Time to settle into a spot of new old stuff with some EP wars between two of 2012's brightest hopes who dropped stellar short players last year and seem poised to reap greater rewards as the year progresses. Haim aren't exactly a hidden treasure having slurped up numerous media plaudits including the not inconsiderable accolade of BBC's 'Sound of 2013' award and so it should come as not surprise that I hadn't bothered listening to their music until now. I checked out the EP this week and was pleasantly surprised, their stuff is stop-what-you're-doing-and-listen catchy but I'm not sure how excited to get about a band that sounds like this. Media write-ups invariably cite Fleetwood Mac as an influence and I can see why but we're talking 'Tango in the Night' rather than 'Rumours', the smoothed studio sheen production has way more in common with 'Big Love' and 'Little Lies' than the campfire acoustics of 'Songbird' and 'You Make Loving Fun'. This isn't a criticism, 'Tango' is a killer album too but it's only recently become acceptable to admit that you dig F-Mac's shoulderpads and mullets phase as much as their universally adored wife-swapping heyday in the 1970s. Indeed pretty much everything on here sounds like a remastered version of some late 80s lady-fronted pop soul outfit - the title track is catchy as fuck but the more I listen to it the more it reminds me of Swing Out Sister and 'Go Slow' sounds a bit like Kate Bush circa 'This Woman's Work', in fact were it not for the totally pointless remix of 'Forever' tagged on the end you'd be forgiven for assuming that this EP had dropped back in 1987 alongside T'Pau and Fairground Attraction. I'm not sure how this bodes for the future - we seem to be rehashing every bygone era in pop via new trends in production fetishism so there's every chance that Haim might turn out to be this year's La Roux, a calculated exercise in 80s revivalism that ends up leaving you a little underwhelmed in the long run. But let's wait for the LP before writing them off - this is a promising start and these gals can certainly sing a bit so they might still surprise us.
Back on Planet Indie Fidlar are playing to the crowd just as much on their stonking 'Don't Try' EP but in this case it's the audience of some toilet venue on the underground circuit full of people with poor hygiene and no sense of social responsibility. Their stuff is full-frontal garage punk in the vein of Black Lips with a dash of Butthole Surfers thrown in for good measure - 'No Ass' would fit right in on the Lips' 'Let it Bloom' with it's 'WAAAAAH' vocals and trashy garage riffs whilst 'Black Out Stout' lollops around the room like Gibby Haynes on a Guinness 'n' LSD bender and 'Got No Money' sounds like The Fall fronted by Spongebob Squarepants. It's lead track 'No Wavves' that'll either turn you on or put you off though, a two-minute lo-fi rocker that sounds like the bastard grandkids of Suzi Quatro jamming in the Early Learning Centre - it's packed with handclaps and tambourines and built around a stupidly simple riff but you'll find yourself humming it on the train after one listen and it's surely custom built for indie dance floors and raucous basement live shows. These guys seem happy enough to fester in indie oblivion for the foreseeable future and if they keep on pumping out stuff this infectiously stupid then they could become one to keep your eye on for cheap ticket thrills and spills next time they roll through town. Indie's identity remains as amorphous as ever but these two EPs are well worth a Euro or two of anyone's money if you want an idea of what's swimming around the gene pool as 2013 gets off the starting blocks.
Check out : the title track from 'Forever' and Fidlar's 'No Wavves' promo - it's a score draw.
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