Artrocker Magazine’s Single Reviews for the week commencing April 12

Detachments
H.A.L.
(Thisisnotanexit)

The overriding dark scuzziness on this new single from Detachments may put off those with an altogether sunnier disposition, but anyone else with an ounce of krautrock in them will be pleasantly surprised by ‘H.A.L’.
The echoey vocals, stop-start beats and eastern Berlin warehouse-like atmosphere that the trio have created all add up to an absorbing listen to the say the least.
Even though it could be argued that the repeated “Is it truth or lie?” refrain does start to grate a little bit after a while, it’s fair to say that the instrumental backing, particularly around the chorus key changes, verges on the anthemic when it wants to.
The fact that Detachments have already attracted attention from the likes of James Ford and Andrew Weatherall is a testament to their potential.
Charlie Ashcroft


Gold Blood
Twilight Language E.P.
(Human Shield)

Gold Blood have adopted the philosophy of synthpop and crude DIY beats for this EP, wheeling in some thick basslines and distortion, then decorating them with piercing retro synths. The record hits a wall, however, when it fast becomes obvious that they've nothing to say (at least Fat Truckers were funny!)
“If you stop worrying you could start living,” is the suggestion, but the lifestyle on offer is of mindless frivolities, ok for a brief masochistic session but nothing more. Over an extended period it’s the kind of lifestyle that you should start worrying about in order to start living.
Samuel Breen


Malachai
Snowflake
(Double Six)

After a subtle name change enforced by copyright issues and the patronage of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, Bristolian duo Malachai are back with a renewed push.
Heavily sampling ‘Sad And Lonely Lady’ (by ‘70s Birmingham singer-songwriter Daniel Boone), ‘Snowflake’ is a suitably cut and paste introduction to the stoned, crate-digging charm of debut album ‘Ugly Side Of Love’. It revolves around the kind of trippy backing vocals and strong piano and guitar parts beloved of glam-psyche renaissance man Pop Levi. Over to the remixes, and we get ‘Ghetto Bass’ man Herve delivering an old-school rave homage with a predictably healthy amount of low-end, while Barrow also contributes, making for an impressive single package.
Lewis Hingston


Summer Camp
Ghost Train
(Moshi Moshi)

Everything about ‘Ghost Train’ and Summer Camp in general screams nostalgia, and on that basis alone I assumed their hazy melodies and fragile Casio-tronics would become grating upon repeated listens. In fact, the opposite is true; the track gets better with each listen revealing another subtlety you missed previously – it’s the polar opposite of Peter, Bjorn & John’s ‘Young Folks’, which sounded great for a week then led to a series of random street attacks on whistlers.
Flipside ‘Montgomery Avenue 1984’ takes its title literally, sprinkling dated effects liberally, which sound as though they could only have been produced on a Spectrum or Amstrad, while miraculously still falling on the right side of cornball cheesiness.
Lewis Hingston


The Joy Formidable
Popinjay
(Draca Records)

The Joy Formidable have just finished a nationwide tour supporting The Temper Trap, but don’t let that put you off. Unlike their tiresome van buddies y’see, the Welsh three piece deal less in plodding, pseudo-anthemics and more in brooding guitar drones and sweetly venomous vocals- a far more enticing proposition altogether. If The Kills and Howling Bells had merged and spent a year in a underground bunker developing an obsession with melodic shoegaze then the results wouldn’t be too far short of ‘Popinjay’. What more do you people want?!
Lisa Wright


Music Go Music
Light Of Love
(Secretly Canadian)

'Light Of Love' is the flamboyant centrepiece of Music Go Music’s current album, Expressions. Not since Scissor Sisters have an act appeared so pure in their reverence for classic pop that they could have been plucked from the sugary, glitter filled fantasies of a coked-up A & R man.
Whereas the joke soon wore thin with SS and their misguided attempts to be taken seriously fell flat, Music Go Music aren’t going to weight their music down by digging around under the kitchen sink, they’re too busy watching the stars. Leading lady Gala Bell shoulder shimmies her way through the guilty pleasures of the chorus, lapping it up like the love child of Olivia Newton John and Meatloaf as the dramatic strings and piano honk along to their natural, glorious conclusion. Like a musical montage of TOTP Christmas Specials from the seventies, the fun only stops when the velvet curtain falls.
Mark Wall