Acclaimed Leeds label Dance To The Radio has released a second set of four 12 inch singles for 2009 as it continues to celebrate reaching 50 releases since its inauguration.
The previous set featured Pulled Apart By Horses, Bear Hands, Wonderswan, and Broadcast Society, and is followed by four up-and-coming acts: Suckers (New York), Holy State (Leeds), Das Racist (New York) and Bear Driver (Leeds/London).
Opener, Suckers It Gets Your Body Moving is an ethereal waker-upper strings and brass mix with sweet harmonies and thought-provoking instrumentals ending with building guitars and piano. Second in line, Holy States Jagged Lines is a semi-grunge headbangerfest with throaty, shouty lyrics and zero diction. Powerful stuff, but not a great track to be following the one it does.
The black sheep of the collection comes from New Yorker rap duo Das Racist (one half of which is also in band Boy Crisis), with Rainbow In The Dark. Aiming to be diverse is unfortunately DTTRs downfall on this release theres something for everyone, but a mixture of rap, post-rock and indie rock doesnt gel well. At all. Each track separately would work much better. Back on point, Rainbow In The Dark is a great mix of hip-hop and accessible lyrics.
Finally, Mind Attack from Bear Driver fits perfectly back into the indie jigsaw with an instantly-catchy hook, raspy vocals and lyrics you wish you knew the words to so you could sing along straight away. If this track every receives enough exposure, its going to get us dancing up storms across the country.
All-in-all, four great songs are mixed together a bit haphazardly on this collection. Still, Dance To The Radio are on the ball in terms of their taste.