Singles

Das Wanderlust - Sunday School

Bill Cummings 21/05/2007

Rating: 3/5

Teeside based duo Das Wanderlust, currently made up of core members Laura(singer/keyboards) and Andy (Guitars), describe themselves as a “wrong-pop” band, and that about sums up their appeal. Like musical marmite some love them some really, really don't like them. The thing that some critics miss is their absolute disregard for convention, this is a subversive sometimes raw, gleefully eccentric 100mph DIY keyboard pop, that mixes playful colorful Casio notes to healthy dollops of fuzz and frantic rhythms. Laura's voice is often the main bone of contention for the Das Wanderhaters - but I think they're highly distinctive - she gleefully abandons of all sense of traditional melodic lines: veering from sarcastic 'shriek!' to gleeful melody she sounds oddly like a Riot Girrl being taught nursery rhymes by Mark E Smith. Many say Das Wanderlust sound like “Art Brut meets Bis,” but that's kind of a red herring, they sound more like Help! She Can't Swim being broken apart by hundreds of tiny plastic comedy hammers, with elements of Garage Punk of the 70s. Their world is bright colourful and exuberant, and ever so slightly tongue in cheek, in short it's DIY indie like they used to make, before it became dreadfully serious, its FUN with Technicolor specs on.

Having recently supported Maximo Park, they follow up their brilliant last single “Orange Shop” with “Sunday School” on Fierce Panda's new little sister label, Cool For Cats. Proudly exposing their disdain for the recording studio on their myspace site, the new single was recorded “sporadically round people's houses, over the period of a few months, at a cost of roughly zero.” which is perhaps why this recording sounds so pleasingly under produced. The haphazard rhythm that ushers in Sunday School's wonky rhythm, is crayoned over by Laura's expressive vocals, Andy's guitars are a mesh net upon which the rhythm jumps into, whilst the addition of a crazy flute, and hand claps into the mix adds up to a heady sweet and sour pop brew. Not quite as good as their last single but it shows off the band's burgeoning abilities to create a truly eccentric sound.

The B-Sides show the bands other sides too 'Humbug' is freakishly disorientating, Laura's 'La La La's' riding a sea of keyboards and muggy percussion. While 'Supermarkets Vs Greengrocers' drums thump out a furious pace, Andy's shopping list spiel, is augmented by Laura's interjections and dexterously bashy keys. It sounds a bit like early Supergrass going wild in the aisles with Bearsuit, which when you think about it is a pretty funny mental image.