Orval Carlos Sibelius - "I Don't Want A Baby". There are ten thousand reasons to do any one thing; and then ten thousand reasons not to. In this song, Orval Carlos Sibelius, who lives in France, offers his partner about 100 reasons not to have a baby. These reasons include his dwindling cool, his capacity of exaggeration, his intermittent self-loathing, his possible cancer, the magnificence of the status quo, and his sudden brainwave that they could instead enjoy an orgy. These arguments are, in their way, effective. But "I Don't Want A Baby" itself becomes a compelling rationale for taking this man and shanghai'ing him, as quickly as possible, into fatherhood. Because there's so much beauty in the song's delirious clanging sprint - there's wisdom and wit, peace and racket, an ear for blurring noise and wiry harmony. Orval offers whistling, la-la-la, ratatat, Spanish and North African guitar; imagine the wonders his daughters & sons might make. These diverse tastes need to be borne into the next generation. We need more Orvals, more Caloses, more Sibelii. Let's get him laid. [buy]

R.S.A.G. - "The Roamer".
R.S.A.G. - "Hotwire the Heart".

R.S.A.G. is Jeremy Hickey, from Kilkenny. On Be It Right Or Wrong he evokes the Talking Heads, Franz Ferdinand, Constantines and the Tragically Hip. But the main difference is that Hickey is one man. There is no band here, in symbiotic jam. Hickey is the one with eyes closed, defining terrain on the bass. He is the one on drums, six hands moving at once. He is the one at the microphone, yelping and crooning, trying to catch the eye of the woman in the sixth row. It is strange for solo music to feel so shared, so communal, like a conversation between friends. "Roamer", the gentlest song on the record, manifests Hickey at his most intimate; "Hotwire the Heart" shows off a taut glass bassline, dynamic switchbacks. In both songs, the music shows the glinting stuff of collaboration - accident, coincidence, personality. Only it's not collaboration. It's solitary. A man who can hear ten sounds in his head, say something with each. A man who speaks not in one voice, or in echo, but in splendid racket chorus. [MySpace - can't find a proper buy link / thanks so much, davin!!]