Autre Ne Veut

You either loved or hated Autre Ne Veut's electrifying 2010 album for Olde English Spelling Bee, and we loved it - as we made abundantly clear at the time. Since its release, ANV has been reasonably quiet, most recently seen turning up on Mordant Music's Variables II 12"; but he's been putting his time to good use it seems, crafting this killer four-track EP for Hippos In Tanks. 'Sweetheart' finds our man warbling and whining in that unmistakable multi-tracked falsetto of his, against a rivetingly three-dimensional sound-scape of moody strings and neatly dubbed drums; it's certainly the most pensive thing we've ever heard from him, and a well-chosen opener. If there was any justice in the world, 'Not The One' would be headed for the upper echelons of the Top 40; if our ears aren't mistaken, ANV here has a female vocal counterpart, and the resulting harmonies are layered to the point of abstraction, all across a darkly rousing, almost fanfare-like melody down below - this is truly pop music that doesn't sound like ANYTHING else out there right now. For the aptly named 'Just Return' and ‘Your Clothes' we're back to the let-it-all-hang-out exuberance of the album, all imploring, high-school-high melody and rocket-fuelled, white-boy synth-funk, like an amphetamine-fuelled smash-up between Huey Lewis, ABC, Trevor Horn and, er, MMM. Man, this stuff is hard to describe. Just let it be known that Autre Ne Veut has gone and blown us away all over again.(Boomkat)