Review: Sounds Of Sputnik (ft Ummagma) / Malka / Tape Runs Out

Speaking the other day to the lovely Shauna McLarnon (one half of Canadian/Ukrainian duo Ummagma) who pointed me in the direction of some bands and music that may tickle the 'shoegazing' side of my musical taste...and tickle it they did .

Sounds Of Sputnik is the shoegaze/dream-pop project of Moscow based musician Roman Kalitkin. 'New Born' is their debut LP working in collaboration with Ummagma and some big names contributing and providing some remixes. More of an EP in that there are only 5 individual tracks accompanied with some mixes of 2 two of those (title track 'New Born' and 'Light Scheme').The LP is a glorious concoction of psychedelia and shoegaze, taking the best of both, mixing them up with some dream pop and a pinch of post-rock and the result is good! The LP kicks off with 'New Born' and it's simple piano melody before some fuzz laden guitars and Shauna's lovely vocals lift it up. Some of the riffs are pure psych at times but the overall feel is dreamy thanks to the vocals: more than a touch of Curve! On 'Light Scheme' Kalitkin is joined again by McLarnon and her husband Alexx Kretov (thus Ummagma as a whole!). This is probably the most out and out 'shoegaze' of the tracks. Next up are two outings for SoS on his own: 'Blizzard' is some fab post-rock with plenty of fuzz and distortion and 'Shades of The Cosmos' again is post-rock in style but with gazey tinges and again lots of fuzz. 'Overdrive' sees McLarnon return on vocal duties, this time accompanied by Graham Bonnar (who has some mighty musical heritahge having played with Swervedriver and The Brian Jonestown Massacre) on drums. The result is a track that fair thunders along with some great guitar work and McLarnon's vocals giving it a breezy counterpoint. As mentioned there are 8 remixes (5 of 'New Born', including one provided by Malcolm Holmes ex of OMD, and 3 of 'Light Scheme') which may seem excessive, but there is enough variety in the mixes to warrant inclusion. 'New Born' is available on the Ear To Ear Records site, and is deffo well worth some of your hard earned!





Malka are a band out of NYC, via Peru, who are described as "psychedelic dreampop" and their debut EP 'The Constant State' would certainly bear this out, but I would definitely add post-rock to that description; second track in 'For Now we Live' has some fantastic post-rock guitar, rising in flourishes and falling into tranquility - great stuff! Driven by Croatian/Peruvian Darko Saric this EP constantly evolves and morphs - there are moments of pure dreampop/'shoegaze' ('Mientras Se Respira' - the single I believe?) and there are moments of power (the aforementioned 'For Now we live')and all carried off with some aplomb and confidence. On the strength of this debut I'd bet that Malka are in for a busy time! 'The Constant State' is available from the bands Bandcamp page





Tape Runs Out are a band out of Cambridge whose debut single 'Friends/Flowers' has just been released on Ear To Ear Records. The 'Friends' side is a summery, dreamy pop song with a tinge of pastoral psychfolk and some vocals which would not have sounded out of place on the fabled C86 compilation. 'Flowers' is a much more interesting affair - described as "reminiscent of ‘Rock Action’ era Mogwai on ecstasy with a remarkable Cure-laced cool-down effect" and this is not far from the mark - some found sounds lead into a gentle post-rock melody, the treated vocals echo and wobble over some simple, chiming guitar. There are snippets of what sound like spoken word appear in the background along with ever-present sounds of wonky electronica that are reminiscent of the sounds of the coast. A very intriguing, grown up and satisfying listen. It is available from the Ear To Ear site.