EIOH single details - FINALLY

After cries and whispers of a new Electricity In Our Homes single, here it is: 'Silver Medal In Gymnastics' / 'Motorbike' will be released by 4AD as AD2828 on 16th February, and is available for preorder from Rough Trade, HMV, and the label. Only 500 7" copies are available, so grab one while they last.

Ulterior - album preparation & new demos.

As a taster of their debut album, currently being demoed with producer Zlaya Hadzich, Ulterior have uploaded two new tracks to their MySpace - and there's some evidence of a changing sound. The first, 'Sister Speed', is an all-out stadium rock number, full of Primal Scream swagger and lines like 'I gave my life to rock and roll' - the Suicide synths have been cast aside and Ulterior are now engaging with full-on guitar onslaught. 'Weapons' is a new version of their debut single, and the buzzing electronics are still there, but the whole thing's taken on a more powerful tone - a new drum pattern and some nice synth innovatins make it less of an underground dance track and more the kind of song that wants to take over the world and eat your children. More tracks are promised in the next few weeks, so keep your ears plugged in for more from Ulterior.

REVIEW. Hatcham Social, 8.1.09

The first London outing for Hatcham Social since October 2008 saw the indie pop trio take to the underground stage of the Borderline, off the Charing Cross Road, to perform their forthcoming album You Dig The Tunnel, I’ll Hide The Soil as part of the Fierce Panda ‘Pandamonium’ series. Proceedings began with some formidable support slots from Sunderbans – scuffling uplifting indie, vigorously delivered – and KASMs – showcasing some new material, updating the old, and finishing with a hauntingly subdued bass and vocal coda – but for the waiting crowd, a dose of Hatcham’s unique style was what was necessary, and what was duly delivered.

With an extra pair of hands by the name of Jerome Watson assisting on keyboards and guitar (but not at the same time), the band played their first chord fifteen minutes late and then immersed us totally in their world for just over half an hour. I don’t know if the whole album did get played, but if what was heard is what’s released, it’s certainly, to understate it, an achievement. Veering track by track from dreamily melodic to purposeful and aggressive, and reaching everywhere in between on the way, the melancholy keyboards offset Toby Kidd’s spiky guitar to bring in a hint of shoegazing texture, and Dave Fineberg keeps the whole thing grounded in post-punk roots with a series of intricate but solid bass parts.

No tracks are introduced, but details stand out to mark the new ones: here’s a chorus of ‘I’ll hide under the pillow’; here’s a perfect marriage of New Order keys with Orange Juice vocals; here’s Toby (replete with moustache and kiss-curl) muttering ‘tick tock’ to introduce a return to a sharper sound. Last year’s single ‘So So Happy Making’ gets thrown into the mixture mid-set. If it’s an albatross – there’s a certain sense that Hatcham would rather be playing newer material, and Toby abandons the microphone halfway through the second chorus – it’s a golden one, which any band would kill to have hanging around their necks: the chord changes, the harmonies, and the instrumentation (listen to the keys chime around the guitar!) are still sheer pop genius, and the title is as relevant as ever.

As if to prove that the band have got more, though, Finn Kidd launches into a breakneck rhythm as soon as the last chords have died, and a shredding guitar weaves in and out of a breathless ‘what’s mine is mine’ chorus – a confrontational follow-up to the obligatory hit single. The set takes a turn for the darker from there on in: ‘Jabberwocky’ broods and threatens, and Lewis Carroll’s nonsense rhymes and a maniacal laugh get wrapped rhythmically around the instrumental to make the recitation more nightmare than dream. ‘In My Opinion’ adopts a similar intensity, with Toby Kidd staring menacingly across the audience while Dave Fineberg wrestles the bassline into submission, and, at the conclusion of ‘Give Me The Gift’ - already a standout track with its intimately epic builds and peaks – there’s a muttered thanks and the indie pop crusaders disappear, leaving the audience bewitched, bothered, and bewildered, but certainly not begrudging the entrance fee – a paltry six pounds for the first truly great concert of the year.

* * *

You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil is out on 9th March on Fierce Panda.

Hatcham gig on Thursday: album to be performed in full.

Hatcham Social are playing London's Borderline this Thursday (8th), and have promised to perform their forthcoming LP You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil (out on 9th March or thereabouts) in full. It's Hatcham's first London gig since October, support is from KASMs and Sunderbans, and the age limit is 14+, so it's a must go for younger fans as well. Tickets are available here.

Happy New Year to everyone who read TNT in 2008, and wishing you a prosperous 2009.

Top releases, 2008:

For those who haven't yet been able to get hold of a hard copy of the fourth fanzine, here's the list of The New Thing's Top 20 releases of 2008. Singles, EPs, and albums are all counted together in this Festive Twenty to create a definitive picture of the year's highlights. Or so we think.

1. Factory Floor - Bipolar (S)


2. KASMs - Taxidermy (S)


3. Electricity In Our Homes - We Thought It Was But It Wasn't (S)


4. Ulterior - 15 (EP)


5. Hatcham Social - So So Happy Making (S)


6. These New Puritans - Beat Pyramid (LP)
7. Ipso Facto - Six and Three Quarters (S)
8. These New Puritans - Elvis (S)
9. An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - These Sins (EP)
10. Factory Floor - Planning Application (EP)
11. S.C.U.M - Visions Arise (S)
12. 1000 Robota - Hamburg Brennt (EP)
13. Neils Children - I'm Ill (S)
14. The Ruling Class - Flowers (S)
15. The Horrors / Suicide / Nik Void - Shadazz (EP)
16. ddd - ddd (EP)
17. O Children / S.C.U.M - Ace Breasts / Smile (EP)
18. Project:Komakino - Project:Komakino (EP)
19. Plug - Fresh Pleasures (S)
20. Disconcerts - Human Figure In Motion (S)

ESG and A Certain Ratio for 1/1.

One Of One, the record label and promotion franchise run by Electricity In Our Home's Bonnie Carr, has announced details of their second London event. ON02 will bring ESG, the pioneering New York punk-funk group whose liquid basslines have backed not only their own songs but innumberable samplers' too, to the Barbican Centre. Support will come from none other than A Certain Ratio, Manchester post-punk icons, who played several shows with ESG in the early 1980s. It's all scheduled for March 3rd 2009, and tickets and information are available from the Barbican website.

KASMs album & new single.

KASMs have finished recording their debut album at Abbey Road studios, and are to release it some time in the next few months (although as yet it has no name and no artwork). Before that, though, comes their next single, 'Bone You'. It can be heard on their MySpace page and brings an ultra-distorted industrial edge to their sound, while preserving the band's gift for combining melody and structure with bone-crunching vicious noise.