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Words: kicking_k and Melissa Bradshaw
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Yay for emotions!
aPAtT
For once, wacksome typography serves a purpose – aPAtT really do sound like the vast agglomeration of wonderful typos which would accrue as the frankly unlikely room full of infinite monkeys progress roundly toward a Hamlet rewrite. Airily disregarding the Curse of Liverpool which blights most of the bands growing up in the shadow of Beatles statues, aPAtT match white robes, sprawl rhythm tracks like fishing nets, skronk endearingly and do their best to ambush yr senses and confound yr expectations at each hair-pin turn. www.myspace.com/apatt
Kaman Leung
Squelches and rumbles, and metallic sounds that make us think about jungles, for some reason, although he’s from Norway. It must be the fecundity. The trees are full of nerdy robots though. Also they can move their hips when they dance. www.myspace.com/lacerated2002
Lightspeed Champion
Having manfully conquered the Ritalin rawk set, Dev Test Icicle relocated to someplace in the States not New York or Los Angeles and proceeded to unleash his inner muppet. Not being nasty – his video’s infested with them – which will doubtless encourage very many slothful hacks to use compound drug similes. Closer to the fact is that the gimmicks merely accessorise pretty, pretty indie love songs and the like. Yay for emotions! www.myspace.com/lightspeedchampion
Lisa Li-Lund
A backing voice for (and biological sister of at least a third of) neurotic Plan B housepets Herman Dune, Ms. Li-Lund trots delicately out into a new meadow conjuring flowers with each guitar strum and rainbows with every high note. Spooky chorus effects, kindergarten percussion and ventilating organs construct wonderment, a Super Mario theme chopped and screwed, played by sad and human hands. www.myspace.com/lisalilund
Mavado
His voice is gravelly edged but pounding with heart; last year’s ‘Wha Dem A Do’, over the searing Red Bull and Guinness Riddim, is sheer escapism. He boasts and deals with fakes, of course; but tracks like ‘Amazing Grace’ and ‘Dying’ are beautiful and groundbreaking soul/dancehall hybrids. www.myspace.com/movadogangstaforlife
The New Bloods
Osa, Adee & Cassia have rad names, come from Portland, want to meet “black punks, the stars, the forest, the ocean.” Their music is a loving echo of the post-punk sound, violin, drums and bass rooting into the contested space between their call-and-response vocals. Emanate the gratifying seriousness of a band who take nothing for granted and are looking way beyond the next round of applause. www.myspace.com/thenewbloods
Operator Please
Profoundly youthful in a way many people never manage, Operator Please are an Australian high school band that pour hyper-caffeinated rock dynamics into prom dress pretty pop delinquency and seem destined for success whether you like it or not. The popping of punk has been a dismal thing to behold, but these guys accelerate straight through the stylistic clichés into pure, soul-warming primary colours. www.myspace.com/operatorplease
Party Weirdo
The awkward sound of Nu Germany, perhaps. Although they claim to come from Dublin and Berlin simultaneously, so hmm. Guitars fizz like scattered lines of gunpowder as bracing vocals offer advice on charting yr cycle, before ripping the word “mennnn-struuuu-aaAAAAatiiiiing” into a shower of confetti. Raw grrr plus space to breathe equals outsider fun for people who don’t go outside much www.myspace.com/partyweirdomusic
Percee P
He released his first 12” in 1992 and is just now putting out his debut LP. That’s got to be a record. ‘Perserveance’ is smoking, slick and funkily anachronistic stuff you’d only ever get from the Stone’s Throw camp – imagine meeting him in a club with red eyes, a hoody and an intense kind of look… www.myspace.com/perceep
The Peverelist
One of the pack of Bristol producers following Pinch’s lead and tinting dubstep with their own colours, Tom Peverelist runs Rooted Records and says he would be in a guitar band, playing early hardcore type stuff – except he doesn’t have the right transport. Be glad of this, because he’s doing a lovely soulful Bristolian jungle thing to dubstep… www.myspace.com/punchdrunkrecords
Santogold
Brooklyn-based pop with a globalisation complex. Having already hooked up with M.I.A. and Switch, the duo’s next (big) plans are hinted at by a MySpace bio that dares to dream of an audience stretching from penitentiaries to space stations, the United Arab Emirates to the British Broadcasting Corporation. If they have many more like the oozily, itchily dub-ridden ‘You’ll Find A Way’, you should buy a t-shirt now before they run out of yr size… www.myspace.com/santogold
Yelle
The other first lady of Nouveau Electro Francais crept back to her bedroom while Uffie hoovered up the press. A season spent bonding with her keytar and Yelle is back with an album, Pop-Up, rocking a masterful update of the chanson via Japanese technology and, well, the Eighties, obviously. Super-danceable and so riddled with six types of synth squiggle the upside-down smiley on her signature dress is probably ready to puke. Ecstatically. www.myspace.com/iloveyelle
This article originally appeared in Plan B #24, August 2007 |
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