Singles for the Week starting 28 November!

Chapter 24
Spindle/4454
(Odd Box Records)
* * * * *

There's definitely something Crowley-esque about Chapter 24, as if they were reciting The Egyptian Book of the Dead and drawing hieroglyphics while everyone else was growing beards to Pavement. That's not to suggest that buyers of this single are automatically going to get hexed: the demons they conjure are friendly (in a demonic sort of way), with this double A side providing a sort of voodoo cocktail bar where we can all get together and commune over a Chiante.
Let’s do some explaining. The London/Corby band use the usual primary colours - bass, drums, guitar - but follow a tribal instinct which leads them into obscene territories. Hence 'Spindle' starts off like feral rockabilly before hyperventilating on itself and speaking in tongues. '4454' appears quite normal at first - the odd disco beat here, a punkish riff there - but then singer Claire Smith seems to drop to her knees in a warped offering to Lucifer, the black robes come out… and dash it, the dinner party's ruined again.
As Paul Artrocker has said of Chapter 24, they offer something uniquely out there. We've all had that jazz cigarette-prompted conversation that questions what music humans would make if they'd grown up completely insulated from other people's music. Here, at least, is one plausible answer.
Ric Rawlins

D/R/U/G/S
Connected
(Tender Age)
* * * * *

It’s Sunday evening at Glastonbury’s Dance Village. All the strobe lights are curving their way into one beautiful shape and there’s a vague suspicion that you’d planned to head off to the Pyramid but can’t for the life of you remember why.
Looking up the sky is clear but somehow it’s still raining. You’re soaked through and struggling to remember where your tent is.
Then, through all the haze, you get a moment of tingling clarity. You look up and see the swollen throng dancing as one. There’s one beautiful, blissful song uniting you with these strangers, friends, and brothers in arms. This is the song you’re dancing to. Connected.
Dai Howells

Teeth
UR1
(Moshi Moshi Records)
* * * *

"My name is James, I am your mother" explain Teeth helpfully at the outset of their new single, a typically mental piece of video game noise pop. Using what sounds like similar technology, Teeth are the antithesis of Crustal Castles' hooded demons, extracting empathetic emotions out of their hacked laptops.
Ric Rawlins

Weird Dreams
Holding Nails
(Tough Love)
* * * * *

With its vocal harmonies, shimmering guitar and a liberal helping of ‘ah-ahs’, Weird Dreams have managed to stay on the right side of woozy, late-afternoon jangle pop.
Over its four minutes, ‘Holding Nails’ manages to evoke the ‘60s halcyon pop attempted by many but achieved by few, let alone a band that haven’t even released a full length record yet. You know that song that exists in your imagination as the soundtrack to that glorious summer you spent with “the one that got away”? This is it.
Dai Howells

Little Roy
Lithium
(Ark Recordings)
* *

Does the world really need a reggae Nirvana cover? On the strength of Little Roy's effort, probably not. Mildly entertaining on first listen for its sheer novelty value, it's hard to think of an occasion when you'd want to hear it more than once. Hearing Kurt's lyrics such as “I'm so ugly, but that's OK/'Cause so are you” sung without any of the original's passion amidst a joyfully upbeat backdrop is just plain wrong. So there.
Patrick Trahair

Steel Island
Chiildren / Teenage Director
(Naked Tree Recordings)
* * * *

Like MGMT's evil twin, Steel Island inhabit their synth pop with a dark strain of melancholy and desperation, that has more in common with George Orwell's dystopian Europe than any notions of hipster surf.
The weirdly spelt 'Chiildren' is beautifully dark; it sounds like a digital SOS message from the future that is suddenly cut short by sinister distortions, while 'Teenage Director' proves the band have songwriting chops: it's a sci-fi ballad, bittersweet in its mixture of innocence and tragedy. Fantastic!
Ric Rawlins