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SoundsXP Presents

Pictures from some recent gigs we've hosted:

29 March 2013 - Brixton, London

Viv Albertine, VuVuVultures, Left Leg, Mickey Gloss, Big Wave, No Cars, Arthur Gunn, Simon Love (Pictures)

8 March 2013 - Lexington, London

R.Ring, Golden Grrrls, Slushy Guts and Equinox (Pictures)

On Our iPod

Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold (album)

Antony Harding - Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear (album)

Black Angels - Indigo Meadow (album)

Thee Oh Sees - Floating Coffin (album)

Still Corners - Strange Pleasures (album)

Savages - Silence Yourself (album)

Mikal Cronin - MC II (album)

Can’s Ege Bamyasi played by Stephen Malkmus and Friends(album)

Victoria and Jacob - Festival 7"

Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (album)

Sauna Youth - False Jesii Part II 7”

Lightning Bolt - Oblivion Hunter

Robyn Hitchcock - There Goes The Ice (2x 12")

Latest Forum Posts

Album Review

Three Second Kiss
Tastyville Africantapes

Article written by Michael H - Nov 14, 2012

Three Second Kiss have returned with a seventh album of elastic indie rock on ‘Tastyville’. Variability is the key to this release; the songs constantly flip between rigidity and near-collapse, noise and calm, languid and furious. Nothing sits still for long; the melodic lines continually entwine and knot before stretching out into dirtily fluid grooves; the bass player and vocalist Massimo Mosca and drummer Sacha Tilotta wrestle with and manage to pin down some fairly abstract structures to throw back at guitarist Sergio Carlini.

That the songs are as strong as they are is a great tribute to the band's skills as writers and musicians. This is no mere splatter exercise in ear testing noise seizures. ‘Don’t Dirty My Heart’ has a great rise and fall, its loud peaks are punk thrashes while its calmer moments are perfectly integrated rather than contrived ‘calm before the storm’ preludes. ‘In Winter the Sun Shines over the Bridge’ alternates between locked in ensemble playing and a singalong chorus with some great interplay between a snarled rhythm section and growling guitar riffs. ‘Maya’ manages to fit in some bluesy soloing from Carlini amidst an explosion of weird shapes. ‘The Sky is Mine’ is like Oxes having a deranged crack at a pop song. ‘A Catastrophe Outside’ is fantastic, an incredibly contained example of how a song can hold a tune while refusing to ever really settle into a solid structure.

The songs on Tastyville seem to explore several different musical avenues simultaneously while somehow never becoming lost. Skronky art-rock songs can often become lost in a blizzard of activity as if the bands don’t trust themselves with a tune. Three Second Kiss avoid this problem entirely by having their cake and eating it, they possess an enviable ability to fashion form from chaos.

Links:
http://www.facebook.com/threesecondkiss
http://www.africantape.com
http://www.myspace.com/threesecondkiss