Tony Naylor 

Drvg Cvltvre’s American Psychosis: Part One – this week’s best new track

'This half-speed monster turns acid's cute, tweaking 303s into a force of brutal, transcendent techno malevolence'
  
  


Drvg Cvltvre
American Psychosis: Part One (Shipwrec)


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Like early rock'n'roll or northern soul, age cannot wither acid house. Its bleeps and blurts always sound instantly exciting, particularly those of Dutch producer Vincent Koreman. On the lead track of this 12-inch, Acid Flash (a collaboration with Bournemouth's Chris Moss Acid), there is no smiley nostalgia, no hint of serotonin-soaked Bez-ing out down the Haçienda. Instead, this half-speed monster turns acid's cute, tweaking 303s into a force of brutal, transcendent techno malevolence. The next track, I'll Wear Your Face On A Chain, offers killer fashion tips, too.

Elyar Fox
A Billion Girls (RCA)


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If you don't know who 18-year-old Elyar Fox is – and if you're not still in primary school, why would you? – he's an animated pencil gonk who makes Busted sound like Black Flag. In the vid for A Billion Girls, Fox is besieged by a beach full of LA hotties, but – isn't he sweet? – pledges his heart to his true love. Like a Lynx advert, only less believable.

Kelis
Rumble (Ninja Tune)


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She once made extraordinary music, but does that mean Kelis gets a critical pass forever? Her previous foray into Euro-dance was interesting for an R&B diva but, in objective terms, pish. As for Rumble and its soul-revue shtick, I have two words for you: Paloma Faith. But it's produced by TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek, you say? So what. He also produced Beady Eye and is, surely, only here because Mark Ronson was too busy polishing his golden trumpet on a giant bed of $100 bills.

Gary Barlow
Since I Saw You Last (Polydor)


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On which laconic Tory song wazzock Gary Barlow wails that "They took my voice/Erased my past". If only that were true, Gary, or possible. Without years of therapy. The video, of course, looks like an advert for a new Gary Barlow At Debenhams suit range ("Designer style at everyman prices").

Factory Floor
How You Say (DFA)


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A rollicking tangle of loose electrics and clonking cowbell, but, for once, after Drvg Cvltvre, London trio's Factory Floor's abrasive art-disko ain't the hardest noise on the page. Of the remixes, Daniel Avery's is trancey, widescreen and so blissed-out it's rather boring, whereas much-tipped Hamburg DJ Helena Hauff captures the original's stroppy spirit with her Hacker-esque, no-wave synth sprint.

Tirzah
No Romance (Greco-Roman)


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No Romance is seriously lovely. The work of new young soul singer Tirzah and no-fi pop genius Mica Levi, here on production duties, it's a defiantly unglamorous slice of wonky, elasticated R&B that sounds less like it's sipping Cristal in da club and more like it's rushing about in yesterday's pants, late for work, while coppering up for the bus fare. Which feels real, to me.

 

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