Little Man Tate

I Am Alive

‘I am Alive’ was originally written exclusively for the BBC’s Yorkshire Sports Award, and it does exactly was it says on the cover... makes you feel alive; As soon as you press play - this track is very enticing; the guitar leads you into a strong drum beat, which in turn guides you into the mature vocal and harmony. The track has an energy which gives you a lift and makes you want to listen to it over and over again. Little Man Tate is really ‘on the ball’ with this track and hopefully it should propel them back into everyone’s minds (not just locally but nationally) as a talented band.

Gail Buckthorpe

Delphic

Counterpoint

Delphic pull off the once-thought unlikely feat of mixing dance and rock music, but then they are from Manchester. Think New Order, circa Low-Life, and you’ll begin to realise they are on a self-confessed mission to revive and celebrate that 80’s sound;. Their efforts are given added emphasis, given the general resurgence of interest in that era of music, but they have also fed that groove into their computers and added their own twist to bring it into the 21st century. There is s hypnotic feeling running through this, with sparse but effective vocals from James Cook. This single track release comes as they start a domestic tour, before they then jet off, laptops in hand, to Europe and Japan. Their live shows feature one track after another, overlapping and interweaving into one long groove, and this is an exciting glimpse of the forthcoming album.

Vivian Bonzo

The Minions

Six Chords

This is the second band I’ve reviewed recently that’s aimed for a resurgence of the post-hardcore tunefulness of 80s American bands like Husker Du and the Replacements, a welcome return in my opinion. The Minions do pretty well at it, with Six Chords having a catchy Bob Mould feel, throwing in a noisy horn bit at the end to keep things interesting. Have You Got a Knife has a harder edge which is surprising given the prominence of, I swear, a slide whistle on the verses. This type of thing would make for a nice soundtrack prior to going down the pub or something equally mindless and fun.

Dion Curry

The Hot Melts

Edith

There’s more than a touch of U2 to this new release from scouse pop punk rockers The Hot Melts, not least from frontman Will Baylis’ vocal and the big chunky riff. Compared to their other stuff this is pretty misleading - they’ve got more in common with the band their touring with, Eagles of Death Metal, seeing as they share American garage rock tendencies with an awareness of pop mainstream. It’s listenable but radio friendly fluff, a hook with a nonsense chorus. Better to come from this lot.

David Patterson

Slow Down Tallahassee / Standard Fare

Split Single

Fronting this release, Slow Down Tallahassee have developed a curious penchant for creating the kind of absurdly simple pop that many of us probably mustered on our Casios many Christmases ago, the difference here being the dark and twisted lyrical undercurrent permeating the froth. Like cherryade laced with absinthe, ‘Angel of Death’ and ‘Tricks’ fizz along merrily enough and it’s only afterwards you realise you’ve been knocked sideways with a healthy dose of angel-faced vitriol. Sharing the glory are Standard Fare whose track, ‘Dancing’, is an elegy to a relationship gone sour. Gently upbeat in its grief, the simple indie loveliness of ‘Dancing’ provides the perfect foil to SDT’s psychotic pop and puts a lid on this best of split personalities.

Gemma Winks

Seaside Riot

Hooray for Our Gang

Depending on your viewpoint, this song sounds either like an overly, erm, sensitive take on early-90s indie rock, or else an attempt to add a bit of grit to what is, in essence, a pop song. The guitars have a reverb-drenched sound reminiscent of Johnny Marr or the less-noisy songs of My Bloody Valentine, but the vocals are a little too pretty for me to take it overly seriously. I’m man enough to realise this is probably a deficiency on my part, but the crooning style of vocalist Matthew Whitehouse lends a too-polished feel to a song that really doesn’t need it. This is inoffensive, but doesn’t really get the heart racing.

Dion Curry

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