16th November, 1998


More updates (LP and live reviews) next week - this week my band has a gig and I'm too busy shitting bricks...

Single of the Week

"Battleflag" by Lo Fidelity Allstars (featuring Pigeonhed)

The coolest four minutes of sound since Bez picked up a maraca and taught indie kids how to dance. A lazy drawl from the LoFi's duetting with a rap rallying call from Pigeonhed over an almost sinster Massive Attack style beat that gathers momentum until it is a shagmaster flash that's gonna take no prisoners. One of the best ways to keep warm this winter: dance round the room to this like a gibbon on sedatives. Trust me, you'll look cool. It'll sound damn good, anyway.

Two extras: a "Space Raiders" remix that is layered with sci-fi moog dub sounds from the planet Throg; and a live version, recorded for the Mary Ann Hobnobs show. Both show up Fatboy Slim for the pretender that he is.

Rating: 9/10

The Rest

"The Certainty of Chance" by The Divine Comedy

From slack-jawed kangol-wearing majesty to knowing suit-and-tie intellectualism in one easy move. Neil Hannon's achingly grandoise hymn to Chaos Theory and the Surrealist Manifesto, "The Certainty Of Chance" is what will be playing as the metaphorical pre-millenial Titanic goes down. And any song that can sneak a forty-eight piece orchestra into the charts has to be doing something right. In fact, "The Certainty Of Chance" is the sound of red velvet curtains parting to reveal gods copulating on purple chaise longues as seraphim recite the complete works of Oscar Wilde at them. As such, it should be treated as something a little bit special (but also with the top-most tip of your tongue slipping into your - or someone else's - cheek).

As it was a quiet week, b-sides from both CDs. "Last Stand In Metroland" sees The Divine Comedy dip their toes into the steaming waters of pop's bathtub, with a chugging rhythmic mover and shaker with Hannon's trademark witticism lyrics ("I live in Osterley, you live in a tree, we live in harmony") and a grasp of pop dynamics that would see the boy Williams left mouth agape. Next, a Michael Nyman instrumental cover, "Miranda" from the soundtrack to Prospero's Books. Perfect material for the Divine Comedy to spin their silken strands of romantic grandeur around.

2nd CD offers "The Dead Only Quickly", a quick jazz swing poem with the orchestra parping about in the background; and "Knowing The Ropes", another Nyman cover, this time from Drowning By Numbers. Again, Nyman's stacatto string stabs and over-the-top dramatics are meat and bread to Hannon and his cohorts and they gleefully descend on the material, like vultures wearing dinner jackets.

Intelligent without being smug; grand without being overblown; amusing without being embarrassing: hold the Divine Comedy to your breast and cherish them.

9/10

"Best Friend's Girl" by Electrasy

Previously, this outfit's output has been unremarkable sub-Britpop (or worse - like The Supernaturals), but "Best Friend's Girl" has been listening to Black Grape, EMF and early Beasties non-stop, and to great effect with this big cheesy pop anthem. Jumping around like an untethered kangaroo on pcp, the song is everything a great big dumb paean to unrestrained lust should be. "I never saw it coming, but I'm messing with my best friend's girl", they gleefully sing. Well, I never saw it coming but I'm playing an Electrasy record without hitting the "stop" button.

First b-side is a remarkably similar edit of the a-side, whilst "Cabaret Of Love" is Blur's "Song 2" (complete with wooo-hooos) in fancy dress at a sleazy sex party ("come baby, come, cos I want to get some tonight"). The lyric "heaven is her tongue" saves it from Loaded-ville crassness, but only just.

Rating: 7/10

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