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SoundsXP Presents

Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Bands:

- Sparrow and the Workshop
- 6 Day Riot
- The Nuns
- Colours
- Dignan Porch
- Y Niwl
- Singing Adams (solo)
- The Horses of Instruction

+ free BBQ
+ SoundsXP DJs

The Windmill
Brixton
Price: £7 in advance / £8 on door
Buy tickets from here

On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

The Bats
The Guilty Office Yesboyicecream Records

Article written by Ged M - May 19, 2009

The Bats: The Guilty Office

This is indiepop heaven: chiming guitars, understated melodies and a gently melancholic feel – in short, warm sounds from a cold climate. The Bats are New Zealand national treasures, a key component of the legendary early 1980s Dunedin sound released on Flying Nun Records. They’re also still making their gloriously simple lo-fi pop nearly 30 years after they first started.

Their seventh album (22 years after their first) evokes the simple, direct New Zealand guitar pop sound without the slightest notion of retro and is as good as anything they’ve done since their first 12” EPs. They sound as if they were inspired by the Velvet Underground and the Modern Lovers and in turn their own sound is buried deep in the DNA of all sorts of alternative US bands like Pavement; the Bats have always been more appreciated Stateside than in Europe or their home country.

The Guilty Office sounds best when the Bats are at their most stripped down; on ‘Like Water In Your Hands’, just the strummed-guitar gorgeousness of the song is enough while the insistent riff of 'Satellites' will blow your cerebellum, They add strings to good effect, especially the stunning guitar and violin interplay on the optimistic ‘The Orchard’, but almost go awry on ‘Castle Lights’ by adding too much layering.

This is a band to be spoken off in the same reverent terms in which we describe the likes of Galaxie 500, the difference being the Bats are not yet extinct. It’s blissful, elegant and classy indiepop, showing other indie bands how it should be done. If we awarded stars for reviews, this album would have a constellation.

Links:
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/thebats/
http://www.yesboyicecream.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thebatsnz