Single Out Today!

Errrr... apparently.



Available from Bumlove direct - £3.99 + £1 p+p to brainlove7club@gmail.com - or from these shops around the country:

Bangor - Spillers
Bath - Replay
Birmingham - Tempest / Swordfish
Brighton - Rounder Records
Bristol - Replay / Imperial
Glasgow - Melody Bar
Leeds - Jumbo
Liverpool - Probe Records
London - Sister Ray / City 16 / Lik+Neon / Beats Workin' / Rough Trade / Puregroove
Manchester - Piccadilly Records
Nottingham - Selectadisc
Oxford - Fopp / Polar Bear

And a few other places that I forget... Norwich, Newcastle, Edinburgh, and York maybe...

Drink Pink

Yes, I know. Two gigs in two days, are we mad?

Upcoming...

Plan B

OK, the problem wasn't getting Plan B to pay attention... the problem was finding a Plan B writer (who liked girlpop) who hadn't actually *been* in Shimura Curves. The Lex admirably steps up to bat:

Also having relationship difficulties is Kelly Rowland – but she can at least comfort herself with the fact that the astonishing ‘Gotsta Go’ (Sony) is the first song on which she’s convinced as a viable solo artist. Over fuzzy crunk synths, she delivers an imperious vocal performance, her contralto quivering as the song builds to its stunning wordless hook: a “WO-OH! WO-OH! WO-OH! WO-OH!” filled with fire and ice and pride and dread, Rowland tearing herself in two because she loves him but knows she has to leave him.

She could do worse than taking a leaf out of Shimura Curves’ book. ‘Stronger’ (Brainlove) is the sound of scales falling from their eyes and blossoming into gorgeously pretty harmonies and twinkling music box melodies. The ladies about town intone the killer line – “My sin wasn’t that I was angry or was hateful; it was that you wanted to save me, and I wasn’t grateful” (cue climactic, swelling strings) – with serenity and self-sufficiency, and the song takes its place with ease alongside those other pop anthems to female emotional liberation of the same title by Britney and the Sugababes.

How the bloggers saw it...

Nothing But Green Lights:

Shimura Curves | Relaxed All Girl Lap-pop harmony. The predatory dance of a London girl wielding a Casio mind-warp device and a wah-wah pedal.

Oxford Bands:

All-girl outfit Shimura Curves force us into gently joyful convulsions to their marvellously sugary sweet pop and mellow harmonies. Led by a simple drum loop on a laptop and straightforward chords dipped in lovely warm effects from guitarist Kate St.Claire, they put in a charming performance capped by some disarmingly girly dance routines.

Clean Skies:

Saw: Shimura Curves and Anat Ben David. Girly electropop/art-rock with clever words and infectious beats. Very enjoyable the both.

Maps Magazine:

so it's over to the Lounge Tent for the sparkly Shangri-Las meets casio keyboards pop of Shimura Curves. I'm slightly apprehensive about reviewing them, as they count amongst their number some of my favourite music writers - suffice to say they're ace and you should go and see them at the next available opportunity.

Sweeping The Nation:

If Emmy is the wolf pawing away at the wooden exterior of the preset female singer-songwriter door, back in the Lounge tent Shimura Curves are the electro black sheep of this apparent Girl Group Revival. Turning scrappiness into an artform in the way Girlfriendo used to do before they turned tail and became Love Is All, the four women something-akin-to-harmonise to Powerbook loops and the odd distorted guitar. It's probable they don't yet have a better song than the Mary Chain-reappropriating Just Like Friends that was much loved around here from their Myspace and the don't-say-twee charm of the live show perhaps doesn't translate in this atmosphere but there's something going on here that'll split opinion but very much be worth watching over time, for our money. It's also a much more agreeable use of female vocals over electronic methods than the touted Persil will deliver over on the Truck stage later, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

OK, that's as far as I got down Google before the links degenerated into truck-driving mathematicians talking about the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture...