Category Archives: neo-new wave

Review: Catfight – In Stereo

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Label: self-released Released: September 30, 2008 While the album art for Catfight’s In Stereo is totally 80s (like, totally), their music spends an awful lot of time in the sixties as well. Eschewing all that is delicate, everything about their songs is based on their simple deliberate rhythms. They don’t waste time with frivolities like riffs or solos. The album… Read more »

Review: M83 – Saturdays = Youth

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Label: Mute Released: April 15, 2008 Saturdays = Youth is promising when it opens with “You, Appearing.” The piano is as warm and embracing as a fireplace on a cold winter day, and it seems to be laying the groundwork for an incredibly rich album. When the vocals finally kick in, they’re slightly urgent and desperate but pleasant and intriguing;… Read more »

Review: Dartz! – This is My Ship

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Label: Deep Elm Records Released: November 13, 2007 Dartz! mix agitated math rock with a punk edge and British quirkiness (or is it quirky Britishness?). They produce songs whose layers are the many moving parts of an efficient machine. The parts feel loose and rambling when they’re really quite tight if you concentrate. But that’s not the point. They’re meant… Read more »

Review: Shocking Pinks – s/t

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Label: Astralwerks Released: September 25, 2007 The latest project of New Zealand’s Nick Harte, Shocking Pinks’ self-titled album is actually songs collected from the two previous albums. It’s a rhythm-based indie rock affair whose ambling beats support yet don’t drive it’s layers of ambient noise and dream pop. The album has bits of Joy Division and pieces of My Bloody… Read more »

Review: Brian Buta – False Colors

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Label: self-released (available through CD Baby and iTunes) Released: September 2007 The whole idea of rehashing the 80s never quite sat well with me. Now that it’s been redone to death by so many hipsters with more fashion-sense than creativity, I’m even less receptive. That being said, Brian Buta must be doing something right, because he is almost completely stuck… Read more »

Review: Zerobridge – Havre de Grace

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Label: self-released Released: September 18, 2007 Zerobridge was formed by two Kashmiri brothers who grew up near the namesake of the their EP, Havre de Grace, Maryland. While this broader cultural experience may seem like a boon for the band, their music has little to do with the former and everything to do with the latter. Zerobridge relies on the… Read more »