Flip flops for Goths
Four pressies Rosey R*E*P*E*A*T and his Welsh flu have been struggling with over the holiday period.

National Snack : Apply Machine (www.myspace.com/nationalsnack)
National Snack know how to apply pressure in all the right places. “We really, really want you to review this, to love this, and to offer us a gig... you are the nicest promoter in Cambridge and we love your zine...”

Flattery will get you everywhere.

So now will you believe me when I say that this is pretty good? Angular, spiky, brooding, driven, packed with attitude and boasting some rather magnificently entwined male and female vocals, this ep is 6 songs (and a secret track) in search of an audience. First track 'Mischief' is a punky-funk workout that would shift the most stubborn of Christmas stains, track 5 is a growly restrained paean to the castrating influence of retail and 'Rock and Roll' makes a storming song out of the medium's own limitations.

Easy pegs to hang this on? Gang of Four, a less macho RATM, and for the drumming at the start of 'My Head Hurts', Fuck Dress duetting with Bow Wow Wow.

Despite Pop Idol Pap and X Factor flatulence there is a lot of innovative, groundbreaking exciting music out there – all you have to do is search below the tinselled wrappings.

“Did you know they sell flip flops for Goths in the Camden store?”

Exactly.

Engine 'Fringe' (Beefy Marauder Recordings / myspace.com/enginetunes)

Engine are from Baltimore, which is pretty exciting for them and their DIY record label Beefy Marauder Recordings, who are about spreading DIY revolt to the citizens of Leeds and beyond. They even sent me a 'One Solution Revolution' sticker, which has to be one of my favourite Christmas presents. In fact so DIY and revolutionary are they that they neglected to put any music on the CD, which is one way of ensuring that all is reviewed are the political intentions of the piece, which is always my favourite style of review anyway. And on that level they score top marks.


If you're more bourgeois and arty than me and insist on hearing the music as well, take a gander at myspace.com/enginetunes where I guess there maybe some tunes online.

The Uncomfortables : Doom Jazz (myspace.com/theuncomfortables)
This is pretty spooky, atmospheric and compelling; Tom Waits, Pixies, Film Noir and Surf Rock colliding to create the reverb-soaked ghosts of Christmas crushed. The songs are well crafted, easily able to bar the burden of the dark messages they are charged with, and apparently live frontman Richard Lomax is 'a madman ... as he sings his drunken, manic, sea-shanty style songs, his eyeballs roll into the back of his head, his face distorts into scowls and frowns, and he wails unexpectedly, becoming more than just a mouth-piece for the songs but at one with the despair the song depicts ... compelling, screwed up, and brilliant”. Listening to the 3 tracks on Doom Jazz I can just imagine this to be the case, and hope I won't have to just imagine for much longer.

Tom Jones : 24 Hours
Just because I'm temporarily in Swansea there's no need for this. Lovely boy...

Rosey R*E*P*E*A*T