NME Radar Tour @ The Wedgewood Rooms 04/10/2011

The NME Radar Tour always throws up a mixed bag of musical delights; like a tin of Quality Street you're never quite sure if you're going to get the Noisette Triangle or the Peanut Cracknell. The bands on this, the Autumn leg of the tour, are not unknown quantities however, I'd made sure I downloaded the tour EP from the venerable music mag's website beforehand. Nice.

Sweden's Niki & the Dove are first up; lead singer Malin Dahlström appears to have raided Cyndi Lauper's wardrobe whilst keyboardist Gustaf Karlöf has come straight from the set of Miami Vice. These are good things; I liked Cyndi Lauper, I liked Miami Vice and, is it transpires, I really love Niki & The Dove. I could be objective and witter on about where the elements of their music have been lifted from, or make comparisons to other fine acts from Scandinavian parts *koff*The Knife*koff* but, honestly, where's the fun in that? Suffice to say that I thought their performance was excellent, powerful, gripping and delicate. So, after this wonderful start, what follows?

Next to tread the boards are S.C.U.M, a London-based five piece who [reads notes] take their name from Valerie Solanas' SCUM Manifesto. They're a hairy combination of pretentions and driving beats and, whilst I like the sound the band produce, I must confess I find it lacking when compared to The Horrors' current and similarly 80s flavoured tunes. Ultimately it's the antics of the lead singer that begin to disjoint my gigging experience; within two songs of their set the lead singer has appealed to the lighting engineer for the front of stage illuminations to be turned off. This, he assures us, will make things nicer. Subsequent to this he prances around the stage, barefoot, finally sitting down out of sight of the audience. Sitting down, on the stage, right where the singer from The Computers spat copiously several weeks previously. Oh dear.

The final band of the evening are Wolf Gang. Throughout the two previous sets my attention has been slowly drawn to a large white cube, resting on a keyboard stand, at the rear of the stage. Given that it was emblazoned with a large W and a large G I surmised, correctly, that it was part of Wolf Gang's stage accoutrements. Other than the natty scarf the lead singer employs to differentiate himself from the rest of his suitably attired cohorts, this is pretty much the most interesting thing I can say about their live set. Whilst I liked what I heard previously the live experience, especially after Niki & The Dove and S.C.U.M, is to my ears bland to say the least. I recall muttering something Coldplay related under my breath (I know, I shouldn't but...) before making for the door, it looked like we got the Toffee Penny in the end after all.

NME Radar Tour line-up announced

From the high-pitched warbling of La Roux to the raucous stage antics of Crystal Castles, the NME Radar Tour always offers the experience of something different, interesting or down-right weird. Earlier this year the crowd at the Wedgewood Rooms were treated to the delights of Grouplove and the awesome Anna Calvi when the Spring leg of the tour landed in Portsmouth (unfortunately I arrived too late to experience The History of Apple Pie).

The line-up for the Autumn leg of the tour features in this week's edition of the NME; Wolf Gang headline with post-punk five-some S.C.U.M. taking the second space on the bill. The remaining slot is split between Stockholm's Niki & The Dove and Australian thrash popsters DZ Deathrays.

The peripatetic tour stumbles into Portsmouth on Tuesday 4th October with the venerable Wedgewood Rooms again hosting. After a spell away in northern climes the tour returns to the South Coast a fortnight later, pitching up at Brighton's Concorde 2 on Monday 17th October when all four bands will feature.

Tickets go on general sale this coming Friday.

Sirens soundtrack & Heartbreak

There I was, idly thumping the remote control buttons on a wasted Friday night, when I chanced upon Channel 4's new ambulance drama Sirens. The show is based on ex-ambulance EMT Brian Kellett's excellent blog and has the usual Channel 4 hallmarks of snappy editing (with things speeding up/slowing down at random), a sprinkling of sex & expletives and, of course, a cracking soundtrack.

Last night's episode featured a good chunk of the Warpaint album (no bad thing) plus tunes from Miike Snow, Local Natives and Magnetic Man amongst others. What caught my ear though was the unmistakable strains of Anglo-Argentine electro pop duo Heartbreak's Don't Lose My Time.

I first heard of Heartbreak when the NME Radar Tour stopped off at the Wedge in 2009, they were midway up the bill (with La Roux headlining) but were definitely my highlight of the evening. The twosome delivered a solid set of 80's influenced Italo-pop with an eye-popping amount of energy; so enamoured was I that I immediately bought their album from the merch desk. 

Unfortunately not much has been heard from the Heartbreak camp since, which is a shame, but a hunt through YouTube gleaned the following clips of the band in action:

 


Also tucked away on YouTube was this interview the band gave whilst they were on the NME Radar Tour:



As for Sirens, Brian Kellett has listed the tunes used in the first three episodes on his new blog (and he's knocked up a Spotify playlist for each too, which is nice).