Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester

Here we go, my first review of 2012 and it's from the dodgily monikered great new hopes from indie kings Domino. First impressions of this are generally pretty good, though they have a worrying obsession with that Twin Peaks bassline as it turns up twice, on the Bachman Turner Overdrive referencing single 'You Wish You Were Red' and the impressive 'Candy Girl' (not the New Edition or the Babybird song) but borderline plagiarism gripes aside this is a decent first outing. In a brief conversation, conducted at knifepoint, myself and Phil agreed that the most obvious reference points are Beach House and The Swirlies. The press release says Beach House and My Bloody Valentine so we were out by a whisker and only because we are bloated middle aged men prone to using obscurest references where possible. These are one of the increasing conglomerate of groups happy to use a drum machine instead of the regulation human drum hitter but there is plenty going on production wise to mask the lumpenness these machines sometimes bring. There's some nice heavily effected guitar playing in evidence and especially 'Engelhardts Arizona' has a real Broadcast feel to the proceedings. Its noisier overall than the gentle meanderings of Beach House with lots of discordant type keyboards and guitars slathered all over giving an off kilter, claustrophobic feel.