list.co.uk/music SINGLES & EPS

Records Singles | MUSIC

SEAFIELDROAD This Road Won’t Build Itself (Biphonic) ●●●●● JAMIE XX Sleep Sound/Girl (Young Turks) ●●●●●

TUFF LOVE Junk EP (Lost Map) ●●●●●

MICHELE MININNI Tupolev Love EP (Optimo Trax) ●●●●●

Yes-voting musician and one third of Edinburgh trio Swimmer One, Andrew Eaton-Lewis here contributes what’s possibly the first overt, contemporary protest song in favour of independence. An evocative piano ballad, its persistent, lullaby-like chorus of ‘this road won’t build itself’ is marked more by a sense of hopeful resignation about a task ahead than blind, chest-beating optimism, and he notes it could just as easily be about raising children. Kids, countries, they’re all the same. seafieldroad.bandcamp.com/ track/this-road-wont-build-itself-2; swimmerone.co.uk Mercury Prize-winner, Numbers alumnus and producer to the stars (Alicia Keys, for example) Jamie Smith better known by the name of his band returns here to solo production with a bright and shimmering lead track in ‘Sleep Sound’. It’s a ghostly type of two- step, built quite uncannily on beats made from processed human vocals, a soundtrack to late urban nights that’s as weird as it is warm on the ears. jamiexx.com

Good-value de but EP action here from Tuff Love, the latest (and in fact debut) signing for Pictish Trail’s Eigg-based label venture, Lost Map. Over five low-slung, guitar- crunching tracks, the trio channel a fog of 80s and 90s alterna-indie icons, from Sonic Youth to Pavement and Throwing Muses the latter particularly so, seeing as guitarist Julie Eisenstein and bassist Suse Bear share some thrillingly nonchalant harmonies. Launched at the Old Hairdresser’s, Glasgow, Fri 2 May, with Trash Kit and a Pictish Trail vs Josie Long DJ set Housed on Optimo’s dancefloor- facing Trax label, it would be intriguing to see just which dancefloor Italy’s Michele Mininni might thrive upon. The title track of three here is a measured, insistent slice of futurist instrumental Italo which takes its time about things, while ‘Telekomdisco’ is an extended, harmonica-led edit that reminds of the Grid somehow. The latter Boot & Tax remix of the main song picks up the pace, but it’s still moody, slow-build material. soundcloud.com/optimo-music (Singles reviewed by David Pollock)

EXPOSURE

UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS Spiking their doomy metal riffs with psyche- delic 60s pop melodies, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats are a dark pagan cult bowing down at the altar of rock. Although they’ve previously shunned the media, now, fresh from supporting Black Sabbath across Europe, they step out of the shadows for their first UK tour. Frontman / guitarist KR Starrs inducts us into the cult of Uncle Acid.

How would you brand your musical output?

Psychotic rock music would be a good description. What’s the concept running through new album Mind Control?

It was inspired by 60s / 70s biker films, really trashy B-movies and Charles Manson. The story is this guy goes up a mountain and tells everyone he’ll show them God, but he kills them all. And to him that’s an act of God. He comes down from the mountain thinking he’s the messiah, he rounds up runaways and vulnerable people, takes them out to the desert and starts his own super-cult. He brainwashes them, feeds them drugs and violence, and tells them to go off and kill loads of people. How was touring with the very progenitors of metal, Bla ck Sabbath?

It was unbelievable. They were such nice people they really took the time to speak to us, they were very complimentary and really went out of their way to look after us. Did you prefer it when your band was myste- rious, unidentified and unknown?

For me it would have been ideal if I could stay com- pletely anonymous, no press pictures, nothing, but then it becomes a problem if you want to progress. There was only so much we could do . . . (Henry Northmore)

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Garage, Glasgow, Wed 23 Apr.

17 Apr–15 May 2014 THE LIST 75

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