TLOBF Loves… The New Southpaw Soviet

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This unsigned London band are named after the fact that all of their members have that singularly curious trait – they are left-handed. Formed by brother and sister Jim and Jen Robottom and also comprising drummer Ben Rawlence, multi-instrumentalist Isabel Why and vocalist/guitarist Alex Rennie, they had the tastefulness to invite TLOBF to listen to their demo recordings.

That demo comprises four tracks of painstakingly-constructed, energetic populist rock, all jangly guitars and vocal harmonies. The band’s mandate is to create deceptively simple pop tunes whilst incorporating witty, intriguing lyrics and lots of changes in key and time signature. This approach results in songs like “Decisions”, a piece that starts with sunny guitar riffs but quickly evolves into something a driving, pulsing confection laden with up-tempo backing vocals and insistent drums, through which we hear that “we are made up of decisions…”

Elsewhere is “The Night Sky”, a more subtle, narrative-driven song with a conversational tone reminiscent of Paul Simon’s work – especially “I Know What I Know” from his classic 1986 album Graceland, which has a similar premise. Depicting two different characters meeting in a bar, the lyrics comprise their wry, cynical discussion. A more upbeat song is their opener to their demo, “A Little Piece of My Brain”, another perky rocker where the lyrics are at their most witty, in keeping with the fact that the band are, in their own words, believers in “lyrics, harmonies, time signatures and string theory”.

It’s hard to believe that The New Southpaw Soviet can possibly remain unsigned for long, so with any luck we can expect to hear much more from this interesting, talented band. In the meantime, their MySpace page contains full versions of their entire demo disc as well as a couple of other songs besides, so that’s the next port of call to hear more from them and find out more – not least a huge list of influences ranging from Dusty Springfield to Sly and the Family Stone. The New Southpaw Soviet think they “might just have something a little special” – they might just be a little right.

The New Southpaw Soviet on myspace