Post by 3 on Jan 30, 2005 0:59:44 GMT 1
Well, it looks like 2005 just officially kicked off: Bloc Party – the band the NME have already ordained as the biggest of the year – are this week releasing So Here We Are (Wichita), the track designed to transform them from The Next Big Thing into The Big Thing. As per usual with this lot, it’s emotionally charged, funky-drummed, 80-indie-referencing angst pop all the way, and there’s plenty more where that came from on their imminent, mostly excellent debut album Silent Alarm.
From NME favourites new to NME favourites old. The Wedding Present, whom long-serving musicheads will recall from the pre-Britpop period when the best that indie bands could hope for was a number 46 chart placing and the patronage of John Peel. Well, David Gedge and the boys are back (back! BACK!) after almost a decade away, with the stupendously titled I’m From Further North Than You (Scopitones). It’s clear they’ve still got a way with an indie-pop melody – and that Dave’s still got a weirdly hypnotic foghorn-esque voice.
Staying on a misty-eyed retro tip we have the lush, back-to-the-80s house music manoeuvres of Pop A Cap In Yo Ass (Buzzin’ Fly) by Ben Watt. Yes, that tall fella who used to be in bedsit glum-strummers Everything But The Girl. Nostalgic as said track may be for the underground sound of Chicago circa 1986, it’s brought bang up-to-date with a haunting urban blues monologue from UK hip-hop starlet, Estelle.
Elsewhere… The 22-20s – who sadly seem to have missed the “British Strokes” boat – get embittered and boozy on Such A Fool (Heavenly). The Flaming Lips provide a song for the forthcoming Spongebob Squarepants movie with the aptly wigged-out Spongebob And Patrick Consult The Psychic (WEA). And swooning art rockers, The Irrepressibles, offer up some fantastically theatrical angst with the faintly bonkers My Witness (Of Naked Design).
Downloads, then. Firstly, head over to the website of Opsound - which specializes in free for all, “copylefted” (dyouseewhattheyvedonethere?) music - and bag yourself a gratis download of Catalpa Catalpa’s wondrous, Four Tet-like debut album, Hardoncity (ahem). “But how do these people make any money?” you ask yourself. Well, they figure that folks still want to “own” proper releases with nice packaging, and so are banking on you coughing up for an “original” copy if you like your downloaded version. We can vouch that Hardoncity’s packaging is indeed very nice, and quite fancy, too – the disc’s on the outside.
If you like your beats with a bit oomph, however, scurry on over to long-serving drum’n’bass dons Formation Records’ website and point your cursor where it says “free music”. They’re giving away a free download of a classic track from their vaults every month, and this time round its Tekniq’s 2001 rattler The Riot. Sweet.
Joe Madden 28 January 05
All singles are released on 31 January 05.
check out the video for "So here we are" (needs Real Player) www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/collective/bloc_party_so_here_we_are?size=16x9&bgc=8A9EC3&nbram=1&bbram=1
www.bbc.co.uk