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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

Single/Download Review

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart/ The Orchids/ Harlem/ Veronica Falls/ Cold Pumas/ The Revillions
Singles roundup

Article written by Ged M - Jun 28, 2010

Yes, ‘Say No To Love’ (Fortuna Pop! 7”) by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart sounds like the Field Mice (and the Smiths and sundry other 80s influences) but the relaxed way they layer their sources makes this one of the best things I’ve heard from Kip & co. There’s a mood of teenage time running out and of the alienated sticking together, underpinned by gorgeous minor key melodies and some complex arrangements. I can see a few middle aged “kids” welling up to this one. ‘Lost Saint’ has similar influences but the effect is more fuzzy and dreamy. As Gok Wan might almost say, what a great pair, and on snot green vinyl too! (he wouldn’t say that last bit.) Myspace

Being twee-averse, I suspected that I wouldn’t enjoy hearing the reformed Orchids’ seventh single but ‘She’s My Girl’ (Pebble Records) is one step beyond conventional indie. There are echoes of classic Scottish independent bands in the jingling guitars and slightly melancholic melodies, but there’s also a discernable call to the dancefloor; I might be hallucinating but I swear there’s more than a nod to the Stone Roses in there. Having popped my preconceptions, I was then lost in the gentle and gloomy tones of ‘The Lost Star’, that reminded me of the great Grant McLennan. Myspace

Harlem’s European tour single release is appealingly ramshackle lo-fi pop, particularly ‘LSD Saves’ (Female Fantasy 7”) with its stoned praise of the species-saving hallucinogenic, and incorporating a brilliant, niggly, intoxicated guitar solo. ‘Moon Ring’ is darker but just as poppy, possibly just about a colour changing toy, possibly about something else completely, but either way totally compelling. Class A for quality. Myspace

The Veronica Falls song that first caught our attention is now on 7” limited edition vinyl and sounding just as fine as that first time. ‘Beachy Head’ (No Pain In Pop) is fast and frantic C86 meets garage-rock; traces of early My Bloody Valentine and Shop Assistants are bulked up with Monks-like menace. ‘Staying Here’ is a complete contrast, its dreamy, harmonic, love-in-cold-bedsits pop utterly adorable. Myspace

How to describe 'Beat Mystery' (Upset the Rhythm 7" blue vinyl) by Cold Pumas is tricky. How about post-industrial surf-rock or even psychedelic brain-mashing trance grooves? The clanging guitars and unrelenting beats are so intensely precise they could soundtrack what passes for a voodoo ritual in Brighton. 'Party Drip', meanwhile, mixes the vocals very low, the easier to lose yourself in the train-track rhythms and siren-like guitars. Very dark hymns indeed. Myspace

The Revillions are a Dublin garage band whose download single 'Sigh's' (yes, there's a possessive apostrophe in there for some reason) is a bit of a wild Mod stomper, full of swirling organ, soulful brass and a scorching Mexican trumpet solo. Bit of a weird mix that gave me indigestion, if I’m honest. I prefer the other track, 'Ain't No Fool', a more 60s riot of amped up garage-rock, sounding like their organist has been possessed by the spirit of Daryl Hooper from The Seeds. Myspace

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