Band spotlight: RELICS

One of my great disappointments on my recent trip to England was that I missed the opportunity to see one of my favourite new bands, Relics. An uncompromising art noise sound with roots in shoegazing, tempered with industrial styled echoes, makes their live show an exciting prospect. Though we've had very few artifacts to prove their worth, their early demos have been exciting and memorable, with a diversity beyond expectations: from the heart-melting daze of newest song 'What To Feel', to the Factory drone of 'Close Your Eyes', they are definitely a band with more good ideas than they know what to do with, and style to match their unique sound. However, much as I am enamoured of their dark fashion, it must be said that like any good art band, Relics are best experienced if you follow the instructions on their MySpace... 'close. your. eyes'.

- Alyssa Thralls, alyssapandaeyes.blogspot.com

Relics MySpace

Ipso Facto to split

Finally it's official: Ipso Facto are to break up. Since everyone involved except lead singer Rosalie Cunningham has already moved on, she has started a new project: it's called Ketu, and it's progressive rock-influenced, which sounds like something we'd like to hear. Sadly, it looks as though Ipso Facto's debut album, and the already-recorded single 'Queen Sophia the Last', will never see the light of day. Their final performance will be in November, possibly as a collaboration with Artrocker magazine - watch this space for more details.

Ipso Facto moonlighting casts doubt on 'hibernation period'

Here's an interesting trend from the last couple of weeks: members of Ipso Facto (present and past) getting involved with projects outside the band. Former keyboardist Cherish Kaya, who left acrimoniously earlier this year, has collaborated with Faris Badwan of The Horrors under the name of Lumina to cover the Black Lips song 'I'll Be With You' - the haunting results can be downloaded free from Pitchfork. Meanwhile Victoria Smith, the Ipso Facto drummer, has joined forces with An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump's D-Bird under the name of Blue on Blue, after a Bobby Vinton song; they're also due to be produced by Jerome Watson of Hatcham Social.

Add Samantha Valentine's current spell as R O M A N C E bassist, and the future of Ipso Facto outside the person of guitarist and singer Rosalie Cunningham begins to look doubtful. The official line is that the band are in a 'hibernation period' to record and release an album before the end of the year, and recent successful live appearances as well as a scheduled slot at Offset Festival next month are positive signs, but when two out of the three members are sowing their creative wild oats outside the band you have to wonder what's going on... As ever, watch this space.

R O M A N C E News

Stirrings from London's angst-ridden up-and-comers R O M A N C E: a new bassist, an upcoming single, and a Japanese release. First: the departed Joseph Eakins has been replaced on bass by none other than Ipso Facto's Samantha Valentine, who is to continue playing with her other band as well for the foreseeable future (including an appearance at Offset Festival and a forthcoming album). Second: R O M A N C E are to release the mini-album Arikara in Japan on 26th August, and are also due to make an appearance in Japanese Vogue magazine in the near future.

Third, and maybe most exciting: R O M A N C E's limited debut 7" single Another Place is set for release on DiscError Recordings in October or November, with 'The Art of Losing' as b-side and special artwork; it's been recorded with Finn Vine of White Rose Movement and producer Robert Harder. All appearances point to great things for R O M A N C E; keep an eye out.

electricity in our homes : WE AGREE COMPLETELY

ELECTRICITY IN OUR HOMES
WE AGREE COMPLETELY
(PARLOUR RECORDS)

Electricity In Our Homes continue to push their idiosyncratic noise onwards. Moving away from the scratchy Fire Engineisms of their first singles, their sound has evolved into a more complex series of minimal rhythmic layers and artful repetition, sounding a little like the Desperate Bicycles covering Can. The spiky three-way vocals grant them a further remove from any other band around today. As an extended release, though, We Agree Completely doesn't go far to prove EIOH's credentials as anything more than a singles band. While the two best tracks, Hooves and Don't You Want To? (Follow) would make a fantastic seven-inch on their own, the other four tracks are rather more throwaway: Scenes from the Life of a Double Mattress and Goodbye feel like undeveloped sketches, Message of Joy is utterly unmemorable, and the ironically-titled Are They Wearing Thin? is an unlistenable failed remix experiment (so yes, they are). Over the course of an album some of these cuts could probably make the grade, but since this is EIOH's first progression beyond the single format it would be nice if it had a few more songs to bear it up. It's not a complete failure, but it does suggest that this is a band best suited to serving up bite-size listening rather than a full meal. Although we'd love to be proved wrong next time around.

We Agree Completely is released on 27th July, and is limited to 500 12" copies, now available for preorder. Electricity In Our Homes perform live at Rough Trade East on the 25th to mark the release.

TNT007: a brand new broadcast.

Now available: The New Thing broadcast, volume 7. We present our bespoke one-hour soundtrack to a hazy psychedelic summer, featuring Hatcham Social, Ipso Facto, Slowdive, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Neu!, Spacemen 3, and July, plus a further nine artists from today, yesterday, and tomorrow. Direct yourself here to listen or get it as a free audio file here, and thank you for listening.

N/C -1

Shocking news: just over a month after Neils Children finally released their debut album X.Enc., bass player Keith Seymour has decided to leave the band. Seymour, who previously played for post-rock group Hope of the States, replaced former Neils Children bassist James Hair in 2005; his departure has forced the group to postpone their forthcoming shows at Dice Club and Southend's Railway Hotel, and the remaining members will be searching for a replacement as well as recording new material in the near future. Best of luck to them.