9th February, 1998

Is that a photo of the devil's haircut then?

Single of the Week

"Satan Polaroid" by Idlewild



Now this is what we like. An incendiary blast of punked-up napalm, "Satan Polaroid" from Edinburgh new faves on the block Idlewild is the perfect remedy for blocked sinuses. Play this one loud and your tubes clear quicker than you can say "like the bastard child of Mark E Smith and Black Francis yelping in front of swathes of Sonic Youth guitar all to a four-on-the-floor Ramones-style beat". Which is fast. This contains an excellent bit where a bass riff rumbles in the background then a guitar and vocal explode out the speakers like gunfire. For that alone it gets top slot this week. And as the whole single has a Great Wall of sound audible from the moon, it is close to perfection.

B-side "House Alone" is closer still to the 1-2-3-4 dynamics of the Ramones, with an insanely fast riff and frantic vocals. Too punk to f**k.

Although bands like this pop up every now and again (Birdland, anyone?), even on the strength of 2 tracks (this is a limited 7"), Idlewild look as though they have the potential for a bit more staying power than the rest. Whatever happens, they are not going to do it quietly.

Rating: 10/10

The Rest

"Sexy Boy" by Air

Zut alors. Musique de disco ambient avec le bizarre moog flim flam sonique boome. This you know by now. Released several weeks after LP "Moon Safari", this camper-than-a-row-of-tents-with-members-of-Stereolab-in dance opus floats out of your sound system like a big pink candy floss cloud, shot through with raspberry ripple veins of sci-fi analogue synth sounds. In a world entirely its own, "Sexy Boy" moves around your room for a while before descending to give you a great big French snog. Boy - sexy.

The "Cassius Radio Mix" on the b-side is closer to Daft Punk territory, with a bolted-on disco beat surrounding that languid vocal and dressing it up in flares. The "Etienne De Crecy Et Les Flower Pistols Remix" is an ambient take on the original, sounding as though it's being played on a stylophone as choirs of Gallic angels flit around nonchalantly, smoking Gauloises and reading Sartre. "Jeanne" is last on offer here, and is an acoustic guitar-led torch song, featuring a female vocalist. Rather like a Parisian Portishead, subtle electronic sounds wash in the background over an undeniably attractive little number. Tres chic.

Rating: 9/10

"Local Boy In The Photograph" by Stereophonics

This will disappoint some (hello Rowan, Guy and the rest), but Stereophonics were up against too stiff competition this week to rise to the top of the pile. A re-release (like last week's Warm Jets offering - there must be something in the water at the moment), "Local Boy In The Photograph" is the 'Phonics finest moment, an impassioned and genuinely moving account of a suicide and a life stopped forever ("he'll always be twenty-three""). Kelly Jones vocals soar higher than a Virgin balloon and with emotion that only the most cynical would cast doubt upon and the guitar is suitably epic and widescreen. Having built up a huge following over the last year or so - mainly due to constant touring - this looks like the one likely to put Stereophonics rightly in the top 20, where they deserve to be more than many. Let's have a new song next time though, eh?

First b-side is "Who'll Stop The Rain", a fairly-average rock ballad with gravel-gargling vocals. Next is the wonderful "Check My Eyelids For Holes", a blustering stomp of a song, heavy on the rhythm and passion, with the band coming over more than a little like Generation Terrorist-era Manics. Still unique enough to be called a Stereophonics song, however. Last on this CD is the complete vid to "Local Boy", making this a good value purchase (especially if your computer can view the bloody thing).

Rating: 9/10

"Hello Tiger" by Urusei Yatsura

Scotland's own Sonic Youth continue to bounce around like unfashionable gonks at a trendy party. "Hello Tiger" is one of their finest moments recorded to date, with a big buzz of guitar noise and feedback and a pogotastic rhythm. Get your plastic rayguns out and let your hair down - this lot are damn good fun. Altogether now - "bye bye, see ya later sometime"...

Next up is "Vanilla Starlet", a Velvets-style title for another Sonic Youth-y slab of sonic experimentalism. Taking Beck into their circle of all-American influences, this track is as fast-paced and frenetic as the first - live it would exhaust you in seconds. On record, it diverts you for the same amount of time. "Vent Axial" is the pop/punk/metal fusion we've all been waiting for. Scarily, it sounds like Carter USM jamming with (guess who?) Sonic Youth. We must throw this filth at our pop kids. Plus, it just this very second caused something to fall off my PC monitor. Have an extra mark for that.

Rating: 8/10

"Polyesterday" by Gus Gus

Now this is experimentalism. A collective from the Land of the Rising Bjork, Iceland's Gus Gus firmly believe they are descended from pixies. Fairly trendy indie-dance pixies, obviously, as this is an infectious piece of shuffling funky drummer pop. With a bassline made entirely of elastic and vocals that sound like they (just) failed the audition for Sister Sledge, this is a fairly unique sound and certainly the week's most original sound. Just not the best.

The "Amon Robin" remix follows, in which the bad squelchy moog trolls carry the indie-dance pixies into a cave and beat the crap out of them. Next is "Gun (Schizoid-Man Remix)". Now I don't know the original, but this is a neon-lit trip-hop strut that works pretty well, in a mature and serious pixies kind of way. Last is "Why? (Remixed by DJ Vadim for Jazz Fudge Delicacies)" - of course - which is an ambient journey into the realms of the extremely mental pixies who have hijacked someone who sounds like Beth from Portishead and made her sing for them.

Rating: 7/10

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