ORCHID HOUSE Virago
You Watch Me is a good indierock song that starts off quiet, then there's some folky guitar, then it turns into a full band song with heavy guitar. Station Road is another good 'un - more subdued and melancholic than the first song. This has some almost psych-folk sounding guitar, but overall the song is laid-back rock. Later on a heavy rock guitar comes into the song. Ugly 15 is about the singer's crush on Tanya Donelly when he was 15. Musically it's angsty but not heavy indierock with a touch of some other genre I can't quite put a finger on. The 'hey hey hey hey' bit is a blatant ripoff of that Massive Attack song from when they were calling themselves Massive (well, if my memory serves me right that's what it is). About 3 minutes into the song it completely changes style - gets more uptempo and that riff sounds straight out of an Eyes song. After this brief style change there's another lot of 'hey hey hey hey's and then it ends. High Sun Changing starts with a 60s-ish R 'n' B/mod type riff but the song itself is basically grungey rock complete with gravelly vocals.
This band may possibly be a bit too rock for indiekids and too indie for rockers, but if you're openminded and don't care about pigeonholes, check them out. I personally recommend the first two tracks in particular. Info from bill_hoopa@yahoo.com

THEE MOTHS The Need (S.O.U.L.)
S.O.U.L., or Sides of Unequal Length, is a new tape label started by the people at Victory Garden Records. Great to know that there are still people interested enough in tape labels to start new ones!
Thee Moths are a rather good lo-fi duo consisting of Alex and Dominique. Snails is a mixture of minimalist pop and really loud guitar noise. Telephone Song has a chugging, powerpop type instrumental but the song itself is 80s style twee pop meets melancholic dark folk - coming across like a cross between Talulah Gosh and Mothburner. Nation of Shania is an instrumental with violin, banjo and rumbling bass. Trees and Rain is indie-folk-pop with shades of The Carousel, but much more lo-fi. Your Everywhere is powerpop. (a thing) is minimal pop meets powerpop meets mega-noisy stuff, with a really strong, memorable tune. Come Back To Me is atmospheric folk-tinged noisepop. Now String is indie-folk-pop with two lots of drumming, one lot played backwards.
In Shadow & Light is dark folk. Chains is minimal melancholic pop in the Frank Peck/Brighter vein, but with real drums instead of a drum machine. Then the song gets REALLY REALLY noisy, with huge feedbacking guitar of the sort you'd never hear in a Frank Peck or Brighter song. Don't Tempt the Tears is a noisy instrumental that follows on from the end of Chains. 3 Tone Drum Jumble is an experimental instrumental based on drum machine and pulses of noise. Not as irritating as that description sounds though. The Voice is melancholic indiepop meets folk with a few noisyish bits, like a noisier, folkier Frank Peck. Then there's a vocals only piece that's really effective, part of it has the feel of a medieval choral piece. The Need is experimental/post-rock with quiet, almost whispered vocals. Cote Des Neigs Subway actually is a recording of the sounds of that place.
Rather lo-fi but the songs themselves are really good - I'd like to hear more from this band. Band info from info@theemoths.co.uk Label info from stuart@victorygardenrecords.co.uk

SPLIT SECOND FEELING Shift
Interesting electronic music that has experimental elements, without being short on melody. Shift is a kind of dark electronic pop, but which has not a lot in common with the sort of dark electropop liked by goths. Parting Shots starts with a slow electronic drumbeat that gradually speeds up, then a bleeping synth comes in, then the vocals come in, punctuated by harsh metallic noises. Next, some floaty ambient sounds, then the drums start to slow down again and the song is over. Exit Loop is an upbeat song, the poppiest here, but a far cry from straightforward pop with its noisy droning guitar and spacey synth. This music has some rather 80s elements, but also shows a willingness to experiment, so the songs don't sound dated or retro. Info from alan@greenaway72.freeserve.co.uk

DUPLO Bedhead EP (Coastline)
The Coastline label is officially finished, but if anyone is interested in tapes, Stu is happy to run off copies. Duplo is a band Stu was in 10 years ago and the music they played was lo-fi indie-pop (not the twee sort) with atmosphere. The recording is murky, but the music itself is excellent. These four songs are taken from a live performance; side A is the edited version with just the songs, and side B is the full version with the between-song banter and clapping left in. Contact stuhuggett@yahoo.co.uk

DUPLO Strange Holidays in Techno double tape (Coastline)
Two 60 min tapes, collecting material from between 1990 and 1993. This is more musically varied than the above tape, encompassing experimental instrumental music, synthpop, indiepop, indiepop with elements of modern psychedelia, noisy shouty stuff, interview fragments and dark synth instrumental music with shades of goth and new romantic.
Basically it sounds more like a compilation than a collection of recordings by one band, so unless you have very wide ranging taste in music it's doubtful that you'll like everything here. My personal favourite side of this band is the indiepop based one, such as Sense of Occasion (non-twee old-style indiepop with added spacey synth), Dumbfound (indiepop with an 80s synthpop influence), Habit Forming (old-school janglepop with a bit of 80s synth and a noisy racket at the end), Go To Pieces and Chainsaw (fairly dark, atmospheric guitar pop), Like Dust (jangly pop instrumental) and most of the songs on side D, some of which are jangly old-style indiepop (Carolyn's Composition in particular has shades of The Field Mice) and some are indiepop meets modern psychedelia.
Sound quality is variable, ranging from lo-fi to very lo-fi, but if you can see (or even hear!) past the murk there are some gems to be found.

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