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REVIEWS

SoundsXP Presents

Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
Dignan Porch
+more tbc

The Windmill
Brixton
Price tbc

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

Gig Review

Smith Westerns/ Mazes/ Porcelain Raft
Madame Jo Jos, London

Article written by Ged M - Jun 20, 2010

I’m told that the White Heat club is a student pulling favourite, which may explain the couple who attempted to suck each other’s faces off during the whole of the Smith Westerns set (he was trying for first base as well but she wasn’t having any of that). But it’s unsurprising that so many youngsters should be here to see the Smith Westerns when they’re four impossibly young-looking blokes from Chicago, who certainly wouldn’t get served booze in their home city, and probably came onto stage late this evening because they had to finish their homework first. I wouldn’t make extravagent claims for them; they’re just a great little power-pop band who weave in bits of Nuggets and echoes of the 1970s, with a healthy sprinkle of glam-rock. The guitar solo in the penultimate song might be a bit rockist but it’s a one-off and it’s more interesting to listen to the way the two guitars complement each other, the singer’s guitar at one point sounding like a piano. The last song is the wonderful Be My Girl, complete with sawing T-Rex riff and Glitter Band booming percussion to end a fine evening and get the boys off to bed as it is a school night…

Mazes are a Manchester trio who blow out our eardrums with their opening blistering grunge tune and then make up for it with more melodic guitar rock that borrows from Guided By Voices, Pavement and the Flying Nun stable. Any band with a drummer who has the excellent taste to wear a Clean t-shirt (as opposed to a clean t-shirt, which is a big ask for a drummer) is a force to be reckoned with. This is the first time we’ve seen them live and it suggests that there are some cracking tunes there that we need to explore further.

Seeing Mauro R, the one-man band that is Porcelain Raft, rather takes away the mystique; close your eyes and you’re transported to another soundscape world of looped rhythms and lustrous melodies describing arabesque forms; open them and its obvious that this is a whole series of layered effects and ambient washes on tape, with some simple live guitar or piano and loads of button-fiddling to keep it in line. It’s only real when things go wrong and the human side has to assert itself. Keep it as a fantasy and go and enjoy his Myspace page (especially the lovely ‘Tip of the Tongue’).

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/smithwesterns
http://www.myspace.com/porcelainraft
http://www.myspace.com/mazesmazesmazes