Physical Format-20190710
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
It appears I spoke too soon regarding the number of weeks left of this column as the May box arrived through my door yesterday (May 28th) so two more lots of waffle after this one rather than one.
In other news though the disc by Cleopatrick from a column or two ago has sold in recent days, bringing in a few £ so there's hope that some of the rest will sell yet.
This time around we begin with another Canadian duo, B.B. Except there are three names on the back of the 7" cover so maybe, a la Dream Wife, their drummer is some kind of non-person. 'Drowning' has obvious shades of L7 & Deap Vally about it, with a bit of surf twang thrown in. Streets ahead of anything similar UK Flying Vinyl acts are producing anyway. 'Nu Blue' takes the surf element a bit further. A very good start to this particular box. Facebook shows the band are doing stuff throughout 2019.
Jagara are the second band I've come across in this series who have a two tracker disc described as an EP. Hard to see how that extends things past the length of a single. Anyway, musically they're style is yearning, angsty electro-pop. 'Twice' and 'Real Love' are pretty formulaic, Radio 1-friendly numbers. The band seem to have stopped updating their Facebook page in spring 2018 so your guess is as good as mine as to what they're up to now.
Laulia are an indie rock act. 'Burning Out' aims to be anthemic but fails to set the heather on fire whilst 'Machines' is a softer prospect the likes of which you've heard many times before. The band at least have their own site but no gigs past spring this year it seems.
Safe To Swim have a bit of Wavves' sound about them. 'Make Things Like They Used To Be' moves along at a good pace and is generally fun but, if that's the best they have then it's still not much. 'Friends' is not as good as the A side. Facebook shows the band had a new track released last week.
Food this time around comes in the shape of Mystic Peach. 'Across The Pond' gets a bit muscular and they can growl a bit as well as sing but there's no real hook in this shoegaze/brit-pop/'psych' melange. 'Normal' is a more dramatic song but again it kind of washes over me. The band are still promoting 'Across The Pond' and have been quiet on Facebook for about a month.
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