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Recording:
  Uncovered By Heartbeat  
 
Artist:
  Cherubs  
 
Label:
  Cargo Records  
 
Release Date:
  16.May.2006  
 
Reviewed by:
  Brett Spaceman  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

What does the word Cherub mean to you? Smiling, angelic, little kid? Fountain water-feature? Or maybe, like me, you'd put the word to more ironic use? Like that annoying, problem kid running amok at your place while Mum smiles with glazed affection and denial. "Ah, little cherub!"

According to official definitions, the use of "Cherubs" as a plural for baby angels is quite acceptable. I haven't quite found anywhere saying, "Four-fifths Norwegian, London based art-rockers fixated with post-punk and new wave circa 1977-1983", but then I've only got Wikipedia.

Uncovered by Heartbeat is Cherubs' debut album, but it will be familiar to anyone whose musical schooling took in a regular diet of Magazine, Wire, Television, Gang of Four, or The Fire Engines over two decades ago. From the moment Telepathy launches its mildly feverish agit-pop, we know we've got the day off to pretend we're sick, stay at home, and lubricate our living rooms. (Select appropriate method. Your business, not mine.)

There's a willful amateurism within much of Uncovered By Heartbeat. On Kiss All Morning, vocalist Staale Bruland plays the dispassionate role so skillfully it's as though he recorded those parts on the bus, or on the way to the local store to pick up cigarettes. Elsewhere he's to be found inflected with the spasmodic jerks and ticks of somebody at the border control between sanity and lunacy. (Take a good long look at his papers, fellas.) Yet it's nothing serious and I'm sure we'll all attest to the fact that mild doses of idiocy can be rather amusing in the right setting. The rest of Cherubs provide exactly that. Oblique, prickly guitars cajole the listener, backed by a very satisfying bass and drum akin to Joy Division (check You Stay I Leave) except with far more warmth in the production.

Cherubs have no real demons though. These are mere Bedsitter fantasists, equally likely to explore an imaginary girlfriend/rejection paranoia as they are to make some toast and a cup of tea. Approach playfully, and you will be rewarded with some of the best danceable Indie in some while. Just mind the cups and plates.

Yet just when the party is in full swing they pull out the impressions. This Awful Morning is laced with Strokes and Botox bop is a White Stripes cadet. Hey Bunny is their take on Franz Ferdinand, while the superb Eyes Only finds time to ape Interpol and Adam Ant. They're wonderfully accurate parodies. My only misgiving being….they're wonderfully accurate parodies. Thank heaven then for the ghost-train riff that is Faces And Masks. Laced with eerie melody, it hauls Cherubs back from the brink of covers band, re-establishing the earlier feel of a Drive-In B-Movie.

Uncovered by Heartbeat is solid, varied, catchy, and downright fun. Surely they're already the favourite band of someone somewhere, but it's tough to tell where Cherubs will go from here. Modest, self-effacing, yet confident, Cherubs seem at ease with their awkwardness even playing up to it. I hope they pursue this aspect but will they? Will they flap their little wings, rampage though our homes with chocolate fingers or piss into a pond?

I'm voting for the chocolate fingers.

 
         
 
Related Links:
 

Not to be confused with US Cherubs.
Latest single Paper Cut Moon out now on Cargo Records.
Official homepage http://www.cherubs-hq.com/
Myspace: http://myspace.com/cherubs

 
         

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