SINGLE: :KINEMA: CIRCLES (myspace.com/kinemamusic)
:kinema: have been SOURCE faves for a while – it’s just a question of us waiting patiently now for the rest of you to catch up. We like a lot of the extremities local music has to offer, so once in a while it’s nice to get hold of something just totally easy on the ear – and :kinema: fit this bill like an expensive Hall & Oates linen suit. Daryl and John would actually be proud of the update this soft-synth makeover gives their vocal template – honey-sweet and softly effete, a combination that lands them pleasingly outside the current electro vogue. (NC)

DEMO: KING JAMES (myspace.com/kingjameshymnal) The newest addition to the ever brilliant Woodland Recordings family, King James is dusty new hymnal folk collaboration between the Diamond Family Archive and Thirty Pounds of Bone. Recorded and rehearsed underneath a medieval castle in deepest Devon their songs combine influences of folk, gospel and elements of Hank Williams in a strangely uplifting fashion, telling stories of the weak, shamed and the downtrodden. Banjos pick, harmoniums and organs drone mournfully and many voices combine in harmony – its safe to say no-one else is making music quite like this at the moment. (IC)

EP: THE SARAH MICHELLES Smut (myspace.com/thesarahmichelles)
When an EP arrives in a pink fluffy fabric bag it certainly stands out from the rest of the scribbled CDRs, but we’re not so shallow as to be suckered in by packaging alone. Fortunately, from the get go The Sarah Michelles live up to their own promise – tight, catchy and wry guitar pop that grins from ear to ear from start to finish. It’s not often that bands pull off that timeless new wave sound that could come from any era since Blondie and the Boomtown Rats roamed the land, but here it’s pulled off perfectly. We really liked this, looking forward to more. (NC)