Crab Smasher: Impossible Possible

MP3: The Moon Rattled Inside Her

One of this year’s most pleasant surprises for me has been Crab Smasher’s latest 3-inch release, Impossible Monsters, although ‘pleasant’ isn’t a word I’d generally associate with Newcastle’s noisiest duo. However, it was perhaps with good reason that Grant Hunter, the act’s hack of many trades, described this as their ‘top 40’ release.

One of the few genuinely interesting acts around town, Crab Smasher usually specialise in the creation of improvised, often harsh, noise soundscapes with both traditional and non-traditional instrumentation. I’ve likened them previously to ‘Black Dice on a lazy Sunday’ but I’m not sure that really applies here. ‘The Moon Rattled Inside Her’ is the third track off Impossible Monsters and it’s a driving, vaguely Kraut-rock, pop song. It’s one of their more conventional songs, and it’s all the better for it.

It’s coming up to the end of the year, and you know what that means. Lists. Too many, really, but I’m not one to complain (unless it’s about the vapidity of Q Magazine or Mojo Magazine’s Top 50 albums of 2007). I’m partial to making the odd list, I must say. But you can’t rush these things – often I don’t discover my annual favourites until well into the next year! Anyway, I was rushed into conceiving my top 5 list for Reverb Magazine. Deadline and all that.

I’m already having doubts about the list that was published. I mean, it was only mid-November and I’d only just heard Burial’s imperious Untrue. Anyway, this is what I submitted:

1. Panda Bear – Person Pitch [Paw Tracks]
MP3: Good Girl / Carrots

(Do I get extra scene points for having the same number one as Tim Hoey from Cut Copy?)


2. Deerhunter – Cryptograms / Fluorescent Grey EP [Kranky]
MP3: Fluorescent Grey


3. The Field – From Here We Go Sublime [Kompakt]
MP3: Silent


4. M.I.A. – Kala [Interscope]
MP3: Paper Planes


5. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga [Merge]
MP3: Finer Feelings

See, small lists are troublesome; I think my verdict was clouded by my notion of the magazine’s readership. This is Newcastle, remember. Pandering to a largely mainstream audience, I perhaps took a conservative line. With so few spots up for grabs, I guess I also wanted to showcase ‘the great expanse of my listening habits’. The top 3 will probably remain, but Kala and Ga x 5, I fear will drop. Both are great albums, no doubt about it, but probably gained their lofty positions for reasons already noted: M.I.A. shows my cultural sophistication, Spoon that I’m still down with your standard indie-rock…etcetera.

So I’m gonna put together a more extensive list. In time, of course. Off the top o’ me noggin, artists likely to feature prominently include: No Age, Shocking Pinks, Kes, Black Dice, Fabulous Diamonds, A Place To Bury Strangers, Future of the Left, Beirut, Electrelane, Feist, Patrick Wolf, Clipse (2006?), Kevin Drew, Jens Lekman, Animal Collective, Black Lips… I should stop ‘cos I’ll probably forget more than what I post.

Think I’ll make a list of my favourite older discoveries too, and maybe even favourite songs of '07.

OH, LISTS!