March

Reviews

Kittycraft
Catskills (CD)
On one of the year's most remarkable releases Kittycraft's Pamela Valfer cuts and pastes her way through a junkshop of old vinyl, mixing the sounds of Sixties San Francisco and Greenwich Village with contemporary drum loops, and creating a unique sound of her own in the process. Cleverly chosen samples are carefully woven together and hang in the air like aural tapestries. Whilst the results are undeniably artistic, they also avoid the potential pitfall of being cold and impersonal, with songs like My Head Falls Softly as beautiful and entrancing as any music that you are likely top hear in a long while.

Various Artists
Love Ballads (CD)
Fortunately George Michael and Whitney Houston are both absent here, and instead a selection of past and present March friendly bands serve up songs which rarely seem to tie in with the compilation's title. There are a few great songs here, making this record a good sampler for the March label, but it was always fated to be an anti climax, coming so soon after the excellent Moshi Moshi compilation. Several of the bands that appeared on Moshi Moshi make another appearance here, with Cinnamon and the Cherry Orchard once again providing two of the highlights, and older tracks by Holiday and Ciao Bella remind you of just how important March records have been over the last few years.

One Star
Triangulum (CD)
One Star have the requisite strangeness that we have come to expect from Japanese pop acts, but theirs is a far gentler sound than many of their compatriots, combining samples and synths with indie guitars and echoing vocals to astonishingly beautiful effect on tracks like Metaphoric and E.U.R.O.P.A. Elsewhere they wheel out the sitars and dance rhythms for Wordy Bunch, and just get plain weird on The Jelly Is Set!

Barcelona
Robot Trouble (CDS)
Robot Trouble is a song about a boy whose parents disapprove of his best friend, Paul. Perhaps their worries are well founded though, since Paul is a homemade four-foot tall robot with claws for hands. Unlikely as it may seem, this utterly charming piece of cyber-nonsence is quite possibly the finest pop record that you are going to hear this year, and comes accompanied by four other tracks, including an Autumn Teen Sound remix and a passable Men Without Hats cover.

Cinnamon
Vertigo (CD)
March Records reissue Cinnamon's 1999 release Vertigo, a sumptuous treat of guitar pop drenched in vibes and strings. The songs here have a near anthemic quality, but while many Swedish bands are leading the way in gentle acoustic indie pop at the moment, Cinnamon have opted for a more conventional college radio friendly sound. At times the songs lyrics seem a little uninspired, and even the album's sumptious high point "Did You Think I Would Ever Let You Go" consists of nothing more than a string of clichés. Nevertheless, such complaints seem churlish in the face of the Bertrand Burgalat production and Louis Phillipe string arrangements which help to lift the overall sound head and shoulders above other records of the alt-rock genre.

Various Artists
Moshi Moshi (CD)
March Records repeat the success of their Pop American Style compilation with another mammoth collection, this time featuring bands from around the world. Once again the compilation is made up of exclusive and hard to find tracks, but unlike it's predecessor attention is focused on jangly guitar pop, largely leaving aside more experimental and punky bands, and lending the compilation a more flowing feel. After opening strongly with the Cherry Orchard's infectious Everybody Knows the high standard of quality pop is kept up throughout, with excellent tracks by The Secret Goldfish, From Bubblegum to Sky, and a slice of quirky pop brilliance from Ray Wonder, but with forty tracks on the compilation there are just too many highlights to list them all here. If you don't already have a copy of this compilation then order one today!