list.co.uk/music SINGLES
Records – Singles | MUSIC
The 1990s are alive and well in this month’s Singles & EPs pile, with new singles by artists including former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes with ‘Matador (De Capo)’ (●●●●● Hot Fruit/ Caroline International, out 18 Sep), the reworked title track of his last album, which is rich in the kind of pastoral but not dead yet act-your-age guitar rock which his solo career has done so well. Also present are Ash with ‘Machinery’ (●●●●● EarMUSIC, out 9 Oct), another one chalked up in an already healthy repertoire of driving rock songs, and Liverpudlian one-hit wonders Space with ‘Strange World’ (●●●●● Ocean Waves, out 19 Oct), a moody, Lynchian thing with very light shades of New
Orleans gumbo jazz about it.
Anyone with a preference for classic rock which is closer to the vintage of this very century, meanwhile, will be looking in the direction of Mumford & Sons’ new track ‘Ditmas’ (●●●●● Gentlemen of the Road/Island, out 11 Sep), which is a fairly understated entry in their recent canon of middle-of-the-road arena-conquerors. Memory Man’s ‘In Praha’ (●●●●● Turnkey Music, out 7 Sep), meanwhile, features ex-Snow Patrol bassist Mark McClelland and former members of FO Machete and Grim Northern Social, and does a good job of impersonating Gene (ask the ’90s), who did a good job of impersonating the Smiths.
It’s a pleasure to report that Lost Map HQ out in the wilds of Eigg has come up with two new releases this time out, and they’re high quality ones as ever. Seamus Fogarty’s ‘Ducks & Drakes’ (●●●●● Lost Map, out 4 Sep) is a sparse, gossamer-like electro-acoustic journey, and Rozi Plain’s largely instrumental ‘Best Team’ (●●●●● Lost Map, out 18 Sep) makes a feature of her affecting vocal texture. Or if you’re in the mood for something more ear- cleansing, Autopsy Boys’ B-movie tribute ‘Song for Debbera’ (●●●●● Mondo Tunes, out 2 Oct) and Black International’s ‘A Fence to Keep People Out’ (●●●●● Good Grief, out now) are more noisily cathartic. (David Pollock)
EXPOSURE
APACHE DARLING ‘Apache’ is taken from the first song one half of the band, Stefanie Lawrence, learned on the guitar, while ‘darling’ relates to what New Yorkers called the duo when they played their first Stateside show. So that clears that up. We interrupt Lawrence as she’s in the process of buying a flat in Glasgow with the other half of the group, Andrew Black, to talk T Break, being in a band with your boyfriend and the future.
On their music We describe ourselves as The New Pop, classic songwriting with analogue synths and vocals. So if you were comparing it to things, think Eurythmics, Cyndi Lauper, Sia, Phoenix. Stuff like that. We are a duo, but we work with a live band. That’s a big part of our sound – we’re a live electronic pop band. It’s got a rock show theme to it. On T Break It was amazing. We opened the tent on the Friday. We were a little bit on edge about exactly how busy it was gonna be, but it was brilliant. By the end of the set we had about 300-odd in the tent. It was a great show. I liked the lay-out of it [T in the Park] being smaller. I think that just caters to my laziness. On working with your boyfriend It’s a really immersive thing to be around each other all the time. Although we write together, we don’t write in the same room as each other. We tried to write together and it doesn’t work very well cos we’re both really abrasive. On playing Canada We did NXNE in Toronto. North American audiences are well up for a party. It had a real underground feel – we played a punk rock club, we played a burlesque
bar. It was a step away from what we were doing before. We’d just made the switch from using laptops and tracking to going full live band and at that point we knew we’d made the right decision. On the future Who knows? The main thing for us is to go and record again. We’ve had a great year, but it’s been off the back of two tunes. It’s kind of nuts. We’ve got two albums worth of stuff, so we’re planning on a November recording. (Kirstyn Smith) ■ Apache Darling play The Lighthouse Late on Fri 9 Oct at The Lighthouse, Glasgow.
3 Sep–5 Nov 2015 THE LIST 73