BlackPlastic heart Moshi Moshi for the following reasons:
1. They are independent.
2. They have previously signed and released records by such greats as Bloc Party, Hot Chip and Hot Club De Paris.
3. Their name sounds like something innappropriate an Eskimo (sorry, Inuit) might say to a member of the opposite sex.
4. They have a little 'club' they use to release great breakthrough 7" singles through and then they go and bundle these together in one great CD for the slow or the lazy.
The first Moshi Moshi Singles Club therefore consists of 14 pretty consistently enjoyable songs, some of which will be from people you know, some of which won't. Yet.
Matt & Kim's 'Silver Tiles' sounds like it is being banged out on a three-year-old's toy drum with vocals that match. It's so infectious resisting it would be like trying to solve all the world's problems with a sit down protest: pointless.
'Caroline's A Victim' continues to please in the fact that it not only sounds like the Kate Nash song most likely to upset your mum but is also a pop reference to The Killers (whose fans are apparently called Victims). Lykke Li's 'Little Bit' is the opposite - a delicate, loveable reverb heavy plea for love.
Meanwhile The Slow Club's 'Because We're Dead' is ramshackle, laid back and effortless. It sounds like a spurned lover you can't resist any more yet also knows they are too damn good for you.
Late of the Pier represent one of the better known bands here and their single 'Bathroom Gurgle' still sounds fresh - wonkey basslines and 80s vocals helping to generate excitement for the Erol Alkan produced debut album this year. The breakdown halfway through prior to the dancing bit is still pure pomp and is all the better for it.
Of course you already know Friendly Fires' 'Paris' but it is perhaps the singles clubs biggest catch so far... This track does more for French tourism than you'd get out of one-hundred monkeys chained to one-hundred Macbook Pros locked in L'Office De Tourisme for eternity.
What's great about the Moshi Moshi singles club is not so much what has come before but what might be up ahead.
BP x