Strawberry Whiplash - PICTURE PERFECT EP (Matinée Recordings)If you like your music all sugary, then the folk over at Matinée have gallons of the stuff from all over the world! Strawberry Whiplash are part of that stable and are a Glaswegian duo, comprising of Laz McLuskey (who some of you will know from his alter-ego of Bubblegum Lemonade) and a lady who simply goes by the name of Sandra. Laz does all the sounds and Sandra the vocals.

Essentially it’s indie pop that slips into the C86 category, which has been one of the more palatable eighties revivals of recent times. The vocals have a dreamy carefree nonchalance to them, whilst the jangly guitars set a solid backdrop of a trickling honey-drenched waterfall and for a while you can elude to summer days by the sea!

The title track is very reminiscent of Lush who were at the forefront of the female-led nineties pop infused shoegaze movement. Hay In A Needlestack continues in a similar dreamy mood and is another infectious tune, with a tale of lost love, “To find a way to get you back, I find a hay in a needlestack”.

“Celestial” is another sugargaze(?) venture, with an organ riff that was surely uplifted from a Teardrop Explodes number! Then the EP closes with “Falling Through” which has a sharper sound to it, giving more depth than the other songs here. All up then, the EP works on the basis of some solid song writing and its pure simplicity of execution. It’s difficult to see a full-length album, unless more variety is tapped into, but enough potential here to suggest that such a future project could be on the cards and, indeed, something to look forward to.
3.5/5

www.myspace.com/strawberrywhiplash

TC