Webcuts Music

What to say about Sheffield’s Best Friends… The name of the band is self-explanatory. The a-side of their debut single “Surf Bitches” could either be about the kinds of girls they like or things they like to do, but with a comma missing between “Surf” and “Bitches”. You know, like a shopping list. Maybe they just wanna blitzkrieg bop their way all over the Beach Boys playbook? We all know Brian Wilson and the boys loved their surf and bitches, right? Get the dirt on the band, or maybe just nod along to their q+a in-jokes while watching the cool animated clip to “Surf Bitches”, out now on 7″ single as part of the Too Pure Singles Club.

The Too Pure Singles Club returns in 2012 with a bang (or is that a rattle) with the sound of Icelandic mantra magicians Dead Skeletons. For the uninitiated, Dead Skeletons came into existence in 2008 when band member Jon Saamunder needed music for an art installation in the Reykjavik Art Museum. Enlisting the help of friends Henrik Bjornsson and Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt the trio penned the songs which would eventually become the Dead Magick album, a 72 minute, 12 song journey through space and time, life and death. “Om Mani Peme Hung” is the sound of Neu! on a meditation retreat offering up a spiritual hypno-chant. Now repeat after me… Om Mani Peme Hung, Om Mani Peme Hung, Om Mani Peme Hung… (subscribe to the Too Pure Singles Club here).

You have to question the motives behind a band who put a picture of two gurning band members on the front cover of their debut 7″, or when asking the record company for a promo photo being offered ‘the one where they’re all dressed up in drag’, or ‘the one where they’re chewing grass’ (we passed on both). Sheffield’s Seize The Chair have the air of a band who clearly and delightfully just don’t give a fuck. In fact they probably just want to make music and have a laugh. Which, if you’ve seen that record sleeve, you’ll be laughing too.

For the last three years the Too Pure Singles Club has been releasing monthly 7″ singles to subscribers featuring a selection of rising UK and international alternative acts, many of whom are unknown outside their own country (their own town even). The appeal of a singles club is more than just a piece of vinyl every month by a band you’re unlikely to have ever heard of. Actually, that is the appeal. Hit or miss as they can be, you never know which one of these limited run singles will turn out to be your next favourite band.

The best way to make a record company uncomfortable? — choose a highly litiguous band name and then sit back and watch them sweat. Once upon a time there was a Leicester-based three-piece called Dysneyland who existed for a few months and released one independent single “Walking Wounded” before seeing the error of their short-sighted ways, or perhaps the pointed finger of ‘The Man’ who said “no change-y, no release-y” and thus Sisterland was born. With their debut single “Tomorrow” released this week as part of the Too Pure Singles Club, we play the getting-to-know-you game with Sisterland.

The best way to sell anything to Webcuts is to package it with a suggestive, yet tasteful video clip that involves eating ice-cream and writhing around in bed in a wife-beater. It’s a no-brainer for us no-brainers. So welcome aboard NY-based sugar-junkie Hesta Prynn (aka Julie Potash) with the release of her latest single “Turn It Gold”. Prynn got her start with all-girl hip-hop act Northern State in 2002 before going solo in 2010, releasing a succession of smart indie/dance vinyl singles. Visual manipulations aside, there’s no ignoring the addictive lose-your-inhibitions party jam of “Turn It Gold” . It’s the kind of music that would sound great going toe-to-toe with our other fave master-mixtress MNDR. What’s more, it just another slice of 7” magic from the taste-makers at the Too Pure Singles Club. Subscribe here. If you‘re feeling Hesta‘s vibrations, come join Webcuts as we get our freak on at the “Turn It Gold” single launch at the Old Blue Last this coming Thursday 10th February.

Masters In France are one of several new bands, including the much lauded We//Are//Animal, currently spearheading a North Wales invasion. Fear not, we use the term ‘invasion’ loosely. You don’t have to worry about the charts being filled with Welsh-sung songs just yet (…or do you?). Helmed by Ed Jones and Owain Ginsberg (now that name’s familiar…) Masters In France trick out their schizoid dance/rock sound with taut beats and snaking guitar riffs, coming across like passive-aggressive pied pipers on the prowl. “Lyrically inspired by nights out in Caernarfon and finding influence in the banality of small town life” “Mad Hatter” is more likely code for their dealer or the name of their local boozer. Whatever it is, be sure to look for clues in the video clip. It’s well fuckin’ out there… “Mad Hatter” is released this week on Too Pure as the first release of their 2011 singles club. You can pick up the single through Rough Trade or order it online here.

For a band who’ve been around (in this incarnation at least) since December 2008, it would be more apt to call this Leeds-based 8-piece collective Milk White White Baby Teeth but Milk White White Teeth it is. “Ingrid Won’t Smile” is their debut 7″ release, once again cherry-picked for greatness by the taste-makers at the Too Pure Singles Club. The allure of “Ingrid…” lies in that snug calypso swing. The swirl of brass and keys, the soaring vocals, the vibrant percussive rattle… the fact it has a girl’s name in the title — all perfect pop song ingredients. Similar in style to Arcade Fire’s “Haiti”, “Ingrid…” has more of a grounding in classic 80′s British pop like Orange Juice and Haircut 100, but maybe that’s just me… Unfortunately, there’s no official clip as such for the track as yet, this Radio 1 session version will have to do. For more information, head over to http://milkwhitewhiteteeth.tumblr.com/

Something wicked this way comes, and you can find it on the latest release from the nigh-essential Too Pure Singles Club in the form of this sinister sounding track from North Wale’s We Are Animal. “1268″ is both rhymically engaging and musically daunting, giving images to that tree-bending moment from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, where this dark, hypnotising mantra would find a perfect home. Seriously, there’s something about “1268″ that actually scares the shit out of me and this equally sinister clip set in the Welsh countryside cements it. Scant details are known about this five piece, but since forming in December 2009 (officially the worst month this century, fyi), We Are Animal have quickly set up a prolific work ethic and a penchance for atmospheric recording locales reflected in their music — “recording their songs on the day they are written, on a 8 track studio in various locations such as old quarries and abandoned buildings dotted around their native Welsh country side”. Who could’ve known Wales retained such a brooding undercurrent in atmosphere? “1268″ is released on June 7 and can be found in select UK independent record stores. We Are Animal’s debut album Idolise is out now through Itunes and you can find out more about them here — http://www.myspace.com/weareanimal.