Artrocker Magazine’s Single Reviews for the week commencing 8 February

Reprinted from Artrocker Magazine Issue 98


Hot Club De Paris
With Days Like This As Cheap AS Chewing Gum, Why Would Anyone Want To Work?
(Moshi Moshi)

It's been too long Hot Club - although not quite as long as the name you've given your comeback EP. That's right, everybody's favourite art punks of 2008 are back, and their new EP hits just the right tone of casual chaos to help you forget they ever went away.
Opener 'Dance A Ragged Dance' isn't going to frighten any sheep; it's a straight up feelgood song about "kissing on the stairs" and indeed, dancing a ragged kind of dance. However, 'Fuck You, The Truth' pushes preconceptions that wee bit further; after a wind-chime intro, Paul grabs the mic to command the party, albeit amusingly ("Are you guys having a good time?" "Nooo!" comes the response).
'They Shoot Horses Don't They?' takes the band's signature of multi-part harmonies and boosts it into a kind of New Year’s Eve anthem, with the strange addition of the 'Gimme Shelter' melody serving as an outro.
The real treat is closer 'Extra Time, Sudden Death', which builds from an Eno-style ambient intro towards a smash-and-grab maypole dance, throwing riffs hither and thither. It's the sound of a band who're proud of being playful, and an interesting pointer to their next EP, due summer.
Cindy Suzuki
Out 8 February


Maria & The Mirrors
Omar
(Parlour Records)

Good Lord. From the outset, where a series of rattling drums seem to be marking out the listener’s impending doom, it proves impossible not to be sucked into the new single by London-based trio Maria & The Mirrors.
Sounding like a half-broken ghost train hurtling towards its trapped prey, The Mirrors’ maelstrom of grubby synths provides a rich backdrop for the waves of female yelps which ensue, each one thick, fast and relentless.
The song's continuously accelerating pace is nothing short of exhilarating, while the three-piece’s frightening knack of fitting as much as is sonically possible into a chaos-splattered 3 minutes 45 absolutely beggars belief.
Moreover, just when you think that they can’t do anything else in the world to further the bedlam, they come up with what must be the dirtiest riff this side of Times New Viking.
Although it's kinda tempting to pick apart the influences which have melded this cacophony, the end result is a band who've used every last fibre in their bodies to make something as whole-heartedly different as possible to everything else around. 'Omar' throws the rulebook on song structures out of a grime-stained window and buries it, never to be read again within six miles of Deptford.
Maria & The Mirrors might well have crafted one of the most weirdly compelling singles of the year so far.
Charlie Ashcroft
Out 8 February


Field Music
Them That Do Nothing
(Memphis Industries)

They've been taking time out to work on other projects, but the return of the brothers Brewis is made all the more welcome by this cracking comeback single. ‘Them That Do Nothing’ is the type of typically jaunty number we’ve come to expect from Field Music on their previous albums.
Although the political undertones of the line “We tried to stand for nothing/Now there’s nothing to stand for” sticks out a bit from within the brightness of the instrumentation, there’s nothing else in these three minutes of pure pop to prevent the listener from concluding that Field Music are one of Britain’s most underrated bands.
Charlie Ashcroft
Out 7 February


Speak & The Spells
She’s Dead
(Robot Elephant)

Going for our jugulars with some punk-inspired shock tactics, Speak & The Spells’ debut single may be the closest thing to a faux-anarchic pastiche that you’ll hear all year.
The intro’s promising bass groove soon gives way to a fairly simplistic set of riffs, loosely bashed out amid Joe Eakin’s dark but repetitive refrain of “I used to have a girlfriend/But she’s six feet underground”.
Halloween-style cackles in the song’s background do it no favours at all, only serving to push the track closer to the novelty status which it scarcely deserves.
There’s a perfectly good reason why The Horrors stopped making music like this a long time ago.
Charlie Ashcroft
Out 8 February



Placebo
Bright Lights
(Dreambrother)

For some strange reason, Placebo are still making records. Whilst interest never turned against them, the generation that grew up with Placebo have grown out of them – and now Brian Molko’s angst and “torture” appears intensely immature for a chap of his age.
For the younger fans that the band have schmoozed, this new release has our man regretting the times when he used to hate everything and act all out of character. Perhaps some of that energy could have bled through into this MOR stab at artistic development. It doesn’t though and suddenly we’re missing the old Placebo, for some reason.
Tom Norton
Out 8 February


Dance To The Radio
4 x 12" Volume Four
(Dance To The Radio)

Welcome if you've just joined us, to part four - and indeed the conclusion - of this series of showcase EPs. It's been emotional.
Things kick off with Philadelphia's Drink Up Buttercup, who unfortunately sport a singer that does that Arcade Fire ‘I'm-a-bit-sweaty-and-emotional’ thing. Still, the tune is perky.
Things improve with Milk White White Teeth from Leeds, who offer up the cutesy-pie disco of 'The Calendar Will Crawl', while Super Extra Bonus Party bring us some disposable (but all the better for it) psychedelic electro-pop.
The sun goes down with another Leeds musician, Paul Thomas Saunders. Not entirely uniquely he's been compared to Nick Drake, but he's a bit more twinkly and romantic than that.
Truth be told, this isn't quite the blitzing finale we were hoping for, but at least the records show they took the blows - and Dance to the Radio did it their way.
Cindy Suzuki
Out 8 February