MCQUAID VS POP – #1

The first in a new series where we welcome Mr Ian Mcquaid back to the R$N fold after a 2 year hiatus. A new series begins where Mr Mcquaid goes up against the week’s new ‘pop’ releases. We use pop in the loosest form of the word… but it’s pop nonetheless. This week; Tunng, Juveniles, Pasarella Death Squad & Jagwar Ma get a going over.

Tuung The Village 
Tunng have returned with the poppiest rendition of their skyclad witch balladry Ive heard yet. The profusion of wonky electronic grunts and squelches draw ever closer to sounding like Hot Chip performing at a Jack-In-The-Green parade, and as uber successful mainstream folk numpties Bumford & Sons (yes Im really that petty) get on with churning out world conquering crap, its a relief to hear folk music that lives and breathes, rather than sticking to a formula cooked up by a cunt in a PR agency. The Village sporadically interrupts itself with tiny goblins of sound, half formed gremlins skittering at the edges of the track, which keep the otherwise pleasant proceedings unsettling in a way thats as English as Bill Sykes and rainy summers. It all bodes well for new album Turbines, out June 14th.

Juveniles Strangers
Its hard to know how to respond to this sort of thing. So, on the one hand its got this nice rubberband disco bassline and a singer who sounds like a perky Morrissey, but on the other its got a hideous anthemic chorus that belongs in a French hypermarket full of shuffling dead eyed worker grubs buying tubs of cholesterol free margarine. Tricky. Its been picked up by the once essential Kitsune, and I doubt their recent years of treading water are gonna be turned round by signing this sort of ho hum.

Pasarella Death Squad Giant EP
Released on East London based Days of Being Wild, the Giant EP has 4 tracks of cinematic electronics, with midnight minor key pads and lush, dark atmospherics carried by the struggle of submerged techno pulses. Second track Blue Lips is the stand out, a moonlit cruise through watery 909 kick drums and atonal goth vocals. Its all very serious, with a nod to The Knifes recent work, were all the abrasive edges smoothed down to a stately, flotation tank inertia. Moody and more-ish.

Jagwar Ma Man I Need
Hi you. So, you miss the days when you could openly declare your love of Skint Records huh? When Big Beat was more than a depressing byword for Bentley Rhythm Ace, comedy samples, ugly drunk people, and every last crazy guy in Brighton? Dont frown no more! Here come Jagwar Ma on their continued quest to give the genre a veneer of respectability that Im not sure it deserves. The Australian duo have been causing a stir with a mix of hazy 60s tinged psychedelia and what only can be described as ick- big beats. Latest single Man I Need may not scale the lava lamp lit highs of previous offerings Come Follow Me and The Throw, but it still grooves on a headtrip haze of Mark Bolan vocal references and funky drummer loops. MGMT for Happy Mondays fans.

Ian Mcquaid