Physical Format-20190724
- Published in Columns
This is being written on the last day of May, practically two months before it will be published, so who knows what may happen between now and then regards the Flying Vinyl singles I'm trying to offload? The Blinders' 'Rat In A Cage' went off to its new home this lunchtime and I'm fitting in the final five discs of this less than rewarding experiment at helping new acts, in before dinner.
Firstly, with one of the better bits of cover art the series has had in the past 18 months, are the duo Black Futures. Sigue Sigue Sputnik come to mind at the start of 'Tunnel Vision' but their pounding industrial sound has elements of NIN etc. as you'd expect at the mention of the i word. It bowls along at a good pace and, although a bit repetitive by the end, is definitely one of the better tunes I've heard whilst writing these pieces. The B side's just a remix of the A side and a boringly slow one at that. Facebook shows the duo to be currently very active.
Annabel Allum has a decent line in rocky singer-songwriter stuff on 'Be Mine'. Think Hazel O'Connor meets Joan Armatrading, or Courtney Barnett aping PJ Harvey for younger readers. 'Peachy Keen' (the second time in two months a song with that title has appeared) is a moodier piece of work but still has a pleasing weight and punch at times. A very accomplished double sider. Annabel's site shows she has a few gigs coming up.
Do Nothing look like young farmers at leisure in their booklet photo but apparently they inspire mosh-pits. 'Gangs' doesn't seem to be in any danger of doing that, sounding as it does like Gene or a similar second tier indie act from a couple of decades ago. 'Handshakes' displays some funky bass runs during it's couple of minutes and this is obviously where the LCD Soundsystem/Talking Heads mentions in the booklet are targeted. It's not bad but danceable rather than moshable, if a bit overlong. Facebook shows them to be doing gigs over the coming months.
Lacuna Common are also apparently in the mosh-pit business. A gruff-voiced Libertines is roughly what they sound like on 'Not The Same'. I expect they're fun live in a small venue. 'Under The Lamplight' pounds along in a similar jaunty manner to the A side. Resorting to Facebook again we see that the band round of a short tour at Truck Festival later this week.
Lastly, Chloe Bodur is who you're looking for if you're a Sade fan. 'Billie' features warped sounds but unfortunately it's also one of those discs which sound wonky to the extent that I have to check whether the turntable's suddenly decided to go slow. 'Glory' sounds perfectly normal, however, but it's in no way my sort of thing. Social media shows Chloe's still promoting 'Billie'.
And there you have it, 22 months of tunes written up over 22 weeks, with the overall conclusion that the £440 shelled out could have been better spent elsewhere. Ah well.
