The Singles Jukebox

Next year, don’t come…

[Video][Website]
[5.43]

Anthony Easton: Sexy bears create highly structured noise, that expands what the pop instrumental could and does mean — this track is worth at least half of the CanCon funding they had to give back.
[7]

John Seroff: I’d like to like Holy Fuck more than I do; they certainly seem resolutely anti-conformist and cranky enough, which works for me. I’ve also always been a sucker for lather/rinse/repeat electronic (or pseudo-eclectictronic or whatever this is being called) and the layeringlayeringlayering on of the beats and “samples” is pretty well handled. Maybe it’s the nutty crunch of granola that’s putting me off, the toe over the ever-so faint dividing line between IDM and drum circle. More likely it’s that no matter how hard Holy Fuck pitch coal, this whole ramshackle beast never quite gets off the ground. The line on the similarly named and themed Fuck Buttons was that their songs sounded like “exploding angel vaginas”. “Latin America” is closer to a squeaky, cherubic fart; definitely the right direction but needs more gas.
[6]

Michaelangelo Matos: A mildly funky percussion jam that the Chemical Brothers would have tricked out a lot more turns into a shifting-drone showcase. I guess the drones are really keyboard riffs, but they don’t have much movement to them.
[5]

Martin Skidmore: There are moments when they seem to be heading towards hypnotic impetus, but mostly it strikes me as far too shambolic to get anywhere exciting.
[3]

Katherine St Asaph: The band name and this song’s Chatroulette premiere suggest I should hate this, but thankfully, the song itself isn’t a gimmick. It’s twitchy and ominous, a soundtrack for stop-motion chase scenes. No idea where Latin America comes in, though.
[6]

Pete Baran: Why is this track named “Latin America”? I understand that when you are in the business of cranking out instrumentals the names don’t really matter, but here the name is just bugging me. The holy grail of live dance music was cracked twenty years ago (by the Stereo MCs) and this is a fun workout which I imagine goes on for about two hours in jam form live and still nothing Latin American happens. If each download came with a side order of pinto beans, then maybe; else I’ll take its sloppy knockabout fun and humourlessly bop around the room to the first three minutes.
[5]

Frank Kogan: I’m new to these guys; they sound like an electronica jam band, adding rock kick and emphasis to their grooves but not maintaining as much repetition and tension as an electronica nonjam band is likely to. Older stuff on their MySpace has more headbang potential. Nice twilight-in-the-junkyard feel during the winddown, but I’m docking this a point for being too friendly.
[6]