DARTZ! - ‘Fantastic Apparatus /’Cold Holidays’ (Xtra Mile) Released 07/05/07

A livewire cure for depression, DARTZ! newest double A-side is one of the most joyful, cheerful and irresistible slices of quickfire rock you’ll hear all year. A fierce rock edge is balanced out by a funky feeling running underneath, meaning this is music to dance to and sing out to as well as rock to. Of the two tracks, ‘Fantastic Apparatus’ is marginally the better, throwing curves at you just when you think it has settled onto one path. William Henderson’s yelp of a vocal proclaims that “You can‘t keep ignoring me” while an instrumental progression takes place that sounds like At the Drive In have got back together with a prescription for added funk. Not to mention the several shouted cries of “Hey!” throughout.

‘Cold Holidays’ opens with a mystical swirl before breaking into rush of punk/funk, Henry Carden’s spiky guitar cutting in on a persistent basis. While not bursting with the thrills of its companion it’s still tremendously fun, and a breath of fresh air amidst the stodgy debris that litters guitar based music right now. If DARTZ! continue to produce tracks of this quality they’ll be impossible to ignore.