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Single/Download Review

Maximo Park/ Deerhunter/ Haunted Stereo/ Bears From Labrador/ Three Trapped Tigers/ Darren Hayman/ Wave Pictures
Singles round up

Article written by Ged M - Jul 19, 2009

Into their third album and Maximo Park have grown a little darker, a little more measured. ‘Questing, Not Coasting’ (Warp Records) has almost Cure-ish washes of keyboards to complement the soul-baring lyrics as emoted in his best Teeside tones by Paul Smith. They’re clearly moving onwards, as well as upwards, but all the same I can’t help missing some of their original, less inhibited moves. Band website

The latest Deerhunter EP 'Rainwater Cassette Exchange' (4AD, cassette/ CD) is the first cassette I've bought since the turn of the 90s, I think; it's mutated from a then-practical format to artistic statement but a bastard to play. Appropriately it’s on 4AD because it echoes 90s bands on that label with its mix of art-rock and shoegaze. The title track has a reverberating psych-pop sound, while ‘Famous Last Words’ is early My Bloody Valentine with woozy harmonies and ‘Circulation’ just scintillates with a warm guitar noise. It’s not much of a departure from last year’s Microcastle album but its dreamy feel and guitar splashes well fit the dog days of summer. Myspace

Haunted Stereo are a seven-piece from Southampton whose second release is the ‘Tree House EP’ (Whoopsydaisychain Records). “Indie-folk” is a fairly accurate label but even that doesn’t capture the patient way in which the songs are layered (the band can play 15 instruments between them). ‘Childhood’s End’ is a simmering stew of guitar, wheezy accordion and strident violin that plays tricks with the loud/quiet dynamic while ‘Walking In Threes’ could be a post-rock Beirut and ‘Buttons’ is folk music after too many Red Bulls. It’s adventuresome pop that might have some familiar signifiers but doesn’t stick to tradition, either in folk or indie. Myspace

Bears From Labrador play Americana through an English filter. The title of the EP, on Hero Rhymes With Zero Records, might be in Spanish ('El Cantor De Mio Cid’, after the Spanish epic poem about El Cid) but it has the untamed feel of the pure Wild West. ‘Me and Bella Starr’ has a strong Morricone influence though it appears to be about a current porn star (feel free to research this further if you want), while ‘Love’ doesn’t need much describing, its mournful trumpet and rueful sense of loss conjuring up the spirit of the dead-but-somehow-immortal Arthur Lee-Bryan Maclean version of the LA band. Best of all is ‘Chop It Down’, with the sort of punchy swagger that Nick Cave might have if he were a New rather than Old Testament kinda guy, on the side of the angels rather than battling his demons. Myspace

The titles of Three Trapped Tigers’ 7” single in the Too Pure singles club give it away. Getting past the first minute of ‘7’, that will have you checking your turntable speed, you’ll find jazzy math-rock full of odd time signatures, electronic experimentation and squelchy keyboard overlays. ‘1’ is a cacophony of fast/slow, squawky/calm dynamics. It’s funny how “progressive” actually means “self-indulgent mutual masturbation”. Myspace

I get the transition from bar band to stadium rocker to folk singer but it’s strange to think of Bruce Springsteen as indiepop. Well, clearly he’s not but some of his songs lend themselves to that interpretation, as Darren Hayman and the Wave Pictures show on the split 7” on Where It’s At Is Where You Are Records. The Wave Pictures’ ‘If I Should Fall Behind’ is spare and simple, as if they were busking it, but the delicate melodies and romantic tones still shine through. Hayman’s electro-pop ‘Girls In Their Summer Clothes’ has none of his usual side or irony, just straight pop capturing the same fear of rejection that it could be set in Epping Forest as much as Asbury Park. A lovely pairing, with a free Wave Pictures collection of further Springsteen covers if you’re quick. Label page

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