Time Out singles reviews #2

Martin Horsfield had an entirely tidy desk until we parked this lot on it

The Magic Numbers - I See You, You See Me Crikey, they’ve gone Nazi hate rock. Only kidding. Instead, the Hanwell Hair Bear Bunch go all Beautiful South on us, with a typically twinkly duet. The echoey Phil Spector drums mark a tiny shift from jangly formula, but that’s hardly going to shake the world on its axis. Romeo, mate: buy an effects pedal, some bongos, anything!

The Fallout Trust - Washout These east London party-starters (their Q Quarters is the place for the young mulletocracy¹ to gather, apparently) buck the trend on the post-Libertines grot-rock scene by being both original and tuneful, bolting mathematical Television guitars on to a defiantly not-crap strain of Britpop Razorlight were this much fun, briefly.

Dilated Peoples - Back Again You just know that a track called ‘Back Again’ will give a hip-hop act the opportunity to showboat a bit (though ‘Back again/For the fourth time’ isn’t the most enticing boast). Still, this is propulsive stuff, beefed up with Kanye-style soul samples and an unlikely shout-out for Tony Blair.

Boy Kill Boy - Back Again Blimey, that’s a coincidence, eh? Mind you, at least Dilated Peoples don’t sound like Marion blustering through a Muse song.

Shout Out Louds - Please Please Please Not to be confused with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah or Nod Vaguely And Check Your Watch, the Shout Out Louds are janglesome Swedes likely to find favour with anyone pining for The Wannadies. Blokey music critics’ radio station 6Music: this means you! Ace glockenspiel bit, though.

The Eighteenth Day Of May - Cold Early Morning² Folk: it’s the new black, y’know. And we at Time Out are all over it, literally fashioning the magazine out of hessian and burning wicker effigies of Paul Morley to prove it. But what a querulous lot the folkies are. By joining the dots between Martin Carthy and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, TEDOMs’ pysch drone-folk should really irk them.

Dios (Malos) - I Want It All Californian stoners proffer George Harrison strumming, a lush Jeff Lynne-style Fabs production job and - yikes! - tiny trills of heavy metal guitar. Really, it’s like Badfinger never happened.

The Research - Lonely Hearts Still Beat The Same From the most basic of tools (toy keyboard, Argos drumkit anda bass), Wakefield’s Research conjure impossibly heart-tugging pop melodrama. Imagine Samt Etienne wrestling with Blancmange… Hey! That’s with Blancmange the band.

First published in Time Out, February 2006

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Footnotes

1. And you thought the return of mullets on young folk was a new thing? Here’s a mention from 20-odd years ago. Young people! Fet a new horrible hairdo.
2. Another opprtunity to review my mates. Although the trendy folk revival was a genuine thing at the time.