Singles

Snowfight in The City Centre - Six Seconds

Matt Harrold 13/03/2007

Rating: 4/5

Sextet, Snowfight in The City Centre (try saying that fast) are the new boys on the Mancunian music scene. To give them credit though, they've managed to steer around Manchester's rich musical heritage to produce their own brand of Indie-pop anthem. So everyone can rest easy that they aren't Oasis or Happy Monday wannabes. Instead it's all gentle chimes over a very subtle synth which swirls with soft intensity on new single 'Six Seconds' as the lead guitar whirls it's way up over Adam Jennings' vocals, kind of reminiscent of Doves filtered through a British Arcade Fire without the reverb. Although it doesn't quite reach the intensity it promises it's still a nicely polished track.

Leave it to the B'side as usual to come up with the "wow" factor. Not that it happens all the time but occasionally when a band isn't hung up with perfection they experiment to produce musical gems of such beauty that it leaves you breathless. Enter 'What Did You Expect' which mashes up Postal Service style drum beats with the bastard child piano from the song that became everyone's shag track in 1999, that's right Counting Crow's 'Colour Blind', just blame the film Cruel Intentions.

Though that does 'What Did You Expect' no services what so ever. It manages to both be melodically uplifting whilst being introverted lyrically. It's the musical equivalent of being brushed with someone else's soul and grasping just how fragile a thing it is, all the while guitars gently wash back and forth in soft howls. In short it's an absolutely stunning track and if Snowfight in The City Centre can keep producing songs like this then they'll prove to be one of rising stars of the music scene.


Released: 05/03/2007