You know where you are with Amelia Fletcher. Whether with Heavenly, Marine Research or her new band Tender Trap, you know you’ll be getting sweet, catchy indiepop with sugarsharp lyrics, swooping vocals and plenty ba da bas. Much like Saint Etienne or Stereolab, Amelia’s bands have this specific sound that makes them instantly recogniseable however much they try and push their boundaries. There’s not much boundary pushing going on here, mind you, but it’s all so enjoyably uplifting and uncomplicated that you can’t really complain. Mostly this EP reminds me of Operation Heavenly which was always my favourite Heavenly album so I’m very happy. They even do a song about Friendster and make it feel like it was something from the early 90s (which, with the speed of new internet trends is probably about right). I doubt MySpace will ever inspire anything so sweet. Lupe from Pipas turns up on the final song Como te Llamas? for a sparky bilingual duet that ends things on a high note with a bumpidy beat and the cutest talky bit I’ve heard in a long time. Lovely.

Tender Trap
Matinee
Fortuna Pop!

Story here.

“All music sold through iTunes uses the FairPlay system that restricts the use of the downloads. Purchased music can only be moved between five computers and played on an Apple iPod.

Downloads cannot be transferred to players made by other manufacturers, such as Creative or Sony.

The new “workaround” could help companies like these sell iTunes compatible products that could start to scratch away at the iPod’s dominance.”

According to various news sources, The Pixies, having played every venue on the planet during their two-years of “comeback” touring, are planning on going into the studio to record a new album.

I am quite excited – they were, in my opinion, the best rock band ever to walk the Earth, and while I don’t much care for Frank Black’s recent solo outings, The Breeders are still a force to be reckoned with. I am, however, preparing myself for disappointment.

What do you think? Cause for celebration or car-crash waiting to happen?

Since no-one reads my nonsense on the homepage I will also post this here:

Believe it or not, the diskant newsletter will soon be resurrected and will be entirely awesome. Turning up once or twice a month, it will let you know about all the new interviews, features and reviews on the site, what’s up on the blog, some tips on cool events and websites you should check out and whatever else we think you might want to to know about including EXCLUSIVE NON-WEB CONTENT. Wowee. You best sign up now if you’re not already a member. You can do so here, and you should get a move on as the first will be going out before the end of this week.

The confusingly-named Voicst (apparently the name is South African slang for ‘manic energy’, fact fans) offer us two tracks of spirited, melodic indie rock that walks the tightrope between quirky noise and mainstream-approaching Rock Music. ‘Acts Of Fire’ shares a certain style with outfits like Soulwax, Bettie Serveert and the Dandy Warhols – riff-led guitar lines tightly holding together pleasingly straightforward structures. B-side (if such a thing exists on a download single) ‘Sgt. Gonzo’ continues in a similar way, yet ramps up the good-time nature that seems to be at the heart of the band. While some of the odder elements of Voicst’s music – the quirky lyrical arrangements here and there, the hints of darkness around the edges – could lead to a Breeders-style process of derangement, they seem happily entrenched in a sure-footedly normal place. At times, on the basis of these two songs at least, there is a certain reliance on a particular riff to carry a song, but if nothing else Voicst are good and positive sounding. Proper ‘going-out’ music, at least if you’re on your way out to the indie disco.

Voicst
Duurtlang Records

Yeah! Remember when music was fun? Dananananaykroyd do.
The day I got this record I played Some Dresses approximately 14,000 times in a row and every single time I got excited by the off-mic entire band chanting at the beginning. They make being in a band look like the most fun thing to do in the world (Which it should be, or else why are you bothering?) and they’re going to inspire so many new bands. I’m glad party bands are back, bands who understand that songs should have dynamics, who know how to work a crowd and get them involved. Like Lords, Dananananaykroyd make complicated music look piss easy: observe the way Some Dresses breaks down into a complete shambles half way through only for them to casually pick the melody back up and carry on. They’re the kind of band that can twirl their drumsticks and their guitars and not miss a beat. The funny thing is, Danananaykroyd have timed this perfectly. If they’d put this record out 3 or 4 years ago it would have got lost in the post-post-rock/math-rock aftermath boredom years but now in the midst of our Franz clever-ironic hipster doom, this sounds so fresh and vibrant. Picture the scene at Indian Summer this year – Dananananaykroyd casually whipping the early afternoon rained-on crowd into some form of cult style frenzy – and know that fun and fervour are back. Yeah!

Jealous Records
Dananananaykroyd on Myspace

I’ve put off posting about this song for a while because I’m not sure if I can really capture in words how much I enjoy it. If you haven’t heard of Patrick Wolf yet he is a (seemingly) sweet natured young guy from London who makes great pop music from a wealth of instruments and machines. His last two albums were masterful pieces of work that showcased a truly individual spirit alongside a great talent for rich and textured song writing. Patrick can oscillate between acoustic and electric with ease while his singing surprises at every turn.

“Accident & Emergency” is a beat-boxing, casio explosion of a folk-disco record. Drum machines make surprisingly easy bedfellows of accordions and siren samples punctuate the call of Wolf’s growling vocals. It is damn near perfect and it is out on Monday the 23 of October.

myspace – www.myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf
his own site – www.patrickwolf.com
youtube – Patrick Wolf ‘Accident & Emergency’ video
loog – www.loogrecords.co.uk

Hello. I have 50 free song downloads from www.emusic.com. My mother gave them to me. I was fairly excited about this as it’s an independenty version of iTunes with no nasty DRM and it has a pretty good selection of labels involved including Dischord, Kill Rock Stars, K, Wiiija, 4AD, Touch & Go, Matador, Chemikal Underground etc etc.

BUT, what with my recent listening being mostly major label pop music and tiny local bands I am actually finding it rather difficult to think of anything I might want and trawling through things randomly is getting tiresome. So far my ‘Save for Later’ area has ‘Starlite Walker’ by Silver Jews (which I haven’t heard in FOREVER) some Lung Leg songs I only have on vinyl and a Comet Gain album. So suggest things I might, or should, like and if they have it I will download it and let you know what I think.

Also if anyone wants a free trial let me know and I’ll recommend you so I get even more free songs.

Bill Drummond presents No Music Day

I’m not sure what’s happened but I am suddenly awash with brilliant ideas. I am famed for having approximately 14 brilliant ideas a day, and intend at some point to open an Ideas Consultancy, but few of these ever relate to diskant. However, this week I have thought of literally 5 great new things for diskant and I will hopefully find some time to create them sometime soon. All will be revealed soon (unless end of year poll time looms first) but here is the first:

Exciting news!
Believe it or not, the diskant newsletter will soon be resurrected and will be entirely awesome. Turning up once or twice a month, it will let you know about all the new interviews, features and reviews on the site, what’s up on the blog, some tips on cool events and websites you should check out and whatever else we think you might want to to know about including EXCLUSIVE NON-WEB CONTENT*. Wowee. You best sign up now if you’re not already a member. You can do so here.

Possibly my new-found enthusiasm is due to the fact that it’s quite clearly Autumn now and this brings happy anticipation of jumpers, snow and the annual joys of Instal and Audioscope, not to mention my first jaunt to Winter ATP. I’m glad I kept half my holidays for the end of the year as once I run out of things to anticipate it will be practically next year. By the looks of things this could be a Grand diskant ATP Reunion and we’ll maybe even manage some kind of report back, as these have been sadly absent since, well, I stopped going. Look out for some Instal reportage next week once we’ve had our fill of noise.

I have also been reading an awful lot of books recently so I will try and put together some recommendations for next time.
Current listening: Squarepusher, Trail of Dead, Dananananaykroyd, Girls Aloud, Joanna Newsom, The Rapture.

diskant interview slackness stats: Interviewees: 2, Me: 3

* This may just be some jokes about pie but, you know…