Now I have "Victorian Funk" from THE SHORTWAVE SET on Low Resolution records. A side "Casual Use" samples a madness track and creates a poptastic single which stretches from cheesy to inanely catchy. Male and female vocals are united to form a strong vocal line a bit like the Delgardos at their most relaxed. B-side Billy is a pretty catchy number too, but maybe too twee to swallow whole
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What their label says...
As has been duly noted by the people who note such things, the debut
album by The Shortwave Set ‘The Debt Collection’ was almost certainly
last year’s definitive release within the Victorian Funk genre.
Memories of the hysteria which swept through Deptford and the
surrounding streets in those heady minutes of mania are as fresh today
as they were back then in the halcyon days of 2005.
Now the band return with new wares, a taster for their second album due
in Spring 2007 - a single which pairs new tracks ‘Casual Use’ and
‘Billy’. The recordings mark a move on from the junk shop collage of
V-Funk and into what the band call their ‘industrial revolution’
period.
Work on the album is ongoing at their South London shop/studio, a
curious establishment where no money changes hands; items considered to
be of roughly equal value are merely swapped. A golf club for a milk
jug, for example. Not surprisingly the band is somewhat behind on their
rent.
‘Casual Use’ came about when their manager (and landlord), the semi
legendary entrepreneur Roger Dunwoody, stumbled upon 125 copies of the
Madness single ‘My Girl’ during a house clearance. Roger suggested for
reasons unclear that the band may wish to sample the track. The band
enthusiastically agreed. Obviously.
‘Billy’ meanwhile is the sad tale of a former associate of the band who
left Deptford to live in a soho flat which happened to be above that of
a pop critic on one of the leading national tabloids. His life was
never quite the same again.
