Does It Offend You, Yeah? + South Central @ The Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth, 21/10/08

Some lazy journalists would refer to the current musical climate, at least in terms of British Indie-dance crossover groups, as “post-new-rave”. Ridiculous as this sounds, it is almost true to say that gone are the day-glo colours, garish sirens and hideous large-print shirts. Gone is the faux retro noise barely hiding the post-modern Franz-Ferdinand art-rock beneath, and gone too, thankfully, are the kids reminiscing about a decade they viewed from the glint in their fathers’ eyes.

Instead what is left are bands like South Central, pure tunesmiths who manage the dance-rock balancing act to a fault by being a duo by day in the studio and a band at night on stage. This distinction gives them the edge in terms of a live show over such artists as Simian Mobile Disco or even Justice, both of whom South Central almost match musically, but with much more energy than watching two guys push play on their drum machines. Instead they bring an infectious energy that quickly spreads throughout the crowd, especially during their extended cover of slightly more recent rave classic, Josh Wink’s “HHHhHigher State Of Consciousness”, which caps an impressive, if unfamiliar, set to a close.

Does It Offend You, Yeah?, the band literally named after David Brentism, hit the stage soon after, and long before the crowd has a chance to recover from South Central, and begin a short set based largely from their eponymous debut. Even with a set featuring singles “Let’s Make Out” and “We Are Rockstars”, it’s soon clear that the band, shrouded in smoke and with lead singer James sitting near the back with a crocked leg, aren’t as energetic as they would usually be, and seem somewhat jaded with touring and promotion already. The crowd is yet to sense this, however, and are vociferous as ever in their request for their favourite band to play their favourite song, screaming as one for “Epic Last Song” as a suitable, if not necessarily apt, encore. After a hurried apology about “not doing that one live”, they instead treat the crowd to a slightly drowsy version of Devo’s classic “Whip It”. While the irony isn’t lost on some of the crowd, its still good enough to bring the night to a close.

South Central are touring throughout the UK and Europe and release the Owl Of Minerva EP on November 3rd. DIOYY?'s tour continues until the 30th in Leeds and is their last tour before working on their second album

Post DFA1979: Sebastien Grainger

While Jesse Keeler ran away with their producer to form the house-inflected pop stylings of MSTRKRFT, who are currently working on their second album, the other half of Death From Above 1979, Sebastien Grainger, has been much more quiet.

Apart from contributing vocals to DIOYY?'s song "Let's Make Out" and drumming for Canadian rapper k-os, Grainger's presence has been much more low key.

Recently however, Grainger has been working with his own backing band "Les Montagnes" (or The Mountains, if you prefer), who explore the opposite end of DFA's dance-punk formula to Keeler's MSTRKRFT.

Currently working on their debut album, their sound is as energetic and straightforward as DFA, yet unfortunately lacking in Keeler's pounding danceable basslines. They're still pretty good though.

http://www.myspace.com/sebastiengrainger

ALBUM: Does It Offend You Yeah? - You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into

Often sitting uncomfortably between the sound of a post-apocalyptic rave and some kids playing football with a dustbin, DIOYY?'s debut has all the ingredients of a great album, but does the sum live up to its parts?

With the obvious influence of Daft Punk's Discovery and its imitators and followers (both of which DIOYY? can apply themselves to), coupled with the indie-dance sensibility of their contemporaries in the form of Klaxons and Hadouken!, its almost as if the album tries too hard to satisfy every camp at once. Indeed, tracks "Let's Make Out" and "Weird Science" could be Daft Punk singles. Poorly charting, limited release ones, but singles none the less.

Past the superb opening track "Battle Royale" (although the version formerly availiable on their myspace complete with dialogue from the film is better) and the DFA Dance-punk stylings of "With A Heavy Heart (I Regret To Inform You)", as well as the aforementioned "Let's Make Out", the album doesn't have too many high points.

Any pace that the album had built up is quickly lost with "Dawn of The Dead", a misplaced Hot Chip-esque ballad so despairingly dull even Boy Kill Boy fans couldn't sit through it more than once. "Doomed Now" is one of a number botched concoction of poor Daft Punk imitation and shameless laziness. All too often beats and riffs are repeated too within an inch of their lives until it becomes Human After All by numbers, but with the talent replaced with forgettable beeps and guitar noise.

While the interlude that is "Attack of the 60 ft Lesbian Octopus" fits in well enough, and appears, ironically, to be the most thought out track on the album, "Being Bad Feels Pretty Good"'s feeble handclap driven beat coupled with some equally weak-willed lyrics is another poor excuse for sub-par indie-pop.

Overall the album reflects the bands own arrogance in believing that they could do something new and different, whereas in fact it points out actually how good Klaxons were. Any originality is lost in the complacency of drum machines and heavily repeated sampler tracks. What is left is an album, that attempts to reach for the heights of Discovery and Myths Of The Near Future, but instead is even more boring and forgettable than Civilian.

5/10

You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into is availiable now via Mute.

More Track Reviews!

Shocking Pinks - Emily
The latest single from their self-titled DFA compilation based on their last two native released albums from these electronic New Zealanders, centred around Nick Harte, kicks off with a snare-drum dance beat and bass fuzzier than the Dulux dog. When Harte's shoegazey vocals drone in, the lyrics of love lost about a girl called, you guessed it, Emily, emanate over the scene. However, way too soon, but mercifully lacking a Westlife key change, the song finishes as abruptly as it started. B-side "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" is an acoustic lullaby that aims as to be as impossibly glacial as Leonard Cohen, but still ends up somewhere above Newton Faulkner. Also better than the A-side is the Expanded Head Band version of album track "Cutout" which is as close to labelmates LCD Soundsystem as they venture.

Released 3rd March via DFA/EMI. From the album "Shocking Pinks", out now.

Does It Offend You, Yeah? - We Are Rockstars
With an album track called "Attack of The 60ft Lesbian Octopus", it's fair to say that these guys don't take themselves particularly seriously. Which is fortunate for this tongue-in-cheek titled single, released a week before their debut album You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into drops on March 17th, which lurks somewhere between previous single "Let's Make Out" and fan favourite and album opener "Battle Royale", complete with Discovery-era Daft Punk vocal sampling. A messy noise of bleeps of ancient synthesizers, bangs of improvised percussion and a bassline which holds the whole thing together between the assumingly momentous live breaks. Sound something like Holy Fuck and Animal Collective if they got drunk together and recorded their stuff onto an answering machine.

So, pretty awesome then.

Released 10th March via Virgin. From the album "You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into", released 17th March.

This year's "......." pt.2

Does It Offend You, Yeah? bridge the gap that you never knew existed between the dance-punk of !!! and Death From Above 1979 and straight dance and electro house of Daft Punk and Digitalism. Think Holy Fuck, but slightly more rehearsed. Although I have to admit, what first attracted me is their sampling of Japanese cult classic film Battle Royale on their song of the same name.

They make this section due to the apparent comparison of them being "this year's Klaxons", or somewhat unfairly, "the Hadouken of 2008". Nevertheless, this Reading four-piece boast both the tunes and the remix talent and should release their debut album on Virgin before the year is finished.

Get a free mp3 of "Let's Make Out" by signing up to their mailing list here.

UPDATE: 15/01/08 - Their debut album You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into is set to be released on March 17th. Details here