The Half Rabbits - Tiny Knives for Tiny Minds
On plays one and two of the single we thought it was alright but we wouldn't take a human life to own it. By play three it has blossomed into a collection of confident, well accomplished slabs of melodramatic rock. The lyrics are witty and well written, the songs themselves pound and search in all the right places, building and dropping out as well as any. Still not the single to kill your neighbour for but quite possibly worth a small amount of bloodshed as you track it down, if push came to shove.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.halfrabbits.co.uk

The Gossip - Listen Up!
Roughly 300 ‘Listen ups’ later, the same initial sugar rush hits the earlobes, arches the eyebrows and jumpstarts the dancing feet. It’s a daringly simple song, two minutes of matronly ‘oooohs’ from Beth Ditto, and a bass riff crispier and tautier than Gary Lineker on a torture rack. There’s a cowbell & kick drum marriage joined at the hip and a universal call to arms (or rather, to throw one’s arms in the air like you're a member of Tavares). Did I say two minutes? I meant four! It doubles back on itself midway through, thereby sounding more like ESG than ESG ever did. Their sound has an almost surgical cleanness to it, so its use-by date is on a par with your average unexploded uranium shell. Awesomely awesome remixes too - look up the Tronik Youth one - seven

minutes of strungout, beefed up, plugged in, on one, disco yellow fever. In a word: debilitating.

Review by Chris Field
www.gossipyouth.com

Her Name Is Calla - Hideous Box
Completely unrelated to excellent New York miserablists Calla, Her Name Is Calla make quiet, slow burning, midnight indie with intruigue and suspense on its mind and an eye for a panorama. Hideous Box doesn't feel the need to stamp its authority with catchy or angular anything, instead plying a fine stock of delicate but pulsating musical storytelling. This is a record to get lost in or, better yet, close your eyes and get lost with, somewhere far away, where signposts have yet to reach.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.myspace.com/hernameiscalla

Ladyfuzz - Oh Marie!
The single is fine, you probably already know it, it's chanty and fun and Ladyfuzz are an imminently likeable band. The real creamy centre of interest here, though, are the remixes on the second 7", which come from luminaries GoodBooks and Jeremy Warmsley. The former is a mobile disco tour de force of laptop invention and cut 'n' paste greatness, the latter - the Gospel Truth Edition - skulks through your home like the dead body of Oh Marie!'s former lover himself. Both of them are absolutely superb and, frankly, eclipse the original for invention and execution.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.ladyfuzz.com

Redcarsgofaster - Micro / I Am The Storm
Micro is an small epic of a record that launches itself into turbulent storms of heavy rock action between deceptively balanced sections of taunt claustrophobia. It's dense and demanding, stalking you through the corridors of your mind like an assassin, waiting to strike with an impressive array of firepower. I Am The Storm is very much the same, except, better.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.redcarsgofaster.com

Scaramanga Six - Baggage
It kicks in with a falsetto and a harmony and sprints off from there to gloriously unrestrained glam posturing, gigantic chords, piano accompaniment, soaring vocals, massive choruses, strings, stabs, thrusts, cats, dogs and kitchen sinks. Not the most restrained or fashionable song you'll ever hear this is more interested in layering feelgood whip on top of pop-rock ice cream. Deeply enjoyable if not the most iPod friendly.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.thescaramangasix.co.uk

Fields - 4 From the Village
This four track EP is built around a wonderful middle section comprised of the moody and brittle Heretic and the engrossing, progressive Isabel. The two songs either side of these are less good but you forgive them for it when you hear how good Heretic is. It takes the soft indie vibe of the others and punctures it with stabbed drumshots and the occasional roar from within. Enticing prospect indeed.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.fieldsband.com

Lovvers - An Impossible Object
Lead track A Good Book is as accessible as the band gets and even that is only for about ten seconds before it descends into noisy, raucous post punk decay. It sounds a like bad production values but to be honest you get the impression they could sort that out if they wanted and certainly the 'accessible art wave dropped in sulphur and allowed to rot' look totally goes with the colour of their souls. Which, we assume, is black. Or a very very dark brown. Addictively macabre.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.myspace.com/letscommunicate

Hope Of The States - Left
I've got a hit and miss relationship with Hope Of The States. Started off not liking them, then loved that White Red Blue Black single, then went off them, then quite liked that Sing It Out thing with the electrocution video and now this. A ballad. It shouldn't work but, my word, it does. Despite not being the best at marrying songwriting to post rock (and having gone down in my estimation for marginalising their post rock bent in recent interviews) this builds nicely and twinkles well. Whether I'm just used to his voice by now or it's improved I don't know but that old sticking point is gone too. Which leaves us with Left. A really good song. Excellent.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.hopeofthestates.co.uk

Dead Disco - Automatic
Everyone sounds like this these days, right? Spiky guitar and two tone teutonic bassline with hushed female vocals and a bit of a synth thing going on. Dead Disco don't do it better than anyone specifically but certainly with Automatic (and to a greater extent b-side Too Late) they do it well enough to survive. If they're to really excel I'd suggest this better not prove to be their finest hour but certainly it's a nice early shot from the Fierce Panda act.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.deaddisco.co.uk

The Affair - Andy
This is pleasant isn't it. It's nice. I mean, if you got into a fight it would probably hide behind something and if the going got really rough and you turned to it for help it'd probably just shrug and talk about not really knowing what to say while inching to the door but that's what some songs are like. It won't take responsibility for your mood but if you're in a decent mood anyway this is happy to sit with you. Summery, breezy, retro-pop with synths. There's loads better on Marquis Cha Cha to be honest. Get that instead.

Review by Aidienn Ellison
www.theaffairnyc.com