Features

This Month We've Been Mostly Listening To

Bill Cummings 09/11/2006

What with Liam our unsigned sub editor's forced retirement from first team action, I've been handed the poison chalice that is GIITTV's most popular feature, "This Month We've Been Mostly Listening To" - the equivalent of the player manager coming on in the last five minutes of the play-off final. Sticking to the theory that if it ain't broke don't fix it, the winning formation is exactly the same. We tell you what's been floating our boat in the month of October, rounding up our favourite(and not so favourite) albums and singles, so that in one highly enjoyable kick about feature, YOU find out what WE'VE been listening to here at GIITTV Towers.

This Month We've Been Mostly Listening To...

Albums...

October has been an eclectic month for albums, kicked off well with Thamesbeat ragamuffins Larrikin Love's debut "The Freedom Spark", earning man of the match award from us in all its conceptual glory - “it's the best album I've heard all year”. As the month unravelled some Championship averageness ensued from the likes of Goose and The Sound Team. There seemed to be a slew of albums that didn't quite get us on the edges of our seats, and even a few who were struggling for any kind of form. Five O'Clock Heroes and Betty Curse had less positive points than West Ham at the foot of the table ("tiresome and clichéd, unoriginal and focussed on shifting units”).

Thank God, then, for new Ivy League signing Josh Pyke. GIITTV was so taken with his new long player "Feeding the Wolves" that we gave him a starring role on the big GIITTV record player: "An excellent array of compositions hitting the vocals with every tuneful harmony blending superbly to create a gentle bliss within your ears."

As the month rolled onwards some big hitting underground indie acts emerged with debuts. Nebraska's “The Path to the Silent Country” left us purring like Motty: "Emotional space-rock hasn't sounded this vital in years." Meanwhile, terrace favourites Luxembourg's “Front” was typified by their own special brand of pop-noir: "Not since prime time Pulp has a band demanded your attention so much... Now the world must listen". Those literate indie pop types The Decemberists returned to action with a superb new album, "The Crane Wife" proving Colin Meloy and co. were still in fine genre kicking form: "They're definitely no one's little secret any more: they're a strong, defiant rock band with their own sound that's neither fey nor feral, just as they promised to be so many years ago."

Singles…

October was a variable beast for the old 45. The start was highly dubious, with Serena Maneesh and Piranha Deathray both playing out nil nil bore draws.

As the frost set in on the pitches, exciting new trialists Fanfarlo, Meeky Rosie and Daddy Long Legs showed considerable potential. Swedish, London-based indie types Fanfarlo proved their employers were right to hand them that long term contract with the single “Talking Backwards”: “The orchestral, sweeping-rock, Arcade Fire-mode with swirling keys and piercing dynamics”. Speedy wingbacks Meeky Rosie produced some good deliveries with their “Nobody Gets Away” EP, which reminded us of “a mixture of Oceansize, or The Cooper Temple Clause on ketamine, although with an ear for the melodic and less for the angst”, while London scamps Daddy Long Legs sounded, rather excitingly, like “the missing link between Arctic Monkeys and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.”

As the month's release fixtures progressed, the Glatico's came out to play, The Long Blonde's scored a winner with the brilliantly tuneful “Once and Never Again” while some unique artists showed some baletic ball skills on their return to first team action. Beck, Amy Winehouse (“a superb throwback to Phil Spector-produced 60s girl groups... it's a statement of intent, to get back to her fresh, dazzling best”) and Patrick Wolf (“undeniably Wolf at his best and the strange, otherworldliness that characterises his work remains reassuredly intact”) left GIITTV sliding into November with all the fist pumping jubilation of Jose Mourinho on his knees.

Join us next month for the return leg...