It is I, Leclerc, I mean...Tom Leaning, fresh from watching the 1980s sitcom, 'Allo, 'Allo', and the 2006 Reading Festival. This year's line-up was a tad disappointing considering that Glastonbury was taking a break, but there were still musical gems to be found underneath the colourful canvases of the Carling and Radio One tents. CMU have politely asked me to review my personal top five acts that I managed to see through the rising piles of flattened beer cups and half-eaten cobs of corn. And here they are, in no particular order, except alphabetical:
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah have a secret vocal weapon in Alec Ounsworth, who possesses a deliciously relaxed, almost idle melodic voice, which, at times, resembles the fluctuating noises of a pubescent teenager. Amalgamated with Ounsworth's ingenious lyrics, the band's inventive bass loops and guitar hooks, and supported by constant synthesizer sounds and drum beats, CYHSY produce majestical songs that are individually received as crowd favourites by an ecstatic audience. Not bad for a DIY debut album.
Secret Machines' multi-layered sound had not previously reached the delicate ears of this reviewer, but instantly impressed as they graced the Radio One stage for the first time. Enveloped in smoke and colour, one drummer and two brothers produced truly epic three-dimensional soundscapes, with icy synths, a frost-bitingly cool guitar and crashing, hypnotic drums. Owing much of their influences to German experimentalist pop groups, such as Kraftwerk, Secret Machines have recently released their second album, 'Ten Silver Drops', and are, most certainly, a talented band on the rise, with thoughtful lyrics and transfixing tunes.
Serena Maneesh scamper across the tight-rope that separates disorganised cringe-making noise and sublime psychedelic Goth-rock, with extraordinary vigour and originality. The soft, whispery angelic singing, the pounding drums, the shrieks and shrills of guitars and the ear-shattering distortions all make for a cataclysmic cacophony of sensational rhymes and rhythms that have the power to blow your mind inside out. Enjoy.
The Spinto Band's sumptuously weightless and melodic guitar-riffs fly above the wistful indie-pop clouds with Burt Bacharach and Beach Boy influences. The Delaware septet jerk about the stage like an army of Tin-men from the land of Oz, as they play away their monumentally original ballads, with youthful grace. The cosmically goofy 'Did I Tell You' and the old and epic favourite 'Direct To Helmet' charm and dazzle, but it is the magnificently catchy 'Oh Mandy' that tops a fresh and energetic musical set made in small-town America.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs' backstage acoustic session (courtesy of Tiscali) saw lead-guitarist, Nick Zinner, swap his magic, pulsating, electric wand for something more wooden and classical, but no less enchanting. The intimate setting was filled by competition winners and artful opportunists alike; these privileged few were treated to a brief but bewitching warm-up set, which included colourful tracks from their breakthrough album 'Fever To Tell' and their more recent record 'Show Your Bones'. The toned-down show saw Karen O in a more relaxed and giggly mood (far from the feisty feline frolics we usually see on stage), but her meowing vocals were still more captivating than ever. TL