Another quick round-up of the best new music from the past month or so, whether regular readers of this blog actually pay any attention or not. Yes, it's you I'm talking to. "New music" isn't a dirty phrase, you filthy beast.
And the London based Venice Trip are probably a fine example of a band who might actually appeal to typical "Left and to the Back" readers, sucking keenly on the teat of vintage psychedelic pop. The latest single "Look Forward" is a wonderful piece of summer psychedelia, shimmering, echoing, chiming and soaring whilst somehow dodging the usual trappings and not copping riffs from elsewhere. Tripping along on child-like optimism and zeal and aided massively by a rattlingly confident rhythm section, this is easily the best new single this month from beginning to sudden end. That it dodges the trap of ironically replicating past musical styles and instead finds new ways to play with them is an admirable thing indeed.
While it's been three years since The School's last album, Cardiff's finest indie-poppers haven't exactly spoiled us with material since then. "Do I Love You?" takes its cues from Frank Wilson's Northern Soul classic "Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)" creating a serious problem for themselves in the process - how do you measure up to something widely regarded to be among the greatest records ever made? And can the lightning be captured twice?
The simple answer is no, but that doesn't stop "Do I Love You?" from being a perfectly joyous pop song in its own right on the second or third play, once the impulse to compare the two tracks has died down. It is, of course, a frothy and buoyant piece of indiepop pulling from Northern Soul influences in a manner unheard since Spearmint borrowed the keyboard line from Dobie Gray's "Out On The Floor". Like that particular single, it makes a peculiar sort of sense, taking both sweetness and strength from the finest soul records.
Both these singles are out right now and available from all good digital music outlets.
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