Singles

Honeytrap - The Naked Dancing EP

Charlie Southwell 17/01/2007

Rating: 4/5

Honeytrap, are an eccentric and confused four piece band from Coventry. All of the members sing, from Flaming lips inspired yelps on a strong pop ditty that lends its name to the title track, to eastern European polka all in a four track EP. With no songs under 3:30, this band could find getting on MTV hard but with their EP being so original it would be simultaneously easy and impossible to place any of these songs amongst common radio play lists.

Honeytrap are loosely in the same vein as Larrikin love, they are “indie” but strongly inspired from various country moods. Opening track “Lets do naked dancing” is clearly a pop tune, the most obvious one on this EP. It's the shortest of the collection. All four members sing in this song, ranging from the angelic to a gruff shout. The verses are almost spoken seamlessly transferring into a more melodic chorus. It has that driving feeling that makes you want to dance, heightening to a crescendo which culminates in a messy shout fest, its extremely enjoyable, and thoroughly exciting, interjecting violin motifs filling the “new rave” void where there would be searing synths, this keenly giving any listener something which cannot be readily found anywhere within radio play lists.

“I Don't Know How it Begins” is about as different as it can get from the opening track, a melodic post rock 6 minute brooding epic, with eccentric lyrics and warm melodies, it's something that could easily sit well in my music collection. With the lyrics 'can you hear me when I make this sound?' repeating over the build up to the shorter ending sequence, which remarkably implants the lyrics further in your head.

The EP then shifts gear again, back to a more pop side of things. Its a cute easy listening song, its tune melts from the ballad created at the beginning. It's the least memorable of the songs here, but purely outshone because of the excellence elsewhere. “Spotlight” seems to me to be an ironic name for the track

The last song on this EP starts acoustically and simply, but quickly is recognisable as an Eastern European polka, simple as that. Its so catchy, and the violin is magic. “Mussolini's Son” has controversial subject matter, but these oddballs, make the style work for them, and its not out of place, the extravagantly flamboyant vocal work makes this something very special indeed. The steady incremental tempo increases up meaning the song ends up thrice as fast as it started, it's a bizarre mix, but strangely addictive, I've now had this song on repeat for over an hour, and I'm still not bored. This is by far my favourite song off the EP, despite my love of the band's pop sensibilities on the opening track.

Overall an amazing insight into such a unique band, this being only their second EP, limited to only 500 copies, if I were you, id make sure you get a piece of this before this EP becomes a cult success, and history names this band as one of the greats.