The excellent indiepop label Matinée has released a ton of new stuff since the last issue, so it's time for another feature on this label.

Fans of 80s indiepop may remember Remember Fun. They had a split flexi on Matt Haynes' pre-Sarah flexi label Sha-la-la, and they also appeared on one of Chris Mabbs' compilation tapes (Corrupt Postman if I remember rightly). Possible they were on other comps I didn't know about, but then there was nothing for years. Jimmy at Matinée managed to track them down and released a 4-song CD by them, Train Journeys. The music is, as you'd expect, archetypal mid-80s indiepop, and it's brilliant stuff! If Remember Fun have any other songs stashed away I hope somebody will release them!

Jason Sweeney, previously of Sweet William, has several current musical projects - the one that comes closest to the Sweet William sound is Simpatico, who have a 4 song CD, the Postal Museum EP. This is drum-machine-powered indiepop in the same vein as The Field Mice. If you were a Field Mice fan but thought Bob Wratten's subsequent bands weren't/aren't quite in the same league, Simpatico could well be the band you've been looking for.

A name long-term indiepop fans should be familiar with is Graeme Elston. He was in The Love Parade, then Pure, then Eva Luna. These days he's in Astronaut, who have several releases out on Fierce Panda. From what I've heard of them, they seem to be on the more commercial side of 60s tinged indie music, similar to some of the stuff Creation were releasing in the late 90s. Slipslide is Graeme's current solo project, which has two singles out on Matinée. Four Day Weekend has four tracks, three of which are non-twee old-style indiepop with a dash of the more commercial 90s indie music. The other song is The Airport Song - Eva Luna previously did a version of this which appeared on the Bliss tape Burnt Umber. This is probably my favourite track here; an acoustic-based song in which indiepop meets folk. The follow-up is a 7" with Sleeptalk (basically good old fashioned indiepop, but with a hint of the 60s about it) and Six Strings (vaguely Brighter-ish indiepop meets folk). Even better than the previous EP.

The Lucksmiths return to Matinée with the North American Summer 2001 7" which has two tracks of their familiar strummy/jangly pop which won't disappoint fans of this band. Incidentally, this is the last 7" on the label to be in a wraparound sleeve and plastic bag - a shame as I like those kind of sleeves... Oh well, it is the music that matters in the end though, and the new sleeves still look good, but there's just something really INDIE POP! about the plastic bag sleeves...

Windmills offshoot Melodie Group have a 3-song 7" Summerness. The title track is old-style indiepop with a melancholic yet catchy melody and a very high jangle factor, which is to be applauded! Nineteen Eighty Nine is an acoustic song that's not as obviously old-school, despite its title. Small Grinning Thing is another acoustic track with shades of late 60s singer-songwriters and Belle & Sebastian.

People in their early 20s will only remember Creation as just another mainstream label, funded by Sony and putting out commercial, supposedly 'indie' records by bands such as Oasis. Those who are a bit older have a much fonder memory of the label, as in the 80s they tended to release music with more of a cult following, including yer actual indiepop bands (eg Emily who were previously on the aforementioned Sha-la-la label). I got into the indie scene a bit too late to know much about Alan McGee's own band Biff Bang Pow! - I've possibly heard one song but that's all. Lovejoy, ex-Blueboy and Spinning Wheels, have a new single out which is a tribute to Biff Bang Pow!, featuring the songs Hug Me Honey and The Beat Hotel, played in a sparse, strummy indiepop style. If the originals sounded anything like this, I'll have to track down some Biff Bang Pow! records, but I imagine they'd be pretty hard to find now.

The Would-Be-Goods are another name from the past, who released records on él (amongst other labels) a few years back. The band is based around songwriter Jessica Griffin, who previously recorded with The Monochrome Set as her backing band. She now has a CDEP on Matinée, Emmanuelle Béart, which has The Monochrome Set's Orson Presence on accordion, Peter Momtchiloff (Talulah Gosh/Heavenly/Marine Research) on guitar and bass and Struan Robertson (Razorcuts) on drums. The title track is brilliant, noisyish indiepop with witty lyrics; Je Lèche Les Vitrines is an acoustic song, sung entirely in French, and featuring accordion played in the traditional French style. Everybody Wants My Baby is another sophisticated acoustic pop song, and Words returns to the full band instrumentation of the first track. This EP is excellent - there's an album out soon which I look forward to!

The Matinée Spring Collection is a 7 track mini-album released to coincide with 2 London gigs featuring Matinée bands. Slipslide have an exclusive track; Airport Girl's song is the b-side of one of their singles on Fortuna Pop!; and The Windmills, Lovejoy, Melodie Group, Sportique and the Would-Be-Goods have tracks that have also appeared on other Matinée releases. The first 200 copies of this come with a Snowbound fanzine (done by members of Lovejoy) which has articles on Matinée and Poptones, an interview with The Windmills and other bits and bobs. This has been out a few months now so possibly the fanzine is no longer available - a shame if it's not as it's excellent, one of the best zines I've seen in a while. The CD should still be available though - a good way to get a taste of what Matinée has to offer.

The Windmills released one 7" in the mid 80s then weren't heard of for years. Fairly recently they reformed and since then their output has increased considerably. Several records have come out on Matinée, the most recent being the When It Was Winter EP and Sunlight album. The part of When It Was Winter that goes "Frosty winds made moan/icy whisper shown/I saw what you said" is melodically (and, I guess, lyrically also) reminiscent of Brighter, a band The Windmills don't normally sound like. Their musical style is very much rooted in the same era as Brighter - they make jangly, mid 80s-early 90s style indiepop, but it's less sombre than the sort of thing Brighter were best known for. Boxing Glove (on Sunlight) is a rather meaty offering, on the heavier side of indiepop, yet it's not noisy. From this they go to Cloud Five which is pure indiepop with the sort of jangling guitars that you hear in all the best examples of this genre. Untouch is a 48 second reprise of the first track Unkiss, which you'd expect them to end the album with, but no, the last track is Drug Autumn, which was previously released as a single. Anyone with a liking for good old fashioned jangly indiepop, but not the twee sort, should check out The Windmills.

Matinée, in association with Where It's At Is Where You Are, have released the second album by Sportique, who if you don't already know, consist of members of Talulah Gosh/Heavenly/Marine Research, Razorcuts/Saturn V and Television Personalities. Noisier than most bands on Matinée, Sportique mix keyboardy indiepop with punk (but don't expect the mid-90s 'disco punk' genre - Sportique are nothing like this). Their songs are mostly melodic but there's a sneery, snarly edge to the vocals that sometimes becomes a full-blown shout. The subject of art comes up in some of the songs, as suggested by the title of the album, Modern Museums. As well as the song of the same name, there's also Art and Shopping, and How Many Times..?, a sample lyric from this song being "If I was an artist I'd be facile, moronic and rude/obnoxious, self-righteous, pathetic/ungracious and childish and crude". So the recurring art theme makes this a concept album, right? A band with punk influences making a concept album, the antithesis of punk? All too often, punk bands conform to what they think punk is supposed to be about, when punk is meant to be about non-conformity. Congratulations to Sportique for breaking the mould and mixing punk music with an idea that's widely thought to be non-punk. The Dying Fly contains lots of ways of being cruel to insects and animals, very bad taste. Ignoring the horrible subject matter of that song, this album contains some of the best material I've ever heard from Sportique. Many people who have been making music for as long as the members of this band tend to end up making bland middle of the road music after a few years, but not so with Sportique - they make great aggressive punkpop that has more oomph than a lot of newer/younger bands' music.

Harper Lee are Keris from Brighter/Hal and Laura from Kicker. The Kicker connections aren't obvious when you listen to the music, but the Brighter connections definitely are. Following two 7"s reviewed in previous issues, Harper Lee have released a CDEP Train Not Stopping and an album Go Back To Bed. The Sea Gently Lifting (from the EP) is one of the most Brighter-ish songs, and Dry Land (from the album, previously released as a single) is also very Brighter, but with sweary lyrics. Some other tracks aren't identical to Brighter but contain Brighter-ish elements, for example Doing Nothing (from the album) which is very sombre and has Brighter-like guitar playing, but there's a violin in it, which I don't recall Brighter ever using. The violin, by the way, is courtesy of Jill Drew, who if I'm not mistaken is also from Kicker. Violin also appears in Deep Dark Ocean, which other than the violin, sounds identical to Brighter. Brighter fans would be foolish to miss this melancholic jangly indiepop.

Another band from the past whose material has been recently released by Matinée is The Siddeleys, another band who appeared on one of the Sha-la-la flexis. The Slum Clearance album, released in association with Clarendon Records (the TweeNet label) collects 16 tracks, including Peel Sessions, and is packaged in a smart digipak with booklet. If you don't know the music of The Siddeleys, it's very 80s-ish janglepop (after all, they were from the 80s) with intelligent lyrics, that varies between the C86/shambling sound and a more sophisticated type of guitar pop with shades of The Smiths. I have never liked The Smiths and probably never will, but despite The Siddeleys reminding me of them at times, I still think The Siddeleys sound brilliant. That has happened on more than one occasion with me, where I'll hear a band that somehow I like, even though they remind me of a band I dislike. Why this is I have no idea! The chorus of When I Grow Up I'll Be A God has a melody and vocal harmonies that make me think of Talulah Gosh or maybe The Carousel without the medieval influence. Many of the other songs also sound very Talulah Gosh-like. (After I wrote this I saw some other Siddeleys reviews on the internet and they pretty much all mention The Smiths and Talulah Gosh, so it's not just me that can hear the similarities).

Another recent Matinée album is Honey, I'm An Artist by Airport Girl, this time released in conjunction with Fortuna Pop!, the label Sean Price from the band runs with some other people. Another of the 11-piece band is Rob Fleay, previously of Boy Scout, who plays trumpet on this album. Most songs here are quiet but there are occasional noisy moments. Tracks include Power Yr Trip with its squealing guitar noise - normally songs with ba-da-bas are twee but in this case the ba-da-bas are growled in a punkish fashion; the old-school janglepop of I'm Wrong, You're Right, the melancholic pop with violin of Frostbite, Between Delta and Delaware and The Foolishness We Create Through Love Is The Closest We Come To Greatness which are indiepop with noisy bits; the folkish You Fill Me Up (I Lose) and the noisepop song Surf #7 Wave.

If you're into great indiepop you can't go wrong with Matinée - for info contact matineepop@hotmail.com

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