SINGLES

Here's this week's crumbs... Jesus...

Radiohead: Thinking EP (Self released, probably)
Radiohead return to the guitar, bass & drums format with this experimental EP. Each member is recorded “thinking about their instrument”. This means that the first few tracks are field recordings of men coughing, sighing and drinking tea. Like a portal into a gentle staff room. When we get to Yorke’s “think piece” we hear a beautiful glitch-electronica track, a sublime imprint from his conscious art-mind, transmuted onto DAT tape by a cutting edge, eco-friendly, hyper-tech breakthrough (actually it’s an Autechre B-side you prick, he’ll never get away with it - Archer).

The Mark Twain: Catastro (Silly Recordings)
Featuring ex-members of Chisel Bitch and Iraqi Super-Fun, The Mark Twain is a dark, brooding beast. The acerbic guitars and New York drums are so typical of the current crop of “Night Vision” acts from across the water that one wonders if it is a KARATECHOP!KARATECHOP! release spinning on the table. Nevertheless “Hey! Days of the Monkey Men” on the flip is enough anarcho-math schism to keep Butcher Buoy fans happy for a while at least (I don’t know what any of this means – Archer).

Geremi Balm: The Sex Twins (Bakerloo)
More lipstick socialism from Ray Liotta’s brother Lucio on Ninja Tune. Lead track “The Sex Twins” thuds to a hearty trance beat while Lucio intones the chemical components of various biological weapons. What sounds like an argument in a kebab shop is looped in the left speaker before guest drummer Umberto Eco throws a free-fill a la Rashied Ali to bring the whole thing to a head.
Since leaving Snow Patrol Lucio has found solace in the radical empiricism of Geremi Balm stating that “Geremi Balm is the only thing outside my own mind that I can verify as existing”. On this evidence he might be right. Blue vinyl and 1” lathe-cut CD.

Gulliver Unravelled: Subtle Requiem for the Midnight Jester (EMI/ Parlaphone)
After “Requiem” appeared on a certain mobile phone advert last year pressure was put on EMI to re-release Gulliver’s truly horrid back-catalogue. The fact that this sub-Genesis toss is being hailed as the re-discovery of the decade gives lie to the fact that we are all deep in the marketing man’s arse. Don’t buy this.

Sorry about all that,
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