iPunke, Crunk and the Eternally Bland - It's Singled Out!

Like a bolt form the indie wilderness comes the frontal lobotomy that is ‘Boa Vs Python’ from the kings of iPunke Test Icicles. An agitated monster of a record that rips up the blueprint of art-punk and re-arranges it all wonky with added fluorescent pink and green bits. Quite frankly it destroys anything released in the past month kicking out a cacophony of grating guitars, chugging electro beats and a trio of elasticised yelping vocals. It’ll make you dance like you’ve got electrified pants. Out on a limited release – Fight your friends and beat up old grannies for it!

Morning Runner are Chris Martin’s favourite new band and produce guitar driven MOR indie, taking both points into consideration you wouldn’t hold out much hope for latest single ‘Gone Up In Flames’ – you’d be wrong. It chases you down and makes you like it; you can’t escape the surprisingly spiky guitars, the 100mph vocals that almost outrun the thumping drums and its all-round vigorous intensity. A sunshine song that could be the soundtrack to a summer spent energetically running round your back garden.

While Kaiser Chiefs have pogo’d their way into superstardom the real best band outta Leeds Black Wire continue to produce dark, brooding and interminably edgy dirges. New single ‘Smoke And Mirrors’ skips along to a funkabilly beat with an atmospheric ease that almost makes the air crackle. It jumps from quiet whispers to loud crashes and back again. And then just as they’re building up the anticipation for a closing knife edge crescendo they disappear into thin air...mmm...come back, please! Oh, go on!

If you imagine how bored you were the time you were the most bored ever in your life, it still wouldn’t be a fraction of how bored you’d be if you were to listen to Alfie’s new single ‘Your Own Religion’. A coma inducing, sub-standard indie-schmindie pile of the proverbial. Back in 2000 Lee Gorton’s vocals were quirky, almost endearing; now they are just ****ing annoying. It’s like they’ve sucked out all the good bits they had and replaced them with large quantities of ketamine, only to find it’s turned them into the bed wetting cousins of Keane and Athlete.

Supergrass on the other hand show us how slowing it all down should be done. ‘St Petersburg’ is a clear indication of the new direction they are moving in, away from the scuzzy pop of old to a world of back street bars and late night jams. A woozy piano lead opus that has tinges of the film noir, creamy laid back vocals from Gaz Coombes and the self assured sense of a band who have the confidence to experiment. Fans of the past material shouldn’t despair, would you really want them to keep rehashing the likes of ‘Alright’ and ‘Richard III’?

Taking your lead from the likes of Embrace’s McNamara brothers probably isn’t the best way to go but that’s what Long-view have done on ‘Further’. Big hearted indie rock with a sweeping chorus full of over the top choir vocals and orchestral movements plus the kind of saccharine sentimentality that makes you want to puke. Designed for a stadium but can never hope of filling one, it’ll send shivers down your spine because of its cringe worthiness not with excitement.

Influx have energy to burn and boy do they show it , they leave you turning blue and gasping for air by the end of new single ‘I Got Held Up’. On the face of it a ramshackle, straight down the line pop-punk blast but look closer and you start to see darker edges. From the strange electronic lightning rod that weaves its way through the deep recesses of the opening supercharged riff to the yelping duel of a chorus that occurs two thirds of a the way in. A rare treat that mixes surprising intricacies with a seize the day attitude.

Like one of the cast offs from Coldplay’s last album Icelandic five piece Leaves latest single ‘Good Enough’ is an admirable attempt but doesn’t quite soar to the epic heights it dreams of reaching. It breaks the shackles of the dark, brooding start only to stop short at the chorus when it could have gone so much further than the over indulgent layered vocals and melodies that appear. Decent stuff, but still not quite good enough.

Produced by man of the moment Kanye West, The Game’s latest hip-hop ditty 'Dreams' is this ’**** with attitudes’ story of the move from the mean streets of Compton to being raps so-called MVP. And the man who had the balls to diss 50 Cent has finally come to the party. It's laid back, soulful East Coast style sits alongside demonic baselines that criss-cross through bouncing elctro-bongo beats with Game flowing about having "dreams of ****ing a RnB bitch like Mya". The Game has the substance to back up all the mouth after all.

Turin Brakes will always be bland, it’s a cross they’ll have to bear till their dying day. New single ‘Over & Over’ does nothing to change this despite vigorous attempts to get the pulse beating a little faster with loose stringed bluesy riffs and swoonful, syrupy vocals. It's not bad, in fact it's one of their best singles in ages; it's just that compared to the other fare on the current sonic buffet it just isn’t that exciting. Pass the adrenaline please.

The Rakes just can’t help themselves, it's like they’ve got some kind of disease or compulsion to release perfect three minute angular pub-punk presses. Latest single ’Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)’ is the national anthem for the binge drinking generation, a celebration/lament of the constant merry-go-round that is the 9-5, work for the night out life with the lyrical moniker ‘Just drift along with no focus or meaning’. Aggressive, arrogant and with so much swagger Liam Gallagher’s shitting himself because of the new competition.

Alterkicks second single ‘Oh, Honey’ is yet another sweeping indie pop gem. Full of cut glass guitars at its centre and covered with a crust of jingly-jangly melodies; it’s a bittersweet symphony worked around the central lines of ‘Oh, Honey, I’m so worried, Don’t ruin it all’. Three minutes later and you don’t know whether to laugh or cry as the song twists and turns, tearing you from happiness to sadness within the space of a sun dripped riff.

Apparently Americans are currently cumming all over crunk artists, it’s a sticky situation! So when the latest single from one of its leading lights, the Ying Yang Twins, landed on the doormat Gigwise was quite literally dribbling from several orifices. That was until we put ’Wait (The Whisper Song)’ in our CD player and everything dried up. The Twins, whoever they are, have clearly been over doing it on the cough mixture lately if this sickly little piece of commercial hip-hop is anything to go by. Missy Elliot can’t even save it from being discarded straight to the bargain bin. Crunking awful!