Desert Hearts
Gravitas/Hammer & Frogs

How bands like Desert Hearts slip through the net is beyond me. Before I was sent a split they released through the No Dancing label earlier this year, I was completely unaware of their brilliance. Now, I want, nay, need more. I crave it. This fantastic double-a-side single only whets my appetite further.

A-side 'Gravitas' is a solid indie-rock effort a la vintage, say, Sebadoh, replete with guitars than churn and chime in equal measures and possessed with an astute sense of melody lost on so many chart-bothering indie oiks. As good as it is, though, its flipside is even more impressive. 'Hammer & Frogs' is, maybe, the strongest b-side I've ever heard. Yes, I know - but this is a double-a-side single! Fuck off - it's on the other side of the a-side; it's a b-side; do you not know your alphabet?

Anyway, it's absolutely f'ing fantastic - a slow-building behemoth; a positively monolithic beast that threatens to turn into the heaviest slab of wax since the Isis live record. Then, it collapses, spectral voices echoing around the dust and rubble. It leaves you utterly breathless, and gasping for more. Buy it. Love it. Tell your friends to do likewise.

But please, do give me more.