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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

The Monorals/ The Hillfields/ The Specific Heats/ The Sequins
London, Notting Hill Arts Club

Article written by Ged M - Jul 22, 2010

“You don’t appreciate something unless you’ve paid for it” is usually a marketing mantra but this afternoon’s Oddbox-promoted ROTA freebie is pretty special.

Konichiwa! I don’t know if there’s a corner of Honshu where you’d find a Japanese person in thread-shedding Primark gear but I’ve always found the Japanese to be eminently stylish – designered-up in fact. Certainly those who travel are and the Monorals, who are over from Japan for this one show, look every inch the indiepop band – a glance at the singer, Hiroshi, tells you that he’s got the rockstar look down exactly, right to the shades he wears in this basement club. All would be wasted if they were no more than poseurs but they sound as cool as they look - an amazing mix of My Bloody Valentine noise, Ramones-style ‘77 punk and Husker Du hardcore-pop. They’re loud but they’re melodic, a three-piece that get better the louder and faster they play. If you want to see for yourself, too late – they’re back in Tokyo now but the Surf 4 Fuzz EP on Oddbox goes a little way to capturing the noise and sweetness of this fine outfit. Arigato, Monorals!

It’s almost passé to describe bands as “C86” but that usually refers to a small subset of groups who only made up half of the tracklisting. Everyone forgets the dark side of C86, the more experimental, risk-taking, post-punk and political bands who have cast their own shadow. The Hillfields are one of the bands who fall under that influence and of others like them – the Gang of Four and Mighty Lemon Drops to name but two. But they also have a melodic streak in them, suggesting they’ve listened to the Flying Nun label too. Somewhere between that darkness and sweetness, a really fine indie band is developing, as their album and EP demonstrate. Songs from both are on display today, but Rob Hillfield’s impressive acapella solo on 'Canvey Island Queen' really takes the biscuit for balls-out bravery (and tunefulness).

Every time we see the Specific Heats something goes wrong; and we’re left thinking that they should rehearse a barbershop quartet number for the next time that a string snaps or equipment catches fire! When they manage to play normally, our caped crusaders of reverb-soaked psych-pop are on excellent form, teasing us with selections from the new record ‘Cursed’. It’s a much awaited appearance, and the grittier 50s sound doesn’t fail to please – in fact, the more reverb that Matt adds and the more Meagan’s keyboards sound like Sean Bonniwell’s Music Machine, the better it gets. Roll on Indietracks and a hopefully incident-free Heat set!

The Sequins drape the set with strings of light but really should have a full lightshow and firework display at the anthemic conclusion to ‘The French Way of Life’. The mark 2 version of the band tends to the epic: I hear Roxy Music and Queen in there as well as The Smiths now, and the stage feels too small to contain their art-rock contortions. ‘Angeline’ is hyperactive performance-pop while their best song is the Morrissey-meets-Match-of-the-Day ‘Offside and Beautiful’, a strange and lovely history of homoerotic desire on the football field.

All photos courtesy of the foremost indiepop snapper of his generation, Bob Stuart, at
Underexposed.org.uk

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/themonorals
http://oddboxrecords.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thehillfields