a twinkly guitar moves in and out until the song kind of just slows down and ultimately dies out. There is another Beatlesesque moment here as the keyboard drones on, a little like the outro of Strawberry Fields. All in all, a great song, that sounds a little different to anything else out there at the minute, but the outro lets it down a little as it burns out.
           
Next up are the strangely named Bearsuit, with 'Going Steady', and equally strange song. Upon first listen, this was my least favourite song on the sampler, but I persevered, and it has worked its magic upon me. At first listen, it sounds like this band can't play a note between them, everything sounds a little clumsy and tacked together, but after a couple of spins, it seems this is intentional. The drummer sounds like he/she is playing some kind of Cannibal Corpse influenced blastbeat, but it is set against fairly standard 3-chord guitar, which creates that clumsy sound. The song stops and starts quite a lot, and admittedly it does sound like it was recorded in one take, but that produces a nice raw sound to the track, and is more desirable in my opinion than an over-produced song (see Bloc Party's new record). As with Guillemots, 'Going Steady' has a number of layers to it, consisting of keyboards and even a brass section towards the end, which reminded me of some of NOFX's early work. Definitely a band that have potential, and again, seem to be offering something different, with quirky spoken word vocals and a veritable mixing bowl of sounds, just give them a few listens before deciding whether or not you like them.
           
Third up are The Immediate, with a demo version of forthcoming single 'Stop & Remember'. I really like this song, well the verses anyway, although it is in a similar vein to a lot of new music being released currently. The singer's voice in uncannily similar to Romeo from the Magic Numbers, whilst the verse sections sound like they were written by Clor. The Immediate then; The Magic Numbers attempting to cover a new sound by impersonating Clor. Perhaps better than it sounds. The verse features a simple guitar riff using lots of fader and reverb, and a dance oriented bassline, over fairly simple lyrics. However, the chorus seems to be from a completely different song, as the stop/start theme is dropped for a more stomping feel, and The Magic Numbers style takes over. It feels like it should be some sort of American mission statement from a corporate company, that's the only way that I can describe it.
           
The next track is from the snappily named The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club, called 'My Son Spells Backwards' something which we are told repeatedly throughout he banal and uninteresting two minute song. Unlike Bearsuit, I have no doubt that this was written in about two minutes, and the main components are three annoying guitar riffs, a four note bassline, and vocals sang in that typical 'I'm English and ironic' way. The vocals are shared between a male and female, and certain parts are reminiscent of Pixies circa Surfer Rosa, but are in no way as good. The main thing that grates with this song is the chorus section, which features one guitar note annoyingly bent up and down, which just creates this droning sound, a bit like an air raid siren. Definitely the worst track on the CD for me.
           
Final track of the day is 'Are You Feeling Fashionable?' by Help She Can't Swim, and I have to say that this marks a marginal improvement on previous release 'Bunty Vs Beano'. 'Are You Feeling Fashionable' seems only to be able to remind me of Sonic Youth, especially around their 'Goo' and 'Dirty' albums. It has the male/female mixed vocal, the spaced-out middle break, and the staccato guitar riffs that shouldn't work, but do. After a few listens, this became a very listen able song, except for a section near to the end that just seems like its is there for the sake of it. After the Sonic Youth style middle break, the song comes back in to a loud, disjointed section with unintelligible vocals that just seems pointless, and the song seems fine enough without it.
           
So, a pretty varied range of sounds from the Fantastic Plastic label, and hopefully a hint at a good set of future releases. Also worthy of note is that the band Kubicheck! are also on this label, who will hopefully fulfil some of their early promise.

Review by Ben Wykes
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Fists fly, the lights fail, strobe illumination snapshots permeated with lacerating pain. Silence, only your heart in your throat now, but you are not alone…you know its coming back. This is FalenizzaHorsePower country.
             
Stark and defiant, this is the sound of histories expiring. Dave Spars and Steve Hutchins have been carving great music across their home shores for some years now. Bullsmilk, Lebatol, Sneakread-out, Lawrence Draws Monsters, they have provided the furious hearts, and so combined and segregated they bring us FalenizzaHorsePower, shackled only by their wildest desires.
           
'THIS IS A STATEMENT! YES!' Screams Dave in 'Mancunian Honesty Breakdown' and fuck does it feel that way. Seared into the back of your cochlea as Steve cuts jazzy rolls under drone rock hypno bass lines. They'll be no prisoners taken tonight. Stuck between original line-up Melvins, Mike Watts dirtiest output and the bleakest Shellac we get three tracks that ache to find the beauty in violence. From the lilting breakdown in 'Mancunian Honesty Breakdown', to the pleading defiance as Steve practically bleeds 'Why should I waste my time with you?' through the mic during 'Killian The Name Of', though the tide of low end bombast may be relentless it is punctuated by moments of sheer glory and beauty.
           
The sheer power produced by merely the two combined is devastating. Nowhere more so than on the Earth like 'Horse head Nebula'. Dave's drone crazed fuzz bass slavering over Steve's gunshot beat, hulking and sculpted, taking in by turns Mclusky, Big Black, and even Sonic Youths more brutal moments, harmonic distortion and snarled battle cries intertwine to bore into your record collection, quietly destroying all memory of what came before.
           
Less is more. FalenizzaHorsePower have more than most.

Review by Jonathan Sebire
www.myspace.com/falenizzahorsepower 
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