Hits The Spot: A Teddy Bear's Picnic

We were first privvy to the talents of non-native New Yorker Alex Winston a good while back, and the following months and season changes have seen her ascent to stardom continue abound.

And it's picking up pace with the release of The Basement Covers EP; a collection of covers given the Garageband makeover by the girl herself. Jack Penate's Pull My Heart Away got a recent airing, and now we have her take on Swedish wizzes Teddy Bear's Yours To Keep, to share.

With the refrain "Drive around with the top down", the original sits firmly on the Summertime jam side-of-things. Winston's version however sounds like the soundtrack to the most idylic Autumn amble ever; stripping back the production reveals the songs soulful charm and let's it stand up straight as what it is - a simple love song... As simple as kicking through leaves on an October afternoon.

The rest of the equally-impressive Basement Covers EP is available to download from rising Over-Lords-of-the-production-scene The Knocks' Heavyroc site.

Alex Winston - Yours To Keep (YSI)

Exclusive: Worship Ginuwine Idols

Dear People,

Last week we shared Get People's mind-bending, genre-blending debut Deity alongside some suitably acidic visuals; this week we're going one better, sacrificing our own selfishness and offering it up as an em pee free for your precious ears.

It's got that whole woozy vocal thing going on, which I like to think of as the heady scent of a lemon slice that sits aside the edge of a summer juice-filled glass... With the bongo beats supplying the juice and the synths bringing the fizz. Or something.

It's really hot.

The Get Peoples are DJ'ing at various nights about London Town over the next few weeks so run come join the celebration.

Sincerely,

E N Joi.

Get People - Deity (YSI) EXCLUSIVE

Hits The Spot: Born Again

It's easy to pigeonhole bands, particularly early on in their career, and it doesn't get much earlier than the previously praised Slow Motion Shoes who arrived with the melancholic synth-pop of debut track Brendan Fraser.

Those that may have been foolish enough to think that they were a one trick synth-pony can now eat their words as their latest (and only their second fully recorded song) The Quiet American is a punchier, more guitar derived effort with an absolute killer breakdown, showing that there's a hell of a lot still to come. I can't wait.

Slow Motion Shoes - The Quiet American (YSI)

Also, keep an ear out for a mixtape from new Manchester based label Everybody's Stalking, which will feature an as yet unheard SMS track and is set for release some time in mid-July.

Exclusive: This Ain't No Inspector Clouseau

Since first writing about her way-back-when, Spark has certainly sparkled (you thought I wouldn't! But I did!), embarking on a UK tour with that other certified bobby-dazzler, Ms. Marina, and picking up well deserved praise left, right and centre: 'centre' being our arch enemies from across the watah, Neon Gold, who dropped the Monsieur Adi remix to much acclaim a week or so ago.

Now she's back with us at IT, hand-in-hand with London's Pink Ganter, and accompanied by his rather wonderful re-working of the Puregroove-released debut single Shut Out The Moon - get at it below.

And having witnessed the live show for ourselves recently, I'd say you'd do well to mosey on down to The Macbeth this Thursday, 24th to see a girl at the top of her game. (Unlike France... ZING! Apologies Mr. Adi)

Spark - Shut Out The Moon (Pink Ganter Remix) (YSI) EXCLUSIVE

Hype: These Fine Days Are Numbered

Get People - Deity

Busy week this week. Lots of little trees finally bearing fruit, 'From tiny acorns...' and all that.

We're rounding it out with a video for the rather fine, rather dandy Get People; London's very own harbingers of uniquely exquisite and excellently eclectic tropical pop, bursting on to the scene like an over-ripe Opal Fruit with Deity, a tribal treat of a track that takes influences from as wide-a-range of places as it take you to, IN YOUR MIND.

Be advised that their sprightly re-working of New Island's new single Cold is the first taste of a particularly fruity bunch of remixes waiting to be offered up to the (blo)Gods, so expect to hear more soon.

This shit actually is bananas, don't sleep daydream believers.

Hype: It Was Only A Dream

Has there been a more divisive band in recent times than The Drums? I don't know. I'm not even sure I care. Oh no, hang on...'Probably', and, 'I don't'... I do know that, while they write a mean tune, they are perhaps a little too arch for my palette, which may account for French Films tasting a little sweeter on my tongue.

What we have here is five friends hailing from the well known surf-mecca of Finland, knocking out weird electronic surf-pop with a heavingly heavy Joy Division influence, but who manage to remain on the right side of all things FUN.

We've been waiting for the finished mix of first single Golden Sea - taken from their forthcoming EP - since January, so I'm gonna stop waffling and let you get amongst it.

p.s. Look out for their track Cathedral - sounds a bit like LoTP covering the aforementioned Aussiemericans. In another word: BANGORZ.

French Films - Golden Sea (YSI)

Hype: How To Find Ourselves

So the World Cup (yeah that's right, I'm smashing this post out on a topical-tip) is now well underway, and inevitably, as thoughts turn to trophies, so too dawns the realisation that chances are - unless you're visiting these parts from Brazil, Spain or possibly Honduras - you'll end the tournament sans trophy.

Fortunately, we've got the sweetly disarming dance of Oxford's Trophy Wife to restore your faith in summer...

The trio of long-time friends are quickly (and currently secretly) amassing a collection of desirably down-tempo disco. Constructing noose-tight rhythms hung from a hundred hooks, the concept is simple: restraint. Their ethos of avoiding any unnecessary embellishment that may detract from the hook might sound bold, and it does - bold and brave and fucking sick.

It's an approach that may best be demonstrated on the wonderful Take This Night - download below yo - all at once somehow oh-so-simple yet oh-so-technical too, but it's Microlite, our personal fave, with it's lush string arrangements, that hints at just how amazing this band could be.

Trophy Wife - Take This Night (YSI)

Hype: The Bliss We've Created

It's a hot and humid sunny summer day, which means ice cold lemonade, deck chairs and... four online playas with a penchant for Tom Tom Club, Go West and "the greatest actor of our generation" Brendan Fraser - obviously.

Manchester-based Slow Motion Shoes clearly have an ironic chip on their shoulder the size of an iceberg, but in this weather that's something of a necessity.

There's only one track floating around in the ethereal plane right now; named after the star of The Mummy, Bedazzled and the frankly seminal George Of The Jungle - the aforementioned Bredan Fraser, a floaty and subtle melancholic slice of chill the fuck out. Perfect.

Slow Motion Shoes - Brendan Fraser (YSI)