Singles Round Up – July 6

Three Trapped Tigers, '7'/'1'

With the charts gone Jackson crazy, what hope is there for any of this week’s new releases? None, that’s what.

My favourite related quote of the weekend: La Roux’s Elly Jackson (whoa, spooky) telling the BBC that she wouldn’t mind getting bumped from her number one position of last week (with ‘Bulletproof’), as it’d be MJ who dislodged her. Unlucky, Red, as it’s Cascada at the top spot this morning, with ‘Man In The Mirror’ at two.

‘Evacuate The Dancefloor’, you say? This kinda guff has me evacuating my bowels in the flagship HMV store. CRAP.

REVIEWS…

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Single of the Week

Three Trapped Tigers – ‘7’ / ‘1’
London trio Three Trapped Tigers deliver the sort of instrumental thrills you imagine Battles producing if they’d hardwired themselves into the Warp matrix long before signing, shifting through several shades of Squarepusher and Clark prior to settling on their comparatively safe structures. Dizzying in their complexity, TTT’s approach to composition seems to be: how far can we take the listener before they either a) explode or b) sign up for a subscription to The Wire – or both, with the latter preceding the former. ‘7’ / ‘1’ – a between-EP release through the Too Pure singles club (responsible for recent seven-inches from the similarly brilliant Friendship and Pulled Apart By Horses – the label’s doing right by quality UK acts) featuring one old track (‘1’) and one brand-new piece – tickles the synapses with scouring pads, the dancing shoes with broken glass; it sounds like the end of music as you know it and the beginning of something dazzlingly fresh, sticky and shimmering beneath a brave new dawn. With courage detectable within their absorbing cacophony, the band’s ambition is sky-high, their chorus of thunder-cracks echoing as a symphony of progression.

Three Trapped Tigers – ‘1’ (live)

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Also out today…

Lady Gaga – ‘Paparazzi’
Fair play to the Lady for having the guts to strut her stuff at Glasto’ the other weekend, albeit after laying into the laps of the organisers a list of demands as fat as a phonebook. But bad form, Gaga, for this forgettable third single – after successive number one hits, we expect more from the clothed-by-Scrapheap-Challenge popster, even if she is too busy being hounded by lens-lugging leeches to focus on chart topping.

Animal Kingdom – ‘Tin Man’
Support slots with Snow Patrol earlier in the year suited Animal Kingdom well – their polished indie-pop is tuned to the senses of the arena-filling act’s audience, with practised melancholy rubbing shoulders with big choruses. With the weight of a major label behind them, and their (limited) material to date attracting the right critical plaudits, don’t rule out the possibility of this five-piece selling out massive venues on their own terms 12 months from now, assuming an album lands within the next eight.

The Victorian English Gentlemens Club – ‘Parrot’
Pleasant band name, terrifying sound. If Jack White’s Dead Weather newbies had heard this prior to laying down a long-player of similarly threatening blues-scorched rock, chances are they’d quit while they were behind, knowing that’s where they’d always stay. Students: playing this loudly from your bedroom window will keep TV licensing vans away. It’s that unsettling.

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TVEGC – ‘Parrot’


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3OH!3 – ‘Don’t Trust Me’
Oh my. Hearing this now, I remember when I first heard it: in the back of a car, stuck on the M4. It was the worst song I’d heard in an age – tacky electro with snotty lyrics full of terrible high-school clichés and misplaced attitude – and here, even without the horror of gridlock, it’s still comparable, on an enjoyment level, to drowning in the shit of Jeremy Kyle’s studio audience. If the taste of ill-opinionated excrement appeals, check the monstrosity out for yourself HERE.

The Rumble Strips – ‘Not The Only Person’
Surprisingly stirring stuff, this, given The Rumble Strips’ usual trading in perfunctory brass-blasted indie-swagger fare. Frontman Charlie Waller belts it out like a southern Kapranos, while his bandmates conspire to piece together a gently affecting arrangement replete with subtle strings and uplifting percussive flourishes. The album from which it’s taken, ‘Welcome To The Walk Alone’ (REVIEW), isn’t exactly wall-to-wall excellence, but this is as solid-of-gold a single anyone could expect from the band in question.

The Maccabees – ‘Can You Give It’
Another strong single release from the Brighton five-piece’s second album ‘Wall Of Arms’ (REVIEW), ‘Can You Give It’ rolls along with an assured confidence – the kind that’s only exuded by the arrangements of truly at-ease acts, comfortable with their place in the grand scheme of things. The Maccabees’ ascent – steady, but certain – continues, and with tenderness apparent beside the group’s natural catchiness, this single should attract more fans to their cause.

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The Maccabees – ‘Can You Give It’


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