HAIR
BY ROGER: Drawing
Oh, where to begin? Do you remember those heady summer days of
your youth? Hair By Roger obviously do. This gorgeous three track EP of
gentle, pastoral melodies is redolent of hazy August afternoons
watching clouds drift gently overhead. Devastatingly beautiful stuff.
Ambient how it really should be. Single of the Month by a country mile.
And then some.
THE
CRISPS: The Uncertainty Principle
Despite having this month's greatest rock and roll name The
Crisps seem hell-bent on creating the sort of drum and bass that their
Physics teacher would be proud of. If you're into Squarepusher and
Avagadro's Constant then this could well be for you.
BAGMAN:
Starlings
Foreboding techno scribblings from the darker side of Cornwall.
We're not sure if Starlings (or Ravens) are quite as
sinister as these four feathery textures seem to suggest but as the
former have ruined more than one Saturday lie-in with their cacophonous
racket we'll let this one go.
OH
JOYOUS DINER: Oh Joyous Diner
Three blink-and-you'll-miss-'em slices of cheery bedroom
electronica served up by the worryingly prolific Learn To Swim
label. The press release isn't giving much away about Oh Joyous Diner (I
know, I know) but the moogish Have Faith In Sitcom gets our vote
for the new National Anthem should a referendum get called. Lovely
stuff.
ACID
WILHELM: Sins and Wonders
More eclectic fun from the Learn To Swim roster. Unlike
previous releases you'd be pretty pushed shaking your booty to this
clutch of sparse, electronic burblings which brings to mind both AI era
Warp and the phrase 'Special Sound by Dick Mills'. You get the idea.
DAVID
LOOPHEAD: Knuckleduster
A cracking little debut from David Loophead who promises us
"beats and guitars to make us dance, yeah!" Here we find fuzzy
riffs, 60 mph bongos and enough elasticated wah-wah to have you hopping
around the kitchen for hours. Which is no bad thing.
THE
SUBMERCIBLES: Twist
No doubt pissing off all Bagman fans (no great loss) Learn To
Swim have signed their first (gulp) rock band. Two chunks of
heads-down no-nonsense guitar mayhem with Davrosesque shouting. About
thirty seconds in a phone starts to ring. You get the distinct
impression that it isn't intentional. Dirty, filthy music for dirty,
filthy people. A chaotically brilliant Single of the Month. Just don't
come round to my house.
BAGMAN:
Corridors
More downbeat ambient noodlings from Cornwall's Bagman which
suggest that a) he was previously employed composing incidental music
for plays about nuclear war in the early eighties and b) he should
really try to get out of the house more.
THE
CRISPS: Mocata
The Crisps seem to have forgone their science homework after
apparently discovering the delights of Dennis Wheatley. Mocata is
dedicated to Charles Grey (the form that Satan took in the seventies)
and carries on in the fine Learn To Swim tradition of mixing drum
and bass, techno and weird electronica in the same cauldron. A heady
potion not for faint-hearted. Truly diabolical. But in a good way.
DAVID LOOPHEAD: Chequeboy
Chequeboy shows Mr Loophead (yeah, right) unloading his
trademark loops of thunder and big,big beats over a high-octane sample
shrieks about "dancing and prancing". Or so these tired, jaded
ears are hearing. Elsewhere Monologue is all weird voices and
kettle drums, whilst Almost Erwin would not be out of place on
Mo'Wax with its laid back rhythms and double bass. Niiice!
IRA SNOWMELT TRIO:
Spiderleg
We're not sure what the hepcats at Learn To Swim have been
smoking but this three-tracker definitely contains jazz. Yes, jazz.The
usual thumping techno has been replaced by late night bass and piano. We
know very little about jazz (yes, jazz) or the Ira Snowmelt Trio but we
know we like this. But the first sign of a beard and we're splitting
this scene, daddio.
KARSWELL: Taphophobia
OST
Getting a bit bloody clever now, this lot. Karswell are a
supergroup formed from the cream of all the Learn To Swim artists
who have collaborated to record the soundtrack to the yet-to-be released
British horror flick, Taphophobia. Backwards guitars, portentous
piano stabs and quite unpleasant glooping noises suggest that something
very nasty is lurking in the basement. Highly recommended, if only for
the fact that track five is called Haemic Torment, which should
give you a good idea of what to expect here. It means the fear of being
buried alive, in case you were wondering.
