The Long Blondes - Giddy Stratospheres
As this song shoots from disc to speakers and out, it induces a feeling of being inside tiny gas bubbles in a clear stream of cheap champagne. ‘Giddy Stratospheres’ charts that violently energetic journey from neck to cork to foam fire to throat filling hysteria. This little party number is as clever as it is silly, which saves it from feeling like the Long Blondes’ brand of oldie influenced pop has joined the ubiquitous wash of recent releases. Rolling and tumbling beats that are sharpened to dart for feet are spun with finely tuned guitars that shake you loose. A fashionably knowing Kate (the lips of the operation) belts out golden lyrics like “she won’t let you make your way across her empire line”. This is music to get covered in lip-gloss to, if any of you were looking for a further excuse to get down the indie disco.

Review by Lindsey Kent
www.thelongblondes.co.uk

Biffy Clyro - Semi-Mental
Semi-Mental is the new download only single from Scottish 3-piece Biffy Clyro and it’s their poppiest offering for quite a while. The opening chords sound reminiscent of close friends Reuben while the bridge to the chorus could be mistaken for a Foo Fighters melody. The chorus however is where this song really shines, a catchy sing-a-long before heading back into the grunginess of the second verse. There is also a fantastic middle 8 which ticks the final box on this delightful number. Don’t expect it to rip up the charts but this may open a few more eyes to the glorious Biffy Clyro.

Review by Rob Bassett
www.biffyclyro.com

The Hedrons - Heat Seeker
The Hedrons made a minor splash with their well-received debut single ‘Be My Friend’ last summer. In the interim they snagged a dubiously-desirable support slot with grunge casualties Alice In Chains – something that may or may not be responsible for jolting their music into a slightly unexpected direction. Trading in their debut’s girl-punk-flavoured bubblegum for something more discordant is certainly a brave move. Not necessarily a good move either, unfortunately. Heatseeker is a passable enough grunge-derived alt.rock knock-off, but for my money nowhere near as memorable as ‘Be My Friend’. The jury’s out…

Review by Tom Leins
www.thehedrons.com

Tiny Masters of Today - K.I.D.S.
Kids these days, bloody hell. They fucking rock! If I’d been making music like this before I’d hit puberty (or indeed, ever) God knows how I’d have turned out. It can’t be healthy, can it? Child stars never turn out okay.

Nonetheless, good press seems to follow these two, but I can’t help but feel their age may have something to do with it. This single is fine, and it’s noisy, and its kind of punk-rocky, but it’s pretty average. Its not particularly original or intelligent or nowt, and I hate to think people will just be oogling at heir youthfulness. Good luck to their carers and all that, but let’s just hope they don’t turn into some kind of freakshow. Two words: Michael… Jackson…

Review by Tom Howard
http://tinymasters.net

My Device - Eat Lead/Slamming Doors
Brand new single from twitchy Brighton power trio My Device – winners of NME’s Breaking Bands competition last autumn. I recently gave their debut album the once over, and – for the most part – liked what I heard. Now they’re back with an all-new double-header which definitely furthers their reputation. I think it’s fair to say that both songs eclipse the older album material. This is frenzied jerk-rock – one part cerebral, one part visceral. They sound like a car crash between Bloc Party, The Automatic and The Pixies. Good stuff.

Review by Tom Leins
www.myspace.com/mydevice

Soho Dolls - No Regrets
“Hotter than your average bitch/flick on, flick off my switch.” Oo, dirty. Electronic too, two good things, very good. But somehow, this disappoints. It somehow drops short of what it could’ve been. Perhaps it’s the cheesy chorus, perhaps it’s that I just don’t believe the Soho Dolls. This is directionless, needless bottom-of-the-box fodder. It’s a radio edit too, but I’d be very surprised if I heard it on my, or any, transistor anytime soon.

Review by Tom Howard
www.sohodolls.co.uk

The Walk Off - Vader Fader
Brutal, absurdist industrial-strength electro from Oxford noise posse, who have previously bagged support slots with Japanese noiseniks Polysics and also starred at Truck Festival. Rather scarily, they name-check Mark E. Smith, Squarepusher and Atari Teenage Riot as influences. They say: “the sound of pop music being kicked half to death”. I say: uncompromising, demented noise warfare. Scarily impressive/impressively scary.

Review by Tom Leins
www.myspace.com/walkoff

Mark Ronson - Toxic
Whacked-out lounge cover version of a Britney Spears song featuring vocals by deceased crack-hop trouble-maker Ol’ Dirty Bastard – a man I really wouldn’t want anywhere near my lounge – especially now he’s dead… In this instance ODB has been exhumed by uber-producer Mark Ronson – the man behind Amy Winehouse’s latest batch of unavoidably great material. In short: bloody odd, but, if push comes to shove I think I prefer the original…

Review by Tom Leins
www.myspace.com/markronson