See Monkey, Do Monkey…Hear Monkey

Welsh label See Monkey Do Monkey reach across to introduce new Colorama, Houdini Dax, The Method, The Moles, The Keys…a roster to watch…and a rock solid reason for me to get my ass back over to Cardiff…

Colorama :: Box

Running the gamut from psych pop to lilting straight-ahead pop, Welsh outfit Colorama have their mission down pat. Full of hooks, melodies and references to British psych and psych underground as much as modern pop leanings, Box is impeccably built and for all it’s revivalism, thinks outside that box. A lush outing that relies on it’s hooks and melodies rather than ornamentation, Colorama dip their toes in some of the same waters as Beta Band, Super Furry Animals, Tunng, Sgt. Pepper-ish Beatles, The Kinks…a strong focus on pop, smart filler-free pop. Box is a warm and loving nod to 60s tinged psych-pop with sights set on a colored world that reaches far beyond their native Wales.

Candy Street :: Colorama :: Box {See Monkey Do Monkey, 2010}

Houdini Dax :: You Belong to Dax Darling

Vibrant pop-in-overdrive outfit out of Cardiff deliver some retro/revivalist tinged upbeat 60s pop, with a thoroughly modern take. A tad sneering and snotty without being superior or elitist, Houdini Dax inject more than enough jittery fuzzy energy into the proceedings to suck you in, and keep you in. It’s a hyper, Supergrass-style attitude and frenetic, frenzied execution. The influences and references fly fast and furious, and at times slyly, but with enough of their own identity to lift it out of the copycat bin. They’re keenly aware of tradition, and unafraid to give it a work out.

You’re a Ghoul :: Houdini Dax :: You Belong to Dax Darling {See Monkey Do Monkey, 2011}