Panda Eyes - Hot Silk Pockets
the first release from hot silk pockets comes in the form of this 500 handstamped 7's on stolen recordings. 'panda eyes' is a ramshackle but utterly addictive pop song, with the perfectly titled 'ooh, ooh' as the bside. 'ooh ooh' is straight from the orange juice stable of collapsible beauty. but 'panda eyes' isn't lodged in their glasgow heritage, rather it's playful and euphoric reverb glory seems to come straight from the scandinavian pop of peter, bjorn and john or love is all. -Rough Trade
How is it possible to be giddily miserable? Drenched in echoes of the past, this bounds about like a disco for cynics. Astonishing.-NME Radar Playlist
You might recognise this from the super ace Stolen comp from a few months back, and this sounds even better now - a scorching mix of lo-fi screeching guitars, big reverb sounding production and super slick pop melodies. A total winner that All fans of Love Is All will er... Love. -Pure Groove
God Is In The TV Zine
When you're tired of same-old same-old trad indie, Hot Silk Pockets are just the panacea. It's barely an option to pin them down, so wild is their bag. I could mention the Velvets tambourines one minute, or the 70s punk snarl of their rebellious teen vocals the next; then the Jesus and Mary Chain fuzz mix of guitars or crackle-addled Comet Gain-esque sonics of production, sounding like a scratchy slice of vinyl from the 80s. But Hot Silk Pockets are a riot all of their own.
It's edgy yet cute; something to sway to, or a soundtrack to drunken resentment (see the defiance of "What's the Matter" with its 'I wanna go out/ you wanna stay in/ You wanna drink tea/ I wanna drink gin' refrain of ace). Hot Silk Pockets' key songs have got a great gargantuan thud of a bass and rhythm section to them that is an underpinning force propelling them mightily - these songs being the marvellously titled 'Ooh Ooh' and 'Panda Eyes', which are a sure shot to fey blandness.
They're something of an enigma on their Myspace, which lacks your standard biog, influences, or giving too much away. So GIITTV dug a bit further and found out that the band are named after camping equipment to keep your hands warm (!), and that some of them live in an old folks' home. Their approach to music is as DIY as it comes across in sound, and the band enthuse about making "scratchy treble and reverb heavy pop" recorded themselves at home on basic equipment -"the echo comes from the high ceiling in the kitchen".
The full line up is: Gayle Thomas - vocal and keyboard, Andrew Free - vocal and bass, David Fairservice - guitar, Anthony Hall - drums, and Ollie Pickering - guitar, and the band formed to play parties in their shed before moving on to living rooms and pub back-rooms in the Reading area. The band have a single coming out in Autumn with Stolen Recordings who they think are great, and Dave is doing a drawing for the sleeve as we speak. "Then," they say, "we will record some more songs in our flat, make the records, and play some more sheds. DIY!" Here's to it!
BiBaBiDi
Hot Silk Pockets has a similar lo-fi approach to making music as Tap Tap, but these guys are lighter and more like the Postcard groups of the early 80s than anything else. Clear, assertive guitar hooks, moderately loose, primal drumming, and high-reverb vocals. Hot Silk Pockets are my infatuation of the moment. Really ace.
Bloodshed in the Woodshed
Perhaps i'm just incredibly slow on the uptake, but i'd never heard of these guys before today, and i'm quite upset about that, too, i have to admit. Maybe it's not that, perhaps they've just taken a while to mature, or to start to edge into the spotlight? Either way i'm absolutely glad i found them, as my day has instantly been transformed from one of self-inflicted guilty recuperation to one of joy, smiles, dancing and quite possibly now, more alcohol.
They remind me of Love Is All, who i could eat. Their strongest track 'Panda Eyes' is akin to 'Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up' or perhaps some of YSPWSD's earlier material. It's recently been included on a compilation by Stolen Recordings.
Lobster Quadrille Magazine
HOT SILK POCKETS
Have you ever seen that clip of Twiggy when she was a very young model and was paraded before the media as the soon-to-be face of the 60s, and she's holding a kitten in the street, or maybe someone else is holding the kitten, and she says, "Oywwh! poor little fing, let it alone-n-plaaay!!!!!!!"
You can almost picture the watching world spitting out their tea exclaiming, Jesus! is that her real voice! She was a proper cockney was Twiggy. And in no danger of becoming the voice of the 60s.
Anyway the reason I bring it up is because that's what springs to mind when I listen to Hot Silk Pockets. And it isn't just the conspicuous, but ultimately very likable, female cockney vocals either. (Have you ever noticed how lovely a female cockney accent can be, and how truly awful a male mockney accent is?) Somehow it's got something to do with the kitten, and the tea, and the sense that Englishness is actually quite cool. The best bands are always of evocative of unexpected pleasures.
Even if Hot Silk Pockets don't instantly remind you of the young Twig there's plenty to enjoy about them. Their sound is distinct - heavy reverb, even on the drums! - and their songs are catchy. What's The Matter? is dressing up and going out music with an excellent melody and a Dexy's sing-a-long outro. There's a hint of Blondie, there's a hint of disco. The lyrics are sharp. It's very very good pop-music.
Panda Eyes is a paean to the darkened circles you get round your peep-holes when you've partied too hard. It's nice morning after music. So play the one song on the Saturday night, and the other on the sunday morning.
Hot Silk Pockets are great, and what's more is they're original and great, which is even better.
BOOMKAT
This showcase of artists on the Stolen Recordings label is certainly a nice surprise, brimming with unexpected treats.. Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts gets with the zeitgeist and fuses Syd Barrett vocals with Arcade Fire style tuneful shouting (plus violins) and Jesus and Mary Chain-styled echo chamber drums. Similarly excellent is the contribution by Hot Silk Pockets, whose DIY electronic new wave sounds are perilously close to straight-up awesome. It's pretty hard to pick highlights from this compilation actually, the standard is unfeasibly high considering the tracklist is made up largely of unknowns who seem to have all recorded themselves in a biscuit tin. The Silver Jews influence on Pet Politics extends beyond the name, and their contribution is a stunning piece of slow Americana. Probably the best known outfit on the album, Pete & The Pirates come up with the goods too. Their Libertines-via-Franz Ferdinand approach to contemporary indie might not be miraculously innovative but they don't half nail that sound.
Sounds XP Stolen Compilation Review
Even better than last year's 21 track compilation, Stolen's second compilation collects 23 examples of the sound of now. There's a real sense of spontaneity about this record, of capturing the moment, and the label augments the Stolen roster with bands on other UK labels and further afield (Sweden, Japan and New Zealand). You might not like every track – difficult when it goes from guitar noise assaults, extreme electronica and gentle folkadelica – but everything is new, wired and vital.
There are so many good songs that everyone could programme their own compilation of favourites from this record. Mine would start, as this album does, with Matthew Sawyer and the Ghosts whose Modern Lovers-style bright pop chaos of 'Heartbreaker' contains a thrilling swirl of darkness. Stolen release the Blue Birds Blood album in September (it's out on Catbird in the US now) and on the basis of this song I'm desperate to hear it now. To my tracklisting of faves I'd add another Catbird artist, Pet Politics, whose pine-scented Swedish Americana, 'Dark Blue Sea', is redolent of Bonnie "Prince" Billy.
Stolen's own Pete and the Pirates produce some short but pacey clatterpop on 'Knots' while the wonderful Tap Tap pound away on 'If You Can Dance'. Hot Silk Pockets would easily find a way in with their rhythmic dance pop ('Panda Eyes' - shades of Love is All). For noise, Screaming Tea Party's punky-pop 'Between Air and Air' stands comparison with the mighty Mclusky while Shimmy Rivers and Canal have the same C86 atonal blasts as Bogshed and Big Flame on 'Hadrian's Wall'. For variety I'd add the Abba meets My Bloody Valentine tortured but melodic electropop of The Temporary Shelters' 'Tearaway', The Blanket's ethereal goth-folk weirdness of 'Vroom Vroom Bang Bang Bang' and the shy girlie indiepop of Jesus Licks and their 'Marry Me'.
If you're ever feeling jaded by all the Kooks, Nashs and Penates stinking up the indie world, throw this brilliant record in your CD player for a breath of what's fresh.
Now Magazine (Toronto)
Stolen sweetness
Not since the mid-80s heyday of New Zealand's Flying Nun label - when the Chills, Verlaines, Sneaky Feelings and Doublehappys were trying to top each other with each successive single - has an indie rock label inspired me to track down every new release as the UK's Stolen Recordings has.
The fabulously packaged Stolen... CD compilation (SR-003) released in an edition of 500 copies last year and boasting 22 quirky pop thrillers was a stunning revelation, and the recent Stolen Recordings follow-up (SR-008), held together with tape and a paperclip, is no less of a jaw-dropper.
Groups like Pete and the Pirates and Tap Tap are starting to get some attention, but the stuff here by Mathew Sawyer & the Ghosts , Hot Silk Pockets , Dylan Levine , the Factory Owners , Ship on Fire , Pet Politics , Temporary Shelters , Freak Paeans , Candy and others will leave you wondering why they're not car-wrecking celebrities already. www.stolenrecordings.co.uk .
Rough Trade
this is the second compilation from stolen recordings and it's limited to 500 copies in their usual high quality packaging. it contains music from britain, europe, america and japan. and is impossible to describe simply. the 'great british weird' of the factory owners, mathew saywer and the ghosts 'stunning depth and wistfulness', californian / japanese fuzz from black patterns from saturn, the ghost of flying nun manifesting in a 19 year old from london with artefacts for space travel. then the gorgeous sadness of blanket and the surreal oxen of the sun. pete and the pirates with the distorted pop of 'knots'. screaming tea party 'nexus of electricity' and japanese poetic lyrics. the broken and tender 'charlie may' from candy. the instrumental strangeness of 'demon fountain' with jim white on drums. the epic, glorious 'tearaway' and young city drinking with the hot silk pockets 'panda eyes'. the brilliant ghost club and the beautiful 'ski kichigai-o'. the classic 'dark blue sea' from sweden's pet politics. and more from the pop perfect tap tap. and lots more...unknown and amazing music.
Subba-Cultcha
Late Friday Night by the Hot Silk Pockets opens like Jive Bunny before what can only be described as Jeanette Kranky singing bursts in like an unwanted follow through. The songs sounds like it has been recorded in a toilet and most definitely should have been flushed down one.