Angel 021 Various Artists - Just A Minute

19 tracks on a 7" Mini-Album
Ltd 7" available now from the FLA shop

Side A:
The Jesus' - Jimmy Tractor
The Video Club - Teen Sex Pirate Radio
The Star Fighter Pilot - Stalk Tonight
Micropenis - All I Need
Listen Lisse - Slow It Down
The New Royal Family vs. Alexander's Festival Hall feat. Eddie Argos - I.W.I.S.H.I.W.A.S.Gay
Hyperbubble - Party On Jupiter
Scunner - Alchemy In Reverse
Akira - The Nuclear Option

Side B:
Billy Ruffian - The Windsor Uplift
Shock And Awe - Nothing
Captain Polaroid - Page After Page
Town Bike - Cock Muff Bumhole
Rocket Uppercut - Good Times
FromMars - Sand
Kissing Kalina - Tunnel Of Love
The Affection - Tell Me Again
Hot Beds - Balcony
Geese - I Love You


MANIC POP THRILLS REVIEW
One hazard of blogging is that you start to get approaches to promote bands. Now in a different life, that may well have been exciting, but in this one it’s a potentially time consuming business. If it feels like a corporate been-copied-to-the-whole-world approach, I tend to ignore it. I mean I recently was approached by someone on behalf of Seether whose hits on their Myspace songs are measured in millions so what can this humble little blog bring to the party?
However if it feels more personal I’ll try and give it a whirl but so far I haven’t found anything I like enough tand have had the time to bring to your attention. Which is crucial – by and large I write about things that I like on here and I’m really only likely to slag something off if I’ve paid for it. (Yes, Black Mountain, I’m looking at you.)
Which is a long winded introduction to a record which was drawn to my attention by someone who did me a favour last month. Which understandably made me a little nervous.
The album is on Filthy Little Angels. And, the concept, if not unprecedented, is excellent – a 7” album comprising songs of no more than a minute long. My big worry was just how good could a collection of such short songs really be? In theory such an album should almost be an exemplar of the blog’s title, but neither MPT nor my music collection are littered with songs under even 90 seconds in length.
But I’m absolutely staggered by the variety packed onto this little 7” even if understandably the tempo remains high throughout. Don’t go looking for any sensitive ballads. And never mind variety, a lot of the material is actually good.
The album is impressive right from the start. ‘Jimmy Tractor’ by The Jesus’ opens the record in menacing mood yet 60 seconds later we’re still no clearer as to who the fuck Jimmy Tractor really is. Thereafter there are plenty of nods to new wave pop and plenty of references to sex. One song does exceed the 60 seconds threshold but as a counter balance Shock and Awe display the best line in brutal efficiency with their contribution clocking in at just 33 seconds. The best thing I can say about this record is that with only 60 seconds to make an impact the vast majority of songs on here manage that with some style.
I’ve been up front with my disclaimer on this one – believe me this is well worth checking out.

The LP came out the other week but another compilation featuring many of the same bands is due out later this month. The LP’s title ‘Nineteen78’ gives away the fact that this a tribute LP to that year and a large number of classics from that year are given a good seeing to.
There are however one or two deviations from what might be termed the norm including ‘Rasputin’ and ‘Three Times A lady’.

INDIE MP3 REVIEW
19 songs, all around a minute long, on one 7”. How ace is that? There’s a lot of good stuff here, of which follows some of the best. The Jesus’ Jimmy Tractor is I, Ludicrous fed through the Jesus and Mary Chain mincer. The Video Club’s Teen Sex Pirate Radio is a bleeping frenzied fumble in the pub car park, The Star Fighter Pilot’s Stalk Tonight is the sound of Japanese robotics and Micropenis give us All I Need, a lo-fi Bis for your delectation. Combine The New Royal Family with Alexander’s Festival Hall and Eddie Argos and you get a cross between Chic and The Village People in the form of I Wish I Was Gay while Party On Jupiter by Hyperbubble is somewhere between space pop and Plastic Bertrand. Onto Side 2 and you get Billy Ruffian, whose The Windsor Uplift is The Fall do surf pop and Page After Page by Captain Polaroid, its less well formed relation. The 33 seconds of Town Bike’s Cock Muff Bumhole is the undoubted highlight, outdoing Helen Love in a spurt of surf sixties pop and a tirade of potty mouth lyrics. The final notable track is by Rocket Uppercut, who sound like a baby Ash from the good old days. Novel ideas like this don’t always work, but this one does thanks to some wise band selection.