Tuesday 31 May 2011

Trapped Mice - Waving and Pointing EP

I started writing this post at the end of March before my mini-blogging-mojo crisis.  It's coming back, slowly but surely, in no small part due to the sheer quality of brilliant EPs, and indeed bands, such as this.  So as a caveat, certain parts of this post are a wee bit outdated, but rewriting the whole thing would just be silly... 

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It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Edinburgh's Trapped Mice.  So it's understandable then, that last week's twitter updates from bassist, and all-round-good-guy Brian Pokora have gotten me a wee bit excited.

Until all these are shared with the world, we've got two great EPs in Portrait of the Great Father and their latest offering, the fantastic Waving and Pointing, to keep us going.

On said fantastic-second-EP, there's still unmistakable touches of Okkervil River to these four stunning songs, but one thing's for sure, Trapped Mice have carved out their own sound, one that's unique in this fair country, and one I simply can't quite get enough of.  The title track is a joy to listen to.  Thanks to it's driving drumbeat, the tempo barely lets up throughout what is a track that is nothing short of sublime.  Next up, Beat is a much more laid back affair.  A gorgeous love song and a real masterclass in songwriting by singer and lyricist Ian Tilling.   Contrast that with the closing track Ghostwriter Blues.  The songwriting quality is still very much there for all to hear.  It's just not a song to curl up on the couch with your beloved to.  Instead it's a full-blooded, menacing number, perhaps a taster for this "old epic Interpol" sound they're preparing to unleash!

It's been difficult to single out one track from this EP, but I'm pretty confident I've saved the star of the show 'til last.  Sandwiched between the joyful and the menacing, is All in All.  I could say it's because it has this, that and the other, but really, you should just hear it for yourself...


The Waving and Pointing EP is out now (and has been for a while... sorry for the delay folks!) on CD or download, and is available over here.  There's a quote over there too saying the name Trapped Mice is "one you'll be hearing a lot of this year".  Whoever that guy is, he sure knows what he's talking about!

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