Louis XIV, Bloc Party and the Happy Mondays - It's Singled Out!

Louis XIV are a band built upon the solid foundation of arrogance and petulance – just the way we at Gigwise like it. Originally on their brilliant ‘Illegal Tender EP’, ‘Finding Out True Love Is Blind’ as always is a lesson in mindless misogyny and sexual lust. Amidst a basic, erratic hook, frontman Jason Hill sounds like a libido-ed up Mark E Smith on Viagra as he spouts on about all the women he’d like to have his wicked way with (smart, thick, covered in make up, white, black, asian – you name it!). Juxtaposed with the sanguine female segue of “Tie me up and make me call to you”, it’s all pretty sexed up stuff.  

From the same label as those pesky Kaiser Chiefs comes Bedouin Soundclash. Ah, but don’t let this fool you into thinking you’ll be tiraded with three minutes of “Na, na, na, na nah’s” and Blur mimicry. No, for with ‘When The Night Feels My Song’ the Canadian-based/Jamaica-born trio serve up an infectious, warm and simplistic reggae gem that has the spirit of The Wailers wafting through it. Almost soothing, the glorious harmonies add to its charm when they kick in half way through. It’s enough to make you open a bottle of rum and wash it down with a can of the old Red Stripe. Aaaah, bliss.

The princes of whiney, middling indie Starsailor are back with the driving ‘In The Crossfire.’ Imagine our shock horror when we realised it’s possibly the best thing they’ve done. Hardly a mean feat we know, but it’s remotely palatable which stands for something. The ever nasally James Walsh sounds like he’s got a bee in his bonnet about something while guitars are pure Coldplay at their most driving. That good. Ahem.  

Here come Bloc Party with ‘Two More Years’, a post ‘Silent Alarm’ track that will no doubt end up on a ‘re-release’ of the album at some point. Hmmm. Cynicism aside, this is an unassuming opus centring on ominous guitar plucks, rhythmic drums and slowly building vocals from Kele Okerke. Simmering rather than boiling, this is truly a lesson in understated, brilliant song-writing. Who cares if the guitars sound a bit like U2 at one point? But seriously, fingers crossed it’s not two more years till we get some new material from these boys.

As everyone in the know’s tip for great things, We Are Scientists definitely don’t disappoint with ‘The Great Escape.’ Arty-indie-rock to shake yo’ ass to, this is packed with irresistible hooks, erratic vocals, and pulse-racingly high pitched melodies. True, all the sounds are pretty easy to source, yet taking raw ingredients the Scientists manage to keep it fresh and create pure alchemy. Pop with direction and attitude, if only all the tunes on Singled! Out were like this. Fan-bloody-tastic.    

Lifted from the soundtrack to the dodgy film ‘Goal’, ‘Playground Superstar’ is the much welcome new song from the Happy Mondays. A ranting, spouting and genuinely fried Shaun Ryder sounds very much like a man who’s imbibed boundless spliffs and dropped thousands of E’s – funny that? Harmonica laden and with a swagger that many more recent Mondays tracks have lacked, Ryder barks the line “You wanna be adored” in almost a parody of a certain other Manchester band. Shit film, great song.

‘I’m In Love’ couldn’t be much more different from Audio Bully’s Nancy Sinatra sampling, chart busting ‘Shot You Down’. Delivered in a half-arsed cockney drawl, it’s a beat driven hip-hop/house/garage hybrid complete with piano plonks and swooning string arrangements – think the Stereo MCs meets The Streets and you’ll get the idea. Sadly about half way through they seem to lose interest and go into a “La, la, la, la” ditty. Hardly emphatic then, but a decent enough listen that would probably sound infinitely better after a big fat chonger.

Gloomy, potent and harking back to early-eighties a la Echo and the Bunnymen. Editors? The Departure? No it’s San Francisco’s  Film School with ‘On & On’. While they get no bonus points for originality, this is still a rousing offering with skewed, agonized vocals and the obligatory soaring guitars and whirring synths. Undoubtedly a little gem for all those tortured souls out there, but unlikely to win over the masses. ‘Plus One’ on the flip side shows a more restrained, slower side to the band, yet is very affecting.

Yet another band to come from the thriving hub of talent that is Leeds, it’s This Et Al. Matching the preposterous title, ‘You’ve Driven For Miles And Not Remembered A Thing’ is a collage of discordant noises. The frontman effortlessly switches between high and low vocals and has an urgency that’s incredibly refreshing. A hybrid of sonic soundscapes, it’s very post-rock with splashes of Trail of Dead thrown in for good measure, it’s pretty damn impressive. Along with Forward Russia, This Et Al are arguably Leeds’ finest new export.

Slightly off-kilter bubblegum guitar pop is the order of the day with Envelopes’ ‘Sister In Love’. What it lacks in substance it makes up for in beguiling charm as it fuses juxtaposing male/female vocals with buoyant guitars, whirring instrumentals and chunky guitar hooks. Definitely, not one to spin too many times - the repetitive vocal may just start to grate slightly after a while. The 10” version comes complete with a lovely electro re-working by the quite brilliant Clor, but steer clear of b-side ‘The Nicotines’ – the word 'abysmal' springs to mind.

Turkey of the week: Robbie Williams is back and, oh no, he’s gone reggae. ‘Tripping’ has been compared by some to the early work of The Clash, but really that’s just a plain insult. Robbie switches between a lame, stuttering ditty and an unfathomably screechy chorus in what is a real fumbling excuse for a song. Still it’s likely to be snapped up by the bucketload by the mainstream masses. A dead cert for number 1. Oh misery and woe. 

Best of the rest:

Basement Jaxx - ‘Do Your Thing’
Clearly scraping the barrel for tracks to release off their singles album, we get a very slight, jazzy re-working of a four-year-old Jaxx number of the brilliantly zany original. Some new material would be nice Mr Buxton and Radcliffe.

Black Dice – ‘Smiling Off’
And now for something completely different. From Mr LCD Soundsystem James Murphy’s label this is all weird swathes of electronic, panic-attack-inducing noises. Disharmonious and very wrong, yet somehow quite right. Confused? You will be.

Minotaur Shock – ‘Muesli’
Another gorgeous EP from the oh so avant-garde Minotaur Shock. Erratic oboes, accordion, triangles and xylophone are flavour of the day in the title song, where elsewhere they take us down grittier, synth-driven paths. Think Boards of Canada with the tunes.

The Tommys – ‘The Day The World Turned Chav’
Armed with an oh-so topical title, the four ‘feisty’ North-West lasses with the average age of 17 give us a sprightly, yet very irksome offering that’s definitely for teenagers only. Did someone say the female McFly?

Roll Deep - ‘Shake A Leg’
Samba influenced feel-good hip-hop that’s been plastered all over the radio for the past few months. Who said summer was over? 

The Most Terrifying Thing – ‘The Pianist’
Driving choruses, sonorous vocals, guitar feedback segues – on paper it sounds pretty impressive, but there just seems to be a few too many ideas thrown in at the sake of a decent tune.