Hey Hey Let's Go Stolen

Neil Jones on Pete and the Pirates, Tap Tap, Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts and the Stolen Recordings obsession

I hadn’t had chance to really sit down to the second Stolen Recordings compilation until the New Year break, but I’m kind of glad I hadn’t, because it is something you need to embrace like an old Peel broadcast. Not for relaxation purposes of course but for unadulterated modern indie thrills. Of course there’s something about a collection of songs gathered on nothing but passion, something traditionally noble, and in my insular little dream-world it's people like the guys at Stolen that preside over the nation's airwaves.

Of course we all relate to one-another's personal passions and obsessions, it's how the underground moves best, and Stolen right now is one of the feistiest obsession/passion-driven things there is. The label have a higher end of literary Pop thrills that could even be seen as having popular (in the conventional sense of the word) potential. It comprises of burgeoning acts like the utterly fantastic Pete and the Pirates, a Reading band who's debut LP has been produced by succesful Killers producer Gareth Parton in order to give it that playlist kind of sheen.

The LP (to be released in mid-February) still sounds fantastic for all the higher end production (more about that in future articles), and the Pirates' track here, ‘Knots’, goes tumbling downhill with the band’s typical lyrical splendour, bleeding modern emotion and whipping an adrenalin rush that’ll lift you in the air. Tap Tap (who feature the Pirates' Tom Sanders) already have a debut LP behind them of similar melodic inspiration, and their ‘If You Can Dance’ here is a subtle little thing too, coming out of a poignant sentiment and slowly lifting to the stars on the back of leaping guitars and singer Sanders’ pleasingly high-pitched vocals. ‘If You Can Dance’ is a slow-burner with a heart of gold, and like the other stuff on their eponymous set, hits the mark in screaming style.

Up there with The Pirates and Tap Tap at Stolen's higher end are The Hot Silk Pockets' and Matthew Sawyer and theGhosts. Hot Silk Pockets are a whirling-dervish kind of a beast fronted by a lady singer who I can easily picture standing at the mic, transfixing like prime Debbie Harry, and their ‘Panda Eyes’, from sounding so much like the brilliant Love is All when I first heard it, now sounds so much more personalised, an intense and dulcet blast that made my hairs stand on end while walking through town yesterday.

Like Tap Tap, Sawyer and the Ghosts already have a debut LP out on Stolen, and listening to their ‘Heartbreaker’ here, I'm thinking I should go back to it more often. There’s a backing vocal on ‘Heartbreaker’ that flows with all the indiepop glamour in the world, Sawyer drenching it further with his honest to god bleeding voice and vivid lyrical imagery. It’s, well, sexy as hell, a shimmering indie gem that should by rights render the mainstream obsolete.

Like on the first Stolen compilation, there’s a pleasing, multiple intrigue here. It’d surprise me if Artefacts for Space weren’t partly flamed by anyone from Sawyer and the Ghosts, but memory seems to tell me that they are more of the Pete and the Pirates lineage. The Ghosts reference comes up because Artefacts for Space Travel have a similar knack for making bleak soundscapes shimmer with shards of light. Pete and the Pirates were the focus of BBC6 Music News last week, and the feature in passing heavy-handedly dismissed Artefacts of Space Travel for having no popular potential. Interpret that as you might, but I’d say if we could turn the world upside-down then they’d be sitting right where they belong, pissing on Razorlight from a great height.

I wouldn’t know first hand, but, going down into the second level of the label’s obsession, I'm told that Serafina are making waves in London with an enchanting, harp-informed live performance, and ‘Uncomfortable’, which I included on a mix here recently, flies off into a beguiling realm of subtle strings, shallow beats and handclaps that drag you in with an enigmatic charm. I've also shouted about Screaming Tea Party before, and listening to their 'Between Air and Air' track again re-inforces my belief that they’re the most sumptuous-sounding and elegantly evocative music-makers about at the moment, wonder and outsider romance seeping from every pore like you won’t believe.

Oxen of the Sun, a dual music-maker and animation artist, had an ace, surreal track on the last Stolen compilation, and he seems in great form here too, plonking at a piano and messing with abstract electronic flourishes like Bugs Bunny on acid, his track, called ‘The Shoes of Monsieur Bourdin’, moving across the head like a page from the Beano, colourful and playful. Shimmy Rivers and and Canal were possibly the only thing more eccentric than Oxen on the last compilation, and their new compilation track ‘Hadrian’s Wall’ is another blast from a similar land where cartoon meets punk, guitar lines flying from underdogs like cheap shots from Jerry to Tom. Shimmy Rivers and and Canal are The Fall as conceived by Chuck Jones.

There’s a blinder of a track here by a band called Blanket, a minimalist trio from Brighton. ‘Vroom Vroom Bang Bang Bang’ is a song of eerie, mournful lo-fi shanty-grace that plays about the head in such a beguiling manner, subtle, esoteric wind sounds singing in the back like angels while singer Vicky Steer comes on like an organic Bjork. The Temporary Shelters’ ‘Tearaway’ is an anti-ballad with a similarly intricate air of romance, the gentle lyricism of singer Simon Break just perfect as the music falls in around around him.

Twee is embraced on the compilation by Freak Paeans, their ‘Ski Kichigai-O’ a filmic drift of lullaby loveliness, while ‘Dark Blue Sea’ by Pet Politics has a little of the beguiled, spooky Nick Caves about it, a twinkling country/folk song of broad lyrical grace and beautiful orchestration. The Factory Owners meanwhile, in 'Work Cheap', make a lo-fi indie sound of skilfully barbed proportions which sounds a bit like Shimmy Rivers and and Canal would if they were working from earth.

Another more “mature”-sounding track on the compilation comes from Candy, a dusty and beautiful female vocal evoking a PJ Harvey, less a little the rock ‘n’ roll edge. The Lorettas contribute a gently lilting accordion piece with ‘Jonah’, while another instrumental track from Ship on Fire is a wondrous little thing, like an isolated music warehouse

coming to life at night in dreamy splendour. Ghost Club’s ‘Suicide Train’ is a sultry slice of controlled, lo-fi rock shimmer, and Dylan Levine’s ‘Slow Motion’ retreats further into dirty rock ‘n’ roll scuzziness without quite becoming Queens of the Stone Age.

Maybe, just maybe, leaving the best till last, a fantastic track comes from Jesus Licks, who’s lady singer’s voice in ‘Marry me’ has an unadorned kind of wonder that’s just so affecting as it winds smilingly through the lilting guitars and humble recorder parps. It’s things like this compilation that re-instate one’s truest passions for genuine indie. Stolen is a quiet little industry of pure inspiration.

© 2008 Neil Jones

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